Grip The Walls Variant? (1 Viewer)

photo-2.JPG


Could anyone with a Krumhansl tell me about this limitation? I think that there was artwork involved, which this one lacks. Thanks!
 
My eBay Targets listening may explain some of this. It's free on eBay and I promise to post the entire thing on here eventually. This is like Marvin getting pissed like Martin over publishing indiscretions -- over something we may never know. It's an old controversy, but one that still needs to be documented here.
 
This copy is #296/600 and has all the pages, so it is not an off-print or a bootleg. My question concerns the other 23, which apparently included art of some kind. Might have been a Malone created limitation, so perhaps I should ask Christa. Thanks for the info Mike, I should probably invest in my own Krumhansl at this point.
 
And here's Purdy, which seems to be the winner...

grip2.jpg

Does anybody have the PDF copy of Krumhansl? I never downloaded it.
 
Could anyone with a Krumhansl tell me about this limitation? I think that there was artwork involved, which this one lacks. Thanks!
What you show appears to be an authentic patron copy of GRIP THE WALLS. No artwork involved (although Bukowski added artwork to many of the later Wormwood patron issues). Also, I've had questions about the authenticity of Bukowski's signature on that issue. He signed it in what I believe to be India ink, atypical of his later penned autographs. Any of the patron issues of WR that come from me are guaranteed original and authentic. I do not know of any bonafide copies of issue #16 that were limited to the Bukowski contents only.
 
Thanks Christa, your input is always appreciated. My other question is why would such a high number be used for a patron copy? #296 seems like a pretty random number for such a small limitation. Any info you could provide regards this would be great. Thanks as always!
 
The issue is number 296 out of 600. This is not one of the first 24. That's why I'm confused. I purchased it from Jeff Maser, and asked him as well, but he didn't know. My other issue was the signature is very flat with no indentations, which may be because of the India ink as you mentioned.
 
Here is my guess.... It is just a guess...

The signature is 100% real and was, at one time in copy 21. Maybe the cover and some of the guts got damaged somehow, but the signature page was fine. The person swapped the guts out...

A couple things to look for:

1) extra wear around the staple holes on the outside of the book.
2) extra holes in the crease where there should be no holes.. The chances of finding 2 copies with the EXACT same staple placement seems remote. check the center of the book and try to look in the gutter of other pages to see if anything looks odd..
3) any water damage of any kind on the signature page that is not on the rest of the book.
4) the book is trimmed? The covers should be oversized and the text pages should NOT be trimmed
(The inside pages stick out farther than the outside ones.)

On another note, it is odd how he signed on the page in the middle of the center section, not the first page of that section.

Still, that signature looks good to me..

Another possibility... Bukowski was sent the 24 copies to sign and his contributor copies at the same time... He signed the wrong copies and returned those. This has happened to me when I have sent books to authors to sign and return. That is only if Marvin sent the full book to be signed, not just printed pages...


Bill
 
So upon closer inspection:
1. No trimming of edges
2. Book is in fine condition, no damage of any kind.
3. Runfola's Grip that sold at PBA in 2011 was signed on the same page in 1966.
4. However, as Bill sagely suggested, the staples seem to have been removed and then replaced.
I checked this against another copy of Grip and a couple other Wormies, and this issue was definitely
fucked with. When it happened, why or who I guess will remain a mystery. Jeff Maser acquired it from
an "important" Bukowski collector and was sold to an "insignificant" collector (me) who should check
his purchases more closely.
 
Luckily enough, you know how to get rid of all such forgeries (and make me happy in the process :D).

Speaking of Grip the Walls (WR #16), would you be so kind as to list the poems here?
I'd like to know the titles.

Edit: Krumhansl states:
Contents: The Dogs-Poetess-The Literary Life-When You Wait for the Dawn to Crawl through the Screen like a Burglar to Take Your Life Away-Sleeping Woman-The New Place
That's it, right?
 
Last edited:
So upon closer inspection:
1. No trimming of edges
2. Book is in fine condition, no damage of any kind.
3. Runfola's Grip that sold at PBA in 2011 was signed on the same page in 1966.
4. However, as Bill sagely suggested, the staples seem to have been removed and then replaced.
I checked this against another copy of Grip and a couple other Wormies, and this issue was definitely
fucked with. When it happened, why or who I guess will remain a mystery. Jeff Maser acquired it from
an "important" Bukowski collector and was sold to an "insignificant" collector (me) who should check
his purchases more closely.
Wait, wait. While Bill is right about checking all those things for authenticity (thanks, Bill!), your issue is very plausible. I just checked the 3 remaining patron (signed) copies of #16, and they are 295, 300, and 301. Sorry, but my dad messed up. Keep in mind that WR #15 was the first issue to have patron copies (only 4), so issue #16 was the first issue to have a fair amount of copies signed. Actually, I made the same mistake when I was sending issue #143 to Gerry Locklin after my father died. I didn't send the first numbered issues. I'm keeping notecards with aberrations on issue condition and such, and I hope to put together the list within the next few months.
 
Ok, makes sense. So my 296 would definitely fit into that sequence. Mystery solved. Many thanks to Christa, Bill, and especially
to Marvin Malone for Wormwood. Frankly any discussion of Wormwood is to me an interesting one and worth having.
 
Given the other issues of this magazine being signed in india ink, on that page, with the correct numbers in the sequence, buying it from Maser, the opinion of Christa plus the good looking signature, I say that it is 100% authentic and solid. If you had a picture of Buk signing this one, it would be a bit better (good luck there), but otherwise, you can rest easy knowing that this is a solid, authentic copy. The staple issue may be that it was mis-stapled by Marvin. I have done this in the past. Your stapler runs out of staples and you are stapling it without staples, so making indentations, with no stapling. Otherwise, the staples could have been damaged and were replaced by someone later. Not sure that anyone would really care about that and don't see how it would hurt the value.

Glad that this could be cleared up.

Also, I am still interested in the issue of someone removing the center sections to make rarities (this and the Targets issues). Interested in knowing who it was and how it did not come up with Buk was alive. I seem to remember that Dorbin also listed these as Wormwood/Targets variants, so Buk had to know that there was an issue with someone creating fake rarities by damaging perfectly good copies...

Bill
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top