Books of letters - Published and unpublished (1 Viewer)

cirerita

cirerita

Founding member
"Don?t hesitate to correspond with him. He is one of the great letter writers since Keats, and prompt to boot." Locklin, A Sure Bet, 21
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Published:

Cooney, Seamus, ed., The Bukowski/Purdy Letters 1966-1974. The Paget Press: Sutton West & Santa Barbara, 1983.

_____, Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960-1970. Black Sparrow Press: Santa Rosa, California, 1993.

_____, Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s-1970s (Volume 2). Black Sparrow Press: Santa Rosa, California, 1995.

_____, Reach for the Sun. Selected Letters 1978-1994 (Volume 3). Black Sparrow Press: Santa Rosa, California, 1999.

Moore, Steve, ed., Beerspit Night and Cursing. The correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli 1960-1967. Black Sparrow Press: Santa Rosa, California, 2001.

Unpublished:

Fly Like a Bat Out of Hell. The Letters of Harold Norse and Charles Bukowski [On hold since late 2001]

Tom McNamara/Charles Bukowski Letters. [circa 1965] Reviewed by Perkins, Michael, ed., ?Tom McNamara/Charles Bukowski Letters, 1965,? in Down Here, Tompkins Square Press, NYC, vol. 1, n?1, pp. 8-38.

There was a book letters in the works in 1967-68, but it never materialized.

Our beloved :D Russell Harrison wrote an interesting essay -boring to most people, though- on Bukowski's letters:
Harrison, Russell, ?The Letters of Charles Bukowski,? in Sure: The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, n? 8/9, 1993, pp. 17-29.

I think there might be another title(s), but I just can't recall them right now...
 
Wasn't Steve Richmond planning, at one point, to publish a book of letters Hank wrote him, and it got shut down by Martin? I think the title was Letters to a Young Poet, but I could be mistaken. Working from memory...
 
can't recall that title you mention, but, yes, I think a B/Richmond books of letters was in the works... Richmond also announced Spinning Off Bukowski 2 quite a few years ago, but it seems he changed his mind.
 
Hola!

There are some letters from Buk are in the book that Mytery Island published called "Tough Company". LEtters between Buk and Tom Russell. Large prefect bound. about 15 pages of Bukowski letters. A couple interviews. About half of the book is poetry and lyrics from Tom Russell. Still worth it for the Buk collector.

All best,
Bill
 
Bill, is it worth the $30 + $6 shipping?? Expensive for this book, no?
Honestly, I've spent a HELL of a lot more than $36 (many, many times) but I don't know much about Tom Russell, definitely more his book than Buk.
 
It pops up on eBay from time to time at very reasonable prices, well under $20.

as to the Richmond letters, Fogel says on page 213 of his checklist that there was a PROMOTIONAL FLYER titled "Letters To a Young Poet" (from B to Richmond, never published).

There was also ANOTHER book of letters in the works circa 1966. Fogel says
LETTERS - 1963-66; collection of 21 letters from Buk to Veryl Blatt regarding her publishing a book of his letters. Most have drawings, watercolor paintings and abstracts. "Letters" total 24 pages in length.
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Someone help me identify this please.

51CjLwyM42L._SS500_.jpg


Is this the same as Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters (1993) ??
 
Yes, it is. The three letter books from Black Sparrow Press were divided into four books in Britain (I believe it was in Britain), so I can't tell you if all of 'Screams From The Balcony' is in Vol.1, or if some of it continues in Vol.2, but at least most of it is in Vol.1. Maybe somebody here can tell you if the whole book is in Vol.1.
 
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Relax christopher. Seems like you think that all of these cheap book are once in a life time opportunities - truth is they are cheap editions that are plentiful and will more or less always be around.

The collectible stuff very rarely sneaks out at anything like a bargain price.
 
No, its not that I think they're rare or anything like that. I just enjoy deals.
I will never pay more than $10-20 for a book. Its just not my style.
I see that tons of people here have signed first edition rare hardcore etc editions of this, that and the other thing and I'm just probably never going to be at a point financially where I could drop that much cash on a book.
 
christopher:
while the 4 books of the British edition have the same letters as the 3 Vols from BSP, the order is a bit different:

When the 3 Vols for BSP were put together, there were coming up letters from earlier periods, when Vol. 1 ('Screams') was already published. So Vol. 2 ('Living on Luck') has letters from the 'Screams'-period, which is the pre-1970s in it. Vol. 3 ('Reach for the sun') follows the same pattern.

Now, the 4 books in the British edition came out, when all 3 BSP volumes were finished already, so - consequently - the letters were put into the right chronological order. We have a thread about this matter somewhere here.
 
roni - I didn't know about the letters in the British editions being put in proper chronological order. I've always ignored those books as I have the Black Sparrow Press editions, but now I'll grab them. I see them used or as cheap remainders all the time.
 
roni said:
christopher:
while the 4 books of the British edition have the same letters as the 3 Vols from BSP, the order is a bit different:

When the 3 Vols for BSP were put together, there were coming up letters from earlier periods, when Vol. 1 ('Screams') was already published. So Vol. 2 ('Living on Luck') has letters from the 'Screams'-period, which is the pre-1970s in it. Vol. 3 ('Reach for the sun') follows the same pattern.

Now, the 4 books in the British edition came out, when all 3 BSP volumes were finished already, so - consequently - the letters were put into the right chronological order. We have a thread about this matter somewhere here.
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I'm sorry, I've read this 3 times and I'm still semi-lost.
I think you've done a great job explaining it, I'm just still pretty new to Buk's works, so, I'm reaching here.
So, what I bought....are there things included or more importantly excluded? If excluded, I'd probably buy another edition to get the material I'm missing.
 
I'm sorry.
Being no native speaker, I sometimes have trouble to explain things proper.

Maybe one of the links I've given above will help.

What you've bought is just fine. Don't worry.
 
whatsayjew said:
Are the letters worth purchasing? I'm not so sure I could sit through a whole book of them.
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Definitely YES!

Lot's of insight in his personal life and thoughts.
What authors he's read, what composers he listened to, who he was friends and/or enemies and/or lovers with, etc.

You don't even have to "sit through" them. They are small pieces like poems. You just open the book at any page and start reading from there. You'll get lost in it.
 
I'll take the bold font as a signifier that I'm missing out. If I sounded adverse it's probably because I've had a dull experience with letters. Joyce has been the only exception so far. Anyway, I look forward to getting lost.
 
Man, I'd love to read these Richmond-Letters. All of them. With a couple of people, the letter writing Bukowski of the 60's was at his very best.

I have a feeling Richmond was one of those.
 
Johannes said:
Man, I'd love to read these Richmond-Letters.
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You'll have the opportunity to read a lot (most?) of them "soon," in the manuscripts section, thanks to a generous donation from a prominent forum member, who may or may not want to be named. Along with about 100 new (to us) letters to the Webbs, another donation that I've been sitting on for some time because they need to be scanned.
 
Have any of the letters previously published in the little magazines been reprinted in book form? Apart from in On Writing, which I think has a few previously published letters.
 
mjp said:
You'll have the opportunity to read a lot (most?) of them (Richmond letters) "soon," in the manuscripts section, thanks to a generous donation from a prominent forum member
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Thank you very much prominent forum member, whoever you are.
mjp said:
Along with about 100 new (to us) letters to the Webbs, another donation
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Thank you very much mysterious donator, whoever you are.

Thank you very much mjp for going through all the trouble in order to make these donations available to general public.
 
So I've read the Seamus Cooney edited letters vol 1 & 2. Why does Reach for the Sun, Vol. 3 begin in 78 if vol 2 ends Jan 11, 1970? I guess there may be an answer in vol 3 but I haven't picked up a copy yet. The UK edition goes from 71 to 86. Would it be better to pick up that edition? Just trying to be complete. And... why would the UK editions differ so much, let alone at all?
 
PhillyDave said:
why would the UK editions differ so much...
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As I understand it, the only way they differ is in chronology. The Black Sparrow versions include some letters in later versions that should have been in the earlier editions, and when they revamped the letters for non-US distribution they just put those where they should have been. In other words the contents are the same, just in slightly different order. Which is why you can't mix and match between the BSP/Ecco versions and the UK versions.
 
PhillyDave said:
So I've read the Seamus Cooney edited letters vol 1 & 2. Why does Reach for the Sun, Vol. 3 begin in 78 if vol 2 ends Jan 11, 1970? I guess there may be an answer in vol 3 but I haven't picked up a copy yet. The UK edition goes from 71 to 86. Would it be better to pick up that edition? Just trying to be complete. And... why would the UK editions differ so much, let alone at all?
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PD, it's Vol 1 Screams From The Balcony that ends Jan 11 1970 (letter to Jim Roman) - not Vol 2 ?
Vol 1 of the 4 UK Selected Letters series ends Dec 27 1970 (letter to John Martin).
 
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I just read the email from Purple and duh Dave. Amateur move. I should get demoted. I've read vol 1 & 2 out of order and it's been years since I've cracked the spine on Living on Luck. Just looked. Yes, the last letter is to Martin, late Dec 79. My bad. Let me get outta here and go catch the train to work. Carry on worthy experts. Whoops.
 

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