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Buk archive at PBA auction - 4/26/07 (2 Viewers)

From Sounes bio:

" The succes of The Bridge reading encouraged Bukowski to accept other offers to read in public...In May, he caught a train to New Mexico for a university reading...The next morning he flew up to Seattle, Washington, for an engagement at Bellevue Community College..."
 
Oh yeah, duh. Bukowski at Bellevue.

That Sounes quote makes Bellevue sound like the third reading, but the blurb that is often associated with Bellevue says it's his fourth.

Though I'd like to see evidence of the early, early reading that was referenced in the letter to David Barker. Somehow though, it seems that Bukowski would have written about an early reading, and there's nothing in the letters or poems (that I know of) to back that up.
 
Right. I think he read twice at The Bridge. The first reading was such a succes that they persuaded him to come back next day. The Bellevue reading is indeed the fourth one.
Yes, it would be nice if we could dig up some corroborating evidence of that early reading that David attended. It's strange it's not mentioned in the bio's or anywhere else...
 
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That is listed as 1960's but it would appear to be from 1970. May 15th only fell on a Friday in '64 and '70 during that general time period, and the poster mentions All The Assholes, so it can't be '64.

wow - brilliant deducing! wish i'd thought of that.
 
hank solo: you're probably right. I'm not too familiar with how live auctions work, but as soon as the sale ends, it'll all probably be packed and shipped.
 
New Mexico U. poster (lot 50)

That is listed as 1960's but it would appear to be from 1970. May 15th only fell on a Friday in '64 and '70 during that general time period, and the poster mentions All The Assholes, so it can't be '64.

May of 1970 is still an early reading, since the first one we have verified was only five months earlier.

Thank you mjp for pointing that out. I updated the description on the site and will make a little salesroom announcement on that. I was tripped up by Buk's photo, looked young enough to be 60's. Still learning you know.

Tom
 
If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve! ;)

Bukowski.net is a great resource because it's full of lots of great people.
 
Okay, I wanna be the village idiot.

I'll try to look for that letter again this weekend, referencing the 1950s reading. I think, if it happened, it's possible Bukowski didn't talk about it because it was a small event, maybe one he wasn't overly proud of. Sometimes poets give readings and no one shows up. I once read in an empty lesbian bar -- it was late and they'd all paired off and gone home. It was just me on the stage and a couple of women at a table, and I think they left before I was done. And this is the first time I've written about that reading. Circa 1973 for all my biographers (joking...)
 
Ha ha. I feel your pain, David. I stood in front of my share of three and four member audiences and had to work myself up to put on a passable punk rawk show. But interestingly, those were some of the best shows in my memory. The pressure is gone and you just put the pedal to the floor and try to hang on and see where the ride ends up.

Yeah, I've wondered the same thing, if maybe the early reading was related to a workshop or something that didn't necessarily fit into the Bukowski persona. You are probably on to something there.
 
maybe FrancEyE knows that. She used to go to all those workshops B hated so much, but maybe he did go to them once or twice and ended up reading his stuff...
 
Maybe it had something to do with the "poetry club that met at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles back in the 1950s and '60s" as this article mentions:

https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/poems/latarticle.php

As out of character as a poetry club may have seemed for Bukowski, that would seem to be 68 poems worth of evidence that he did attend.

Then again, FrancEyE may have brought those to the meetings while Bukowski never set foot in them...who knows.
 
oh, she's very much alive -I think- and she should know. When I interviewed her she seemed to have a very good memory and she recalled things very clearly.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's still alive, she was at the Huntington thing last year with Marina and her son.

Maybe someone here knows her and can ask her about the poetry club. I'd certainly be interested in the answer to that one.
 
What happend to those Buk and FrancEyE poems that Stella found? Were they actually auctioned off and who bought them? - Anyone?
 
Maybe the alleged 1950s reading had something to do with Harlequin, the magazine Bukowski co-edited with Barbara Frye. A reading to promote the release of an issue. I gotta find that damned letter with the date and place of the reading.
 
from letter to Neeli Cherry, May 10, 1970:
"then at Univ. of New Mexico, where I'm supposed to read Friday night [...] I'm going to read at 2 colleges in Washington."
(Living on Luck, p. 97)

from letter to Sanford Dorbin, June 1970:
"Took the train to UNM and read there [...] plane up to Washington where I read at West. Wash. State College that night, got drunk, insulted profs. got real sick drunk and awakened in an upstairs bedroom at 8:30 the next morning and told we had a long ride to Bellevue for a reading at 11:30 a.m. [...] started reading, dead sick, and the bastards put me on video tape."
(Living on Luck, p. 100)

from letter to Neeli Cherry, June 4, 1970:
"read within 2 weeks at Univ. of New Mexico, West Wash. State College and Bellevue Community College."
(Living on Luck, p. 101)

on the 'Bridge'-reading:
"When his friend Peter Edler invited him to read at The Bridge, a book store off Hollywood Boulevard, Bukowski said yes. The date was set as Friday 19 December, 1969 [...] The evening was such a success, Peter Elder invited Bukowski back the next night to do it all over again."
(Sounes: Locked in the arms, p. 102f)


So, being correct and counting 'The Bridge' as two, the 'Bellevue'-reading was at least his 5th!
 
from letter to Neeli Cherry, June 4, 1970:
"read within 2 weeks at Univ. of New Mexico, West Wash. State College and Bellevue Community College."
(Living on Luck, p. 101)
That "within 2 weeks" wording doesn't exactly pin down the dates of the Washington readings, but I would think that makes them 5/29 and 5/30. Could have been 22 and 23rd, but it seems like he might describe two consecutive weekends in some way other than "within 2 weeks."

I dunno. I'm starting to feel like I'm debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. ;)
 
Looks like he read a lot of places in the 1969 to 1973 period. There may be others we haven't heard of yet.

I'm going to TRY to look for that letter today, about the 1950s reading. I say "Try" because I have many duties in this life...
 
Buk's letters to Joan Babbage

Hi all - Just submitted my entry for the Joan Babbage archive, unpublished typed letters (once thought lost) by Bukowski (signed Buk or Hank), plus some art, photos and a Buk phone bill (ink drawings and note on it), etc., great content, all as a single lot in the May 24 literature auction, which will have other Buk stuff. Here's the link to the entry (already has photos):

http://www.pbagalleries.com/search/item.php?anr=170339

As you see at the end, I have the full Joan Babbage personal story of her 1975 visit with Buk and a more lengthy description (saved separately and available upon request); if anyone's interested just email me: [email protected]

Best, Tom
 
...Joan Babbage archive, unpublished typed letters (once thought lost)...
Interesting stuff, as usual. One of the letters and Joan's story are oddly familiar...I could swear I have read them both somewhere...maybe in this forum? ;)
 
Interesting stuff, as usual. One of the letters and Joan's story are oddly familiar...I could swear I have read them both somewhere...maybe in this forum? ;)

Probably in the forum. Joan is a member and told me she has shared here as well. So, that is likely the case. She specifically told me they are not published. Been in safe keeping all this time. Tom
 
Hello guys. Guess I'll have to get a new member name. (Ha) Yes i got the mysterious joke. Now you know, so that's that. Tom has been so great...so, we'll carry on, won't we?
 
mystery girl, since you are out of the "closet" - which character in the novel Women was you? :p
 
The auction closed and the seller seems to have gotten hosed.... With a couple exceptions, the books sold for far less than they were worth. I picked up one book that was worth about $350 for $170. Also, many books sold for less than half of what they should have sold for. Signed Lettered hardcovers with paintings going for $600 - $800.... I think that it was just too much alll at one time. Never a great idea to flood the market with so much quality material all at once. I think that the prices prove this.

The Linda King letters sold for $69,000 (including buyers fee), which baffles me.

I will spend tomorrow (while I'm on a plane to Cali) looking over the lots, line by line, but the results were not good. If I had more money, I would have done some real damage.

Bill
 
Yeah, I just about shit when I saw a copy of Dorbin with a Bukowski painting sold for $600!

It would have been a very good day to have an extra hundred grand or so lying around the house ($70k of which would have gone on the letters --- again, easy to say when you don't have a real $70k to part with).
 
I would estimate that about 80% of these lots sold under estimate, but to be perfectly honest, I thought the estimates were wildly optimistic from the start, I'm not surprised. People seemed to be focusing on the big ticket items -- WOMEN with a painting for $9,200 -- so I was able to grab a lot of early little mag appearances. Got the copy of SPARROW -- so rare I've never seen one -- for only $100. Bill is only partially right about the seller being hosed. Even though these books didn't meet their estimates, I think it's safe to say that they sold well north of what he paid for them originally.
 
nymark,

you're dead right, I think. many early or rare mags sold for very reasonable prices, even cheaper than on eBay. you were certainly not the only one to grab those mags at a fair price. Lucky you!

back to the 1960 readings. an editor from the VERY EARLY 60's who shall remain nameless just told me this:
In the early 60s George Hitchcock - a los angeles poet used to have poetry evening in his house - a big rambling house in Malibu - I attended some of these poetry evenings -- lots of poets would come -- we would read a poem [still unpublished] and discuss it -- at that time I was not known or recognized as a writer - I had only a few poems published in obscure magazines -- I was working on my doctoral dissertation on Beckett at UCLA - Bukowski dropped in one evening and read a poem - I don't remember which one - and I had a chance to talke with him a bit

This was in 1962! It was not a Buk reading per se, but is clearly shows that Buk read in public well before 1969. And quite probably, this was not the only time he read his stuff before 1969.
 
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Yeah, he probably read and discussed at the poetry workshop with FranceEye too, so we can add "didn't talk about poetry with other poets" to the dispelled myths list. ;)

But like you said, I wouldn't classify these as readings, per se. The 1950's reading that Mr. Barker alluded to was likely something along the same lines. I think it's safe to say that his "readings as performance" started at the Bridge in 1969.
 

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