CONFESSIONS OF A MISANTHROPE -- Ampersand (1969) (1 Viewer)

Jason

Founding member
here are scans of Ampersand, edited by T.L. Kryss (San Francisco, March 1969) featuring Bukowski's uncollected CONFESSIONS OF A MISANTHROPE...

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Thanks Jason. Some good things seem to be occurring in this part of the site lately.
 
What a great poem! Thanks, Jason!

Somehow I got the idea that the poem might be about FrancEye's writer friends. Buk couldn't stand them...
 
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I hope it's allowed to give my own humble opinion about this poem :)

The poem is kinda funny and I'm always thrilled when someone post an uncollected Buk poem.

But: after reading it a few times I find the poem quite weak.
 
There's a better story about Smith's friends somewhere. Something about sitting around on sofas and wearing badges declaring support for various causes and "chirping" about how great they are, and the only reason they don't get published is because they "don't send it out". Buk's response is that they could jack their stuff up their asses and it's still only just crap writing.

He also writes about writers workshops being for "lonely handholders" who cling to each other's support because the world doesn't care for them. And finally, maybe in the same place, something about some guy who writes funny stories about the Catholic Church, is published in Canada, lives with his mother and is "too sensitive" to work at the post office. Buk could really lay into those people. And justifiably so.
 
i believe B. wrote in a letter about coming home from the graveyard shift to find that F. had given his steak to one of her circle...his indignation is kind of humorous. they weren't all vegetarians then...
 
i don't know where you find these.

This question is in my head since Jason and others started post this stuff on this forum :)

That's an interesting question, because the answer has changed considerably in just the past ten years. Before the internet it was a much different game, played in he mail and over the phone (or face to face if you live in a large enough city).

A lot of people still like to deal face to face, and there are a lot of good catalogs you can still get by mail, from dealers who "don't do the internet." But things like abebooks.com and eBay really changed the nature of collecting this old stuff, and brought in a lot of collectors who weren't collectors before.

It has also shown us that some things that were once considered rare are not so rare at all (or at least not so unobtainable).
 
I first thought I'd read something similar before, but then it hit me: this poem reminds me of Robert Crumb's "headless women" cartoons.

Now did Robert get it from Buk or vice versa?

Maybe its just a common trait all "leg-men" have in common? :D

Thanks J.
 

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