frank harris and his hard father (1 Viewer)

the only good poet

One retreat after another without peace.
thanks to poptop, today i began reading a beat-up 1960's paperback i'd found some years back: a bio of one frank harris - from the cover, he seemed a larger-than-life character...

i was quite astounded. i read the preface and found some remarkable similiarities between harris and bukowski, or, between their personas...then i came across a quote by harris:

"Christ goes deeper than I do but I have wider experience."

which sent a recognition bell going in the brainpan. is it just me, or is there a striking similiarity to the line in b's poem, notes upon the flaxen aspect: (from Mockingbird)

"Christ got more attention than I did but i went further on less..."

a coincedence...?

was the "very small man in a new york city pawnshop one afternoon" harris?
 
Dear TOPISA

I had not come across these quotes before, but they are strikingly, amazingly similar, and made me roar! Good catch. Great quotes! True.

My uneducated guess is that, if Bukowski had come across the erotic masterpiece, the Decameron, which he did (though I don't recall where), he probably came across Harris and his erotic masterpiece as well, My Life and Loves: B. read DH Lawrence for sure, and Harris was a contemporary of Lawrence, and both Harris and Lawrence drove the literary censors to well-deserved fits of apoplexy (with of course the "guardians at the gates of virtue" no doubt retaining these splendid volumes to enjoy in their own private libraries and, dick in hand, get off on...) Harris was banned in Europe in 1922! of which there can be no higher recommendation of his literary merits. No wonder this juicy biography, in which he discusses his bedroom exploits as normal"”because human sexuality needed to be brought out of the puritan closet; at the same time that he talks of his great friendships with Oscar Wild and George Bernard Shaw"” . . . well, these juicy five volumes will live forever, despite the nay-saying critics who still try to poke holes in them and call them inaccurate, literary trash. . . . Any "censor" should be so lucky to have had a life as resplendent, and emotionally and physically rich, as Harris' and also be able to get it down on paper with such superb, unvarnished, modern skill and candor. . . . Thanks for bringing forth these two quotes. Harris' stock just rose an inch higher, hehe, on my toteboard.

Poptop

PS. I feel that neither quote by Harris or Bukowski was intended as a sacrilege, but only as an observation on their varied lives. I'm still laughing...

theonlygoodpoetisa said:
was the "very small man in a new york city pawnshop one afternoon" harris?

Reread the Mockingbird poem... Harris died in 1931, so 'twas probably not Harris himself.

Speaking of pawnshops but reminds me of Henry Miller's meeting with Harris centuries ago when Miller was working in his father's tailor shop. Lo and behold, who comes in for a fitting but the great Frank Harris himself, whom Miller, an aspiring writer, already knew by reputation. . . Harris takes off his trousers and . . . , lo and behold . . . , no underwear! . . . Even Miller was taken aback, hehe.
 
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was the "very small man in a new york city pawnshop one afternoon" harris?

i didn't mean to imply that b actually met harris, i didn't mean it literally. b's poem isn't literal. the two quote are very similiar. i believe it's more than likely that b adapted harris's quote; and by adding, "and i was told by a very small man..." he was hinting at harris (he was diminutive), letting whoever happened to recognize the similarity know that they hadn't "got him" completely.

from what poptop said - harris was a contemporary of lawrence, etc., plus -

1) he was the "ugly duckling" of his siblings.
2)his father was brutal
3)he was an outsider and retaliated (verbally and physically). he boxed.
4)he laboured at the bottom: (literally - employed as a "sand hog" excavating the foundations for the brooklyn bridge);
a shoe-black; a night clerk in a chicago hotel...don't know what else.
5)he caroused (do we use that now?)
and 6)he wrote about it all! ...

i'm pretty convinced b wld have happened upon frank harris ...

maybe someone whose business it is to investigate further will...

Dear TOPISA

i was thinking "TOPISA"?? i only just got it. i'm slow (if you haven't already gathered...well, then there's no hope...ha.

the only good poet is a dead poet

don't know what the hell i mean by that...
 
I was thinking the name Frank Harris sounded familiar, and I realized I have a bio he did of Oscar Wilde that I haven't read yet. It's making it's way to the top of the stack.
Thanks to whomever mentioned the name (I'm too lazy to look and see who it was).
 
thanks to poptop, today i began reading a beat-up 1960's paperback i'd found some years back: a bio of one frank harris - from the cover, he seemed a larger-than-life character...

i was quite astounded. i read the preface and found some remarkable similiarities between harris and bukowski, or, between their personas...then i came across a quote by harris:

"Christ goes deeper than I do but I have wider experience."

which sent a recognition bell going in the brainpan. is it just me, or is there a striking similiarity to the line in b's poem, notes upon the flaxen aspect: (from Mockingbird)

"Christ got more attention than I did but i went further on less..."

a coincedence...?

was the "very small man in a new york city pawnshop one afternoon" harris?

Sorry I missed this post at the time. A good one.

Not sure if it was a pawnshop or tailor shop. But it's Henry Miller himself who says that Harris was a customer of his father's tailoring and that when Harris tried on his new trousers, he never wore underwear - to Miller's chagrin. Maybe the friction between Harris's trousers and his pecker kept him ready for his next sexual encounter with a random bit of fugitive tail. This guy had a brilliant mind and a 24/7 obsession with sex. Naturally, his genius for the healthily obscene (rather than purient pornography) makes for great reading. Every young man should read Harris. He's the father symbol of sex and good living, and felt that if a man took care of himself he could f**k and enjoy himself forever. Miller said that Harris was the first great writer he ever met, and he never forgot him.

Poptop
 

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