Bukowski quoted in a 1946 publication (1 Viewer)

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Thanks, David! It might be worth spending ten bucks on that book, or maybe they have it at the library...
 
Google Books is a great resource. I took a look at all the Bukowski entries a couple of years, but their database is constantly updated. That books was digitized on April 1st, 2008.

Hmm, now, "our days in the jails and in the madhouses and flophouses", from that so-called "defense of poetry" was published, where? Is in an excerpt from "Aftermath", "20 Tanks" or any of the stories in Matrix? Those words sound familiar...
 
Found it! See page 44 of Portions. It's indeed the "In Defense of a Certain Type of Poetry..." essay published in Earth in 1966. I'll have to re-read the correspondence to Richmond to see if he mentions having sent him an old piece. I recall that B. sent him several essays before Richmond settled on the one printed in Earth #2. Either the book by Alex Comfort was published in 1966 -and not in 1946- or the "defense of poetry" was previously published in 1945-46.

But, of course, it was published in Write!!!
 
Either the book by Alex Comfort was published in 1966 -and not in 1946- or the "defense of poetry" was previously published in 1945-46.

But, of course, it was published in Write!!!

Good work finding it so quickly.

Everyone's favourite resource, wikipedia, has a selected biblio for Alex Comfort that shows 1946 to be correct. [Ha ha ha! he also wrote 'The Joy of Sex' :D - well that amuses me anyway]

Interesting. Wonder if the Comfort book has a bibliography section?
 
The ABE copies are dated 1946. You have to be careful with dates on Google Books because if a magazine was established in 1910 and they published a piece in 1985, the 1910 date will be on it. That's why I checked ABE, to make sure it really was published in 1946. I was surprised Buk would be quoted in a scholarly/critical publication that early in his career. Someone was paying attention.

Found it! See page 44 of Portions. It's indeed the "In Defense of a Certain Type of Poetry..." essay published in Earth in 1966. I'll have to re-read the correspondence to Richmond to see if he mentions having sent him an old piece. I recall that B. sent him several essays before Richmond settled on the one printed in Earth #2. Either the book by Alex Comfort was published in 1966 -and not in 1946- or the "defense of poetry" was previously published in 1945-46.

But, of course, it was published in Write!!!

So "defense of poetry" must have been published in 1945-46. Any idea where?
 
I just read the correspondence to Richmond, and B mentions the essay in a couple of January 1966 letters. It seems he's talking about a new piece, but it's not really clear. It could be an old thing that he rewrote for Earth, who knows?
The piece published in Earth #2 quotes from a 1965 letter sent to B, so I guess he either used an old prose thing and "reworked it" or the Comfort book did not come out 1946. I guess I'll find that out soon.
 
I thought about buying up all the cheap copies of Comfort on ABE and then announcing this, but I just don't have that killer mogul instinct. I'm curious to hear if the book really is from 1946 and if it cites a source for the Buk quote. Wouldn't it be cool if it was from some unknown little mag, or even the legendary "Write?"
 
I just read the essay in Portions... and I have to say if I didn't know that was written by Bukowski I would not have guessed. All of his writing that I like-which is most of his work- is so much easier to take in, smoother. He almost has the tone of some kind of pure scholar except for his ever popular expletives. I'm glad he didn't stick to that.
 
I hate to even say it, but he could have been an English professor. He knew a lot more about literary technique, history and criticism than he let on. I think he realized early on that was a dead end for him and he went his own way, which -- as we know -- worked out pretty well.
 
Ginsberg and A. Waldman invited B. to teach at the Naropa institute in the late 70s and early 80s. Of course, B. declined their offers, but maybe his classes would have been great: "Hey, fuckers, now let's go to the track. And tomorrow bring a six-pack for each book in your backpack!" I know, that's a cliché, but sure more interesting than a professor reading the same lesson for the umpteenth time from the same old crumpled, yellowish parchment.
 
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The best professors are the ones who let you see that rules need to be broken. They are also the ones who have a hard time to keep their jobs among the chosen. The last are the ones who usually match the wallpaper and the beige rugs.
 
DeadPoets.jpg
 
Dead Poets Society was filmed here, in my little state of Delaware. At St Andrews in Middletown, DE. (Notice that tuition is $40,500 a year, so it is not for people like me).

http://www.standrews-de.org/

We don't get much out here, so we have to brag.

Oh, yeah. The Vice President is from here and keeps coming back to Delaware on weekends and making himself accessible to us...

Bill

p.s. And Loudoun Wainright III was their most famous student....
 
Very cool! Hilarious! Great! I always bring up this film when I teach Emerson, Thoreau, how to be a good teacher, etc. I have to admit I never conceived of Hank as a prep school teacher, but why not? :):):) Maybe they should remake the film with a Hank teacher and send Robin Williams packing....
 
That's a funny picture.
I would have loved to have sat in on a class of his.

Some of the best teachers are also the ones who know that "rules" are simply guides. So if you feel like your gonna fall you can grab on to a rule and get your baring. But they also know that in order to really learn you have to make some mistakes.

And I seem to recall a very famous publisher who is also from Delaware, who puts out some really fine work by some really fine writers, I believe his initials are B.O.S.:D
 
Bad news, folks. I just received the book, took a look at it and couldn't find the Bukowski reference. According to Google Books, the Bukowski quotation should be on page 16. I read pages 13 thru' 20, and no luck. Then I noticed that the cover of the book I received is different from the one on Google Books as there's no "introduction by R.D. Callahan" on mine. What the fuck, I thought. I googled a bit and found out that the Google Books bastards had used the 1971 reprint, but, of course, they "forgot" to say so in the book description.
Here's the 1971 reprint:
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL22784065M/Art-and-social-responsibility

As it turns, the Bukowksi quotation seems to be in the introduction, which was written well after 1966... Oh, well...
 
cirerita, I feel a bit guilty for sending you on this wild goose chase. I was aware Google Books was sloppy with periodical dates, but I thought they'd be more careful when it came to different editions of books. I guess there's a lesson there. Too bad it wasn't a 1946 quoting of Buk. That would have been cool. I owe you one, cirerita.
 
True. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Still, it shows the limits of digital books versus real books for doing literary research. There's nothing like holding the original publication in your hands and seeing what's actually there.
 

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