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1969? I don't think so (1 Viewer)

This seller may mean well, but I highly doubt this little booklet is from 1969:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Extraordina...=WDVW&rd=1&ih=022&category=29223&cmd=ViewItem

nothwithstanding it was "Just found in a family member's estate".

There are said to be three poems in this book:

Poem for the DMV
Flying Through Space
The Last Person

Of those, the second one is said to have been written, according to the manuscripts section of this very website, to have been written in 1990 for Septuagenarian Stew. I guess it's possible it was a rehash of an "old 1969 poem that he first published in 'Charles Bukowski Poems from 1969'.

However, once you look a little closer you see that in spite of the copyright being from 1969, the contents of the first poem "Poem for the DMV" includes the following passage on the first page (directly from the photo in listing):

I've been pretty damned sick
for the last 4 months,
lost 42 pounds,
got so damned weak one time
I couldn't get out of bed
for 2 weeks,
then they ran me through
just about every piece of
equipment at the
San Pedro Peninsula Hospital
and couldn't find
anything
so I got into my
brand new

(Poster note: and here's where the plot thickens, timeline wise)

Acura Legend
and drove to the racetrack.

According to car website Edmunds.com, the Acura Legend was first produced in 1989 as the 1990 model. The buk.net website timeline notes that he bought such a car in 1989.

This book is not from 1969.

Am I missing something?

EDIT: Perhaps I should have posted in "Is it real" but being that this is not signed....
 
There were a bunch of pirate publications published in Düsseldorf in the late 80s and early 90s. This is one of them. All the poems in this "rare" chap were actually taken from a 1990 Long Shot issue.
 
What shocks me the most is the thought that this happens all the time - to other author's as well.

So, except you're an expert, there's no chance to find out if an item is legit or not. The idea to buy a first edition of, say 'Ask the Dust' or an early poem by Dylan Thomas, just for admiring the author is gone forever, because you can never be sure, what it is. And researching that deep isn't everybody's cup of Gin.
 
I have bought from this seller before on ebay and he was perfectly decent and his stuff was authentic.

That being said, the one that PM posted above is 100% NOT A LEGITIMATE release from 1974.
 
The same seller has a 'Soup Cosmos and Tears' poem that is just a print out or a scan of the Evergreen Review appearance.

Save money, print your own copy.
 
What an odd collection of junk bootlegs for someone to amass. I've never even seen most of this stuff.
 
That copy of Soup, Cosmos is very worrisome. It is printed on Rives BFK, which is a great paper, but almost certainly NOT digitally compatible. You can see some of the printing rubbing away on the cover. Anyone who gets this must be extremely careful. Too much handling, (or not enough as it may offset on the other side bu just sitting there) and you'll have a mess in a few years.
 
By the way, I took the bid on Soup, Cosmos. Is it legit or just in bad shape, or both?

As above, that 'Soup...' is a photocopy / xerox of a page from Evergreen Review. That's all. The paper may be good quality typing paper, but it's still just a photocopy. And it's in crappy condition. There's a link to a scan of the mag page above, which might not be perfect, but it's isn't $5.99.

The other booklets you mentioned, 'Life and Death...' and 'Paying for Horses' are both bootleg booklets using photocopied material from London Magazine.
 
I now realise that it was I who foolishly purchased the Paying for Horses Booklet for $36. I didn't even realise it was the same seller as from the first link I posted above.

When a person looks at the inside cover of many of the bootleg items that have come from that group, the copyright stamps do look an awful lot the same...

A lesson better learned at $36 than $360 or $3600, I guess.
 
This is the issue of Evergreen Review with the page in question (Soup, Cosmos and Tears)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400459651502

evergreen_no79_june_1970.JPG


Issue # 79, June 1970.
 
I suppose describing the random bootlegs as "rare" isn't exactly a lie. But I have the feeling that seller knows they aren't rare as in legit. Either way, they are certainly cashing in on them.

But I'm sure if we had a "worst buy" thread, most of us would have a contribution.
 
He may have been feeling nostalgic, but this is definitely a poem about Sheri Martinelli, so I wonder if it's older than 1970. Then again, what a great poem (even in 1970) to write to get into the pompous Evergreen Review.

Then again, it could very well be from 1970. For some reason, Buk couldn't let go of his crush for Sheri -- and doubts that she even knew Pound, never-mind slept with him... He seemed very threatened by the whole idea.

The Buk could be a strange man at times...
 

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