mjp
Founding member
As you may or may not know, Blowing My Hero is the story of Amber O'Neil's visit to Los Angeles in the 1970's to meet Bukowski. 500 copies of the memoir were printed, but when John Martin of Black Sparrow Press saw the book, he forbid Amber from distributing it, because it contained a few Bukowski letters in the appendix, and he would not give her permission to publish the letters. (UPDATE: Correspondence between Martin and Amber seems to contradict this. It would appear that he did give her permission to sell the existing copies, he just asked her not to publish any additional copies.)
Consequently, very few copies of this book reached the public. When you do find one, the price is typically steep. Currently there is ONE copy for sale on abebooks.com for $224. In 8 years I've seen the book come up on eBay only twice, and both times it sold for well over $100.
Read Amber's story of how the book came to be, and it's suppression by Black Sparrow.
The few copies that were distributed have "grayish lavender" covers. But according to Amber there is another cover color. "They called me part way through the job and said they had run out of the grayish lavendar card stock. I said, 'well, just choose some other cardstock and finish the job.' So there are actually two colors in print."
There are some copies of the book - with the appendix letters removed - available. This is the complete memoir (again, minus the letters), in the never before seen "dark rust" covers.
Since the letters have been removed, these are selling for a very reasonable price. This could very well be the only time this version of the book sees the light of day, so if you are interested in picking up a copy of this rare book,click here to send me a private message (these are long gone - 12/31/10) and I'll give you the low down.
Consequently, very few copies of this book reached the public. When you do find one, the price is typically steep. Currently there is ONE copy for sale on abebooks.com for $224. In 8 years I've seen the book come up on eBay only twice, and both times it sold for well over $100.
Read Amber's story of how the book came to be, and it's suppression by Black Sparrow.
The few copies that were distributed have "grayish lavender" covers. But according to Amber there is another cover color. "They called me part way through the job and said they had run out of the grayish lavendar card stock. I said, 'well, just choose some other cardstock and finish the job.' So there are actually two colors in print."
There are some copies of the book - with the appendix letters removed - available. This is the complete memoir (again, minus the letters), in the never before seen "dark rust" covers.
Since the letters have been removed, these are selling for a very reasonable price. This could very well be the only time this version of the book sees the light of day, so if you are interested in picking up a copy of this rare book,
