At Terror Street and Agony Way arrived today (1 Viewer)

mjp

Founding member
Well, the slow boat from China finally docked and I received the copy of At Terror Street and Agony Way that I won on eBay a few weeks ago. It is indeed as fucked up as they promised, which is fine by me. The inside is in pretty good shape, with every instance of the word "fuck" crossed out in pen. Ha ha.

terror001.jpg

Interesting that the edges are not trimmed. Not just the edges of the cover, which I expected, but the edges of the inside signatures too.

Well, I look forward to reading the poems that only appear in the book.
 
First and only, yeah. 747 like this, 18 with the original cover (with the "T" left out of STREET), and 50 hardcovers.

zoom man said:
That's a lot of 'fuck's to be crossed out!
That's what I thought, but it turns out that there are only four.
 
mjp said:
Well, I look forward to reading the poems that only appear in the book.

Woah! How many of these are there?
Tell us your impression of them! Was Martin correct in not reprinting them?
 
according to my notes, the following poems -which I duly copied :D - were uncollected as of 2005:

"the clothing"
"Brewed and Filled By..."
"big time:"
"TEMPEST"
"SOUR GHOST"
 
cirerita said:
according to my notes, the following poems -which I duly copied :D - were uncollected as of 2005:

"the clothing"
"Brewed and Filled By..."
"big time:"
"TEMPEST"
"SOUR GHOST"
Big Time might have been in Open All Night, I'll have to check and see if they are the same poem.

Incidentally, this brings up what will be a cool feature of the new database, and that is the ability to flag things that are unique to a certain publication - the only appearance of something.
 
wow, mjp, that really sounds interesting, the flag thing. excellent idea.

could you come up with some idea to mark uncollected/unpublished stuff as well???
 
btw mjp, we're all envious of that book.
to be honest, i think i'd rather have an old beat up copy then one that was babied and never opened.
 
cirerita said:
could you come up with some idea to mark uncollected/unpublished stuff as well???
Yes, it's already in the works. By expanding the db we'll be able to do much more detailed comparisons and queries, so, yeah.
HenryChinaski said:
to be honest, i think i'd rather have an old beat up copy then one that was babied and never opened.
For sure. You can actually read a beat up copy, rather than just gaze at the cover through an acid free, 3mil. thick, sealed poly bag. ;)

That's my rationalization anyway, since I can't afford the good copies. Ha.

mjp said:
Big Time might have been in Open All Night...
Two different poems, as it turns out.
 
Hey mjp,
Could you tell me about some of the pages of your copy?
The title page, and the page before it
Along with the very last->
Do you have typed indentations on them..... (without the print)
Like if you took a pencil and lightly shaded them,
A full page of words would turn up.
I bought this a long time ago,
And remember there was a very good reason for it,
Just can't remember what it was.

I think it's cool anyways,
And might try to take a pic of what I mean
(scanner is on the fritz)
But not sure it would show up.

Ok, congrats! on your new acquisition
 
I read somewhere that all copies of At Terror Street have this. Can't recall what its called tho, some (un)common printing process. Like putting the paper in a typewriter and hammering out a letter with no ribbon...

Ok, who's gonna tell us what this type of thing is called?
 
And Christ,
Upon further inspection
(give me one drink and I sound very official!)
I see what looks like a Buk serigraph on the page
Following the dedication page,
With a 'Buk' signature et al.
I don't ever remember seeing that before.....
Though it is very obvious.
And by the way,
I'm not rich.
Most of the stuff I have I paid for by starving for a month or 2 or 3,
Honest to God.
I remember being homeless in Honolulu and donating plasma to get $, and going to the bookstore to give them more of my downpayment.
Nuts?!, Yeah,
But no regrets man,
 
Not funny cirerita!,
Well, OK, kind of funny,:>

Hey mjp again,
Between pages 66 and 67
Do you have a blank with those imprints on them?
I took pics of the other examples,
Will try to include shots,
I'm just so not computer-savy
 
Yeah, that's called blind embossing, it's in all of them. There's a letter at the beginning and end of the book (same letter), and three Bukowski drawings (on the title page, between pages 42 and 43 and between pages 66 and 67).

I don't know about blind embossing the drawings, it's all right, but embossing that letter was pure genius. Every Bukowski letter I have is "typewriter embossed," meaning he fed two sheets of paper into the typewriter, one as a backing, and then would rotate the backing sheet out. So on almost all the letters, and some poem manuscripts, you can see the ghost image of a previous letter or poem.

That's what immediately came to mind when I opened At Terror Street... and like I said, it strikes me as a very creative and impressive little extra.

By the way, the letter that is embossed into those pages is on page 312 of Screams From the Balcony.
 
What is a fair price for a signed & numbered edition of AT TERROR STREET AND AGONY WAY?
Seems an acquaintance of of a friend has a copy he is willing to sell. Says he bought three signed & numbered books in the university bookshop for normal price in the 70's here in Norway. Did these editions sell in regular bookshops?

The guy just informed that the signed & numbered book he wanted to sell was War All The Time, NOT At Terror Street...
Thought it was to good to be true.
Now what is a fair price for signed/numbered edition of WATT
 
mjp, congrats on a cool acquisition. Glad to see I'm not the only nut willing to buy beat to death books. The word you want for embossed printing without ink may be "intaglio". I seem to recall that from someplace. You should see my signed & numbered first edition of Opal Whiteley's THE STORY OF OPAL (1920). It was described as "fair". I bought it without seeing a photo. It's closer to poor, with a kid's pencil writing and drawings all over the end pages and boards. The label on the spine is half gone, lots of wear on the binding. But she signed the damned thing, and the inside text is clean, and the book has plates not in the regular unsigned edition. Heavily worn rare books have a charm all their own. You end up loving them, like dirty children in need of a bath. Enjoy.

--

Correcting myself: if the uninked embossed letters are raised, it's called intaglio printing, but if they are recessed, it's blindstamping, I think.
 
Bill & mjp

You guys are just too fucking smart. Both correct. I gotta quit shooting from the hip here (and everywhere). From now on, I look stuff up before I post my pearls of wisdom. I do think it's cool, mjp, you buying that totally trashed copy of AT TERROR STREET. Only someone who truly loves the word would do that. Collectors who won't buy less than a fine copy make me wonder why they're even in this mad game. Sure, buy the best you can afford, that's smart, and you'll never regret it, but if the best you can afford is a basketcase copy, go for it and enjoy. As has been said, you can read it without having the white gloves on.
 
I only knew Intaglio because Carol is in the middle of some etchings right now. ;)

And yes, that was the best I could afford. Heh.
 
mjp: okay, now I don't feel too intellectually inferior. Anything a guy learns from his wife or girl friend is extraneous knowledge, not really necessary to get by in life (just fooling...I'm no sexist pig)

This thread got me to thinking (dangerous) that it would be fun if members posted images of their most beat-up Buk books. And then I realized that I don't have any beat up copies of his stuff. I buy the best copy I can find/afford, and I'm a gentle reader. Damn, now I WANT a beat up copy, the more beat up, the better! "Bukowski would have wanted it this way!" Didn't an eBay seller make this weak claim? Perhaps it's true! Perhaps he looks down on us and says "I wish these knuckleheads would buy the beat up copies of my shit. Why are they all so fussy about condition? What a bunch of pantywaists!" From now on, I'm buying those battered and stained copies I come across in used bookstores. The uglier, the better.
 
I own a first printing of Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions,... And the front cover is taped on (with masking tape) and so is the back. Although the back page has not been ripped all the way off. But it is still one of my most prized.
Just looking at that book; crazy photo, huh.
 
Rekrab said:
From now on, I'm buying those battered and stained copies I come across in used bookstores. The uglier, the better.
:D Thanks for the chuckle Rekrab. I second the motion. My most beat up copy of a Buk book is a hardcover of Women I found for a dollar in the local library's sale bin (NOT stolen!). Actually this was my first Buk book, if I remember correctly.
 
jerry said:
I own a first printing of Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions,... And the front cover is taped on (with masking tape) and so is the back.

Jerry: can you post a scan or photo? I'd love to see it, and I bet others would too.
 
originally posted by Rekrab
Can you scan a photo? I'd love to see it.

Sorry at this time I cannot. Ya see I just bought a computer three days ago. I used the libraries computer and some times a friend would let me use his. But now...i'm conected. Still dont really know how to use it. But learning.
I'm looking into a digital camera next.
 
Too bad. I remember my own dark days before I had a scanner and a digital camera. Well, maybe someday you can show us that taped up ERECTION (gee, that has an odd, unintended medical sound to it).
 
Time to resurrect a good ol' thread!

I received my copy of At Terror Street... a week ago or so and was impressed by the blind-embossed stuff. Pretty cool and unusual, at least in the BSP books. I think the guy behind this idea was Graham Mackintosh.
 
...unusual, at least in the BSP books.
Another unusual thing about Terror Street is it is the only Black Sparrow poetry collection that wasn't kept in print. Any idea why? Mockingbird and Play the Piano are slim, but BS never let them go out of print. Why the prejudice against Terror Street?
 
Most poems -not all- from It Catches, Crucifix and Terror Street were reprinted sooner or later -especially in Burning in Water and Roominghouse Madrigals. It wouldn't make any sense at all to keep Terror Street in print as many poems were in Burning in Water. If Martin had NOT included those poems from Terror Street in Burning in Water -and then in Roominghouse Madrigals- I bet it would have been in print as the other BSP titles. But Martin clearly decided not to do that and reprinted the poems in Burning in Water. I have no idea as to why he did that. It was kind of early in the BSP Bukowski books career and maybe Martin wasn't thinking of his book status in the long run. Or maybe he didn't like the book as it was -which I doubt.
 
Maybe it was just due to the number of poems. Terror Street only has 44 poems in it. The next slimmest volume is Play the Piano Drunk which has 64. That's the shortest collection that remained in print.
 

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