Come On In - a few biblio. details (1 Viewer)

[cirerita]

got the book yesterday. I haven't read a single poem yet, but I've spent an hour and a half doing some bibliographic research.

A few things:
-Most of the poems are from the 80's. Martin is relying heavily on that period.
-Quite a few uncollected Wormies appear here -at least 7 or 8, many of them from Beautiful.
-There are 5-6 poems in the book which can be read in manuscript form in the Manuscripts section of this webpage.
-Only one poem pre-1969, originally published in Outsider #1. I wonder why Martin doesn't want to print the poems from the late 50's and the 60s.
-Two uncollected poems -previously available as broadsides only- appear here: "My Cats" and "Husk".
-There are quite a few titles which seem to be repeated poems from previous books, but that's not the case. Believe me, I've double-checked all of them. Same titles, different content.
A few examples:
"Lousy Mail" (first appearance in Betting)
"From the Dept. of English" (The Days)
"Balloons" (Last Night)
"Here we go again" (Open All Night)
"The end of an era" (Flash)
"Cancer" (Sept. Stew)

well, now that the hard work is done it's time for truly enjoying those poems!

 

[SamDusky]

got the book yesterday. I haven't read a single poem yet, but I've spent an hour and a half doing some bibliographic research.
....
well, now that the hard work is done it's time for truly enjoying those poems!

All I've got to say is that you are one hell of a scholar, cirerita. Good, good work; (and I got your name right because I cut-n-pasted it, yo). Have a good weekend.

SD

 

[cirerita]

mjp,

what are you gonna do with the repeated titles when updating the database? Is there any way to make it clear that they have the same title, but they're actually different poems?

 

[Jason]

-Two uncollected poems -previously available as broadsides only- appear here: "My Cats" and "Husk".

I have a few copies of the MY CATS broadside available for US$20 postage paid, if anyone's interested...

 

[mjp]

mjp, what are you gonna do with the repeated titles when updating the database? Is there any way to make it clear that they have the same title, but they're actually different poems?

There's a table in the new database called AlternateVersions. ;)

Initially I'll populate it with a search of the database for duplicate titles, but I assume we'll also be adding to it as we find new instances, like you did today.

Nice work, c.

 

[mjp]

By the way, "alternate versions" will include revised versions of the same poem, not only different poems with the same title. I don't think we'll be dealing with a large number of alternate versions, so it shouldn't be too confusing. I can always do some coding to differentiate between different versions and revisions.

This fucker gets more complicated every time I look at it. Heh.

(Currently there are 7337 lines in the new database, and I'm only about 20% through it, to give you some idea of where the project stands. That's not 7337 individual works -- the database has several different tables, so it will eventually have almost 30,000 entries, but the actual number of unique works appears to be around 4200. Okay, exiting geek mode, carry on!)

 

[cirerita]

By the way, "alternate versions" will include revised versions of the same poem

Do you mean, for example, the poem which originally appeared in Outsider #1 and which is now widely available in Come On In with quite a few changes? Problem is, would you call them author's revisions or editor's revisions? :D

 

[mjp]

If there are substantial changes, yes. Though published versions with changes aren't as interesting to me as the instances of manuscripts of the same poem that had changes. That shows that he typed up the same poem to submit to magazines more than once. It looks like if he was feeling uninspired on a given day he would go to his manuscript stash and retype some things so he would have submissions to send out.

That could also account for some of the different published versions, though that's impossible to tell without the manuscripts. Again, I don't think it was a common occurrence, but who knows. The new database should make it easier to do these comparisons and get a better overview of his output as a whole. Something only Martin could do until now. You've got to love the internet. ;)

 

[nymark]

I believe there are two or three different poems titled "Hot." I guess if the title fits, you have to use it.

Yes, mjp, I love, love, love the internet. Did I even have a life prior to the internet? I don't recall. I was living in New York City when the internet came to life, so I must have been busy with something. Damn if I know what it was.

 

[mjp]

Did I even have a life prior to the internet? ...I must have been busy with something. Damn if I know what it was.

I think that's a pretty common question. I don't know what the hell I did with all my time either.

 

[cirerita]

original poem here:
https://bukowskiforum.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=321