Bukowski reviews Creeley!!! (1 Viewer)

[cirerita]

I don't think Bukowski the reviewer is as good as Bukowski the poet or narrator, but this is a very odd piece, probably the only one he ever published on Creeley.

Notice how he misspells Ginsberg's name, as usual.

Also, note the editor mentions the already "exquisitely printed and famed" It Catches...

Sorry about the quality; zoom in and you'll be able to decipher most of it.

 

[Johannes]

This is interesting because of the beginning.

Bukowski did switch his opinion concerning fellow writers, didn't he? Here Purdy is "getting it done", in a northern acquaintance Purdy is "one writer I never cared much among others" whose best thing to do was "making his own wine".

I've googled Larry Eigner before, because B. mentioned him in the first published interview on this site. Hm, hm.

Then "David Pearson Etter" ... never heard of, but of course, I'm one continent away. There are 5 (!) overwhelming google hits. Is anybody knowing David Pearson Etter???

Genet, well ...

And Irving Layton??? Nominated for the Nobel Prize in `81? Another Canadian. Jewish parentage. Hm, hm, hm.

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

There is a review of Irving Layton's "The Laughing Rooster" in Evidence (number? year? 1965?) by Bukowski.

Did Bukowski do much more reviewing? As I remember he had fond memories of reading the Kenyon Review in various libraries and all the strong opinions that made it to those pages.
bp

 

[cirerita]

he reviewed quite a few books -maybe 20 or 30. Most of them were books written by his friends or so-called friends.

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

Well if you can't review your so-called friends, who can you review?

Apropos of nothing I looked at some microfilm at the local university, a collection of "underground" newspapers from the 60s-70s. Open City is in there. In the introduction to the City Lights Notes of a Dirty Old Man he mentions his first column was a review of A.E. Hotchner's "Papa Hemingway". Unfortunately the first Open City's were from 1967, volume two. No review.

The first column I came across was about a drunk driving charge. Collected? Can't see it in Notes, maybe Erections.

The trouble with microfilm is the original has to be in good shape (some are cut up), the photo person had to do a good job, the film has to have lasted over the years, and the microfilm machine and printer have to work. The odds are against anything but eyestrain. Got some passable copies (for reading, for scanning they'd suck).

Maybe someday we'll get a Bukowski book of reviews. Maybe not.
bp