Hello, all-- Buk fan since '93 here! (1 Viewer)

Hello, everyone! I was pleased to recently (finally!) find this forum for the 20th-century writer who (along with the great Flannery O'Connor) speaks to me most! I first encountered Bukowski's work in 1993 with his late-career-classic collection, The Last Night of the Earth Poems. To this day, it is one of my most beloved of his books, although the top spot would have to go to Ham on Rye.

I was born and raised in the "Deep South" region of the U.S., and I often had a deep, visceral sense of being an "outsider" there. Among other factors, I was a teenage and young adult atheist in the heart of the Bible Belt! It was not exactly an easy time! Now, many years later, I live in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. region and am a practicing Catholic (don't worry-- I don't shove my chosen philosophical/religious beliefs down anyone's throat)-- and, in different ways, I often feel just as much of an outsider here as I did in the Deep South (!!).... maybe it's just a lifelong condition? A few more details: I was born with a physical disability, and, from an early age, have loved books and music of many styles/genres. I'm also a movie buff. Anyway, that's a (fairly) short introduction! For some weeks, I've been enjoying reading the posts here, and now, I look forward to contributing. Here's to Buk (raising a bit of whiskey)!
 
Thanks so much for the welcome and for the tip about that thread, gabilager!

I actually read a good bit of it, recently, while lurking here (before registering to post), and it did really upset me to see that this senseless desecration had been done to Bukowski's posthumously published work (and a bit of his earlier work, too, at times))!! How could John Martin have worked with Buk for so many years and not understood that his raw, brutal honesty about his life is one of the most important things about his writing?! It's just unfathomable to me, even given that Martin is a teetotaling Christian Scientist! Anyway, I'll save more of these thoughts for a possible future comment over on that thread...
 
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Thanks so much for the link to that thread. I don't yet have have that new, mercifully un-tampered-with (!!!) book of poems, but I definitely plan to get it soon-- probably next month. I love that Abel is actually giving us Bukowski's posthumously published work as he meant for it to be read-- which is the actual job of a good editor, of course, but which John Martin, infuriatingly, was unwilling to do!

Last month, I did buy Debritto's Essential Poetry Buk compilation (even though I had already previously read/owned most of the poems in it), largely to give my support to Abel for being a reputable overseer of the author's work. I can only hope that he is able to go back and correct the mangling of the poems in Buk's other posthumously published books, and then, reissue them to be read and appreciated, in full, as should have been done, originally, years ago!
 
Essential Poetry Buk compilation (even though I had already previously read/owned most of the poems in it)
That buy was a wise move, since the purpose of a "Best-of" is not to replace the owning of the full albums, but to have something to put into your pocket when going out to the caféhouse or sitting in the corner of your room with some wine and no intention to move your bones for the next 3 hours, so you can enjoy your favorite poems in a row on just one book.

Abel's collection is a very, Very good choice for that purpose.
 

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