Hello Everyone (1 Viewer)

I've been a Bukowski fan since the late 70s. Circa 1980 I wrote a letter to him asking if I could visit. His reply back was classic: "Dear Sir: No visitors. [Signed] Buk."
 
Here she is.

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By PeteM
 
Oh, man, I wish I had a 300dpi scan of that. ha!

Next time someone asks for a Bukowski quote for a tattoo I'm going to give them this...

novisitors.gif
 
There it is, the Typer in the flesh! New guy here, been a fan since the early 80's. Believe it or not my Small Town Snot Nosed library actually had a copy of Ham on Rye. And this was a library that wouldn't have NatGeo cuz it was pornographic.
 
In 28 years, I showed that letter to less than ten people. Now the community of Buk lovers are suggesting it has t-shirt or even tattoo potential! I must have been hanging around the wrong crowd, lack imagination, or both. But I always knew the letter was pretty cool, and am glad to share it now with those who appreciate it.
 
This would look great on a T-Shirt

Yes it would! Great idea! It's a much better motif than most of the Buk T-shirts have. We could make it into a Bukowski.net T-shirt...:cool:

Father Luke: Great door plaque design!
 
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I'm making it into a door plaque.

Brilliant! The wife and I bought a new front door matt last weekend. It just says "Leave" on it.

We could make it into a Bukowski.net T-shirt...:cool:

Hell yeah! (assuming PeteM is willing to share his image, of course). We could use some of the proceeds to help out this site, either by providing supporting membership and/or to help mjp grow this resource.

PeteM: That is an absolutely wonderful piece of Bukowabilia. Thanks so much for posting it. One thing a bit funny about it: Buk typed an "I" instead of a "1" for the date. Perhaps that was characteristic of his letter-writing style, however.
 
Some typewriters don't have a 1. Most people will use a lower case L, depending on the typeface. Bukowski obviously preferred to use the I on this typer (Olympia Standard, 1975 - 1983).
He did the same here with this poem from 1978.
 
T-shirt designers, plaque makers, and tattoo artists, have at it. I'd love to see what you come up with. If you make thousands of dollars, be sure to donate a big chunk of it to something that honors Buk.

Sorry, no plans to sell the letter anytime soon.


By PeteM
 
T-shirt designers, plaque makers, and tattoo artists, have at it. [...] If you make thousands of dollars, be sure to donate a big chunk of it to something that honors Buk.

Best thing i've heared the last 3 minutes.
*hehe*
No! - fun aside, it's nice you don't have the $-signs blinking in your eyes so fast.
Good attitude.
 
I'll take one of each! - As for a Corgi sized T-shirt: Just boil the T-shirt untill it shrinks and put it on the Corgi - backwards! :D
 
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Mr. Purple Stickpin; Do you have that in corgi sized with the message on the back?

I'll take one of each! - As for a Corgi sized T-shirt: Just boil the T-shirt untill it shrinks and put it on the Corgi - backwards! :D

All I did was go to zazzle.com and they allow you to design custom t-shirts by uploading a jpg file onto whatever shirt you want. There are no minimums (no, I don't work for them, I just found the link today by Googling custom t shirts).

Important disclaimer: Of course, I've "stolen" Father Luke's door plaque design for these examples, so we'd need to get his permission to use it, or we could use PeteM's original image (which he has graciously granted). Also, there are many other t-shirt colors available.

I'd be happy to do this as a lump (say, 10 or 20 shirts), and distribute, but again, there are no mini's at zazzle, so it's just as easy for everyone to do it themselves. In any case, I'll be travelling 4/5 - 4/15, so I can't be around to accept the merchandise until after that. I'd be glad to head this up, and charge a small premium that I would then donate back to this website, either to help mjp with site upgrades he's mentioned, and/or to provide premium membership for those who may not otherwise have it.
 
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I think its funny that he often responded to letters. Sure, most of them were brief like that, but I seem to hear a lot of stories of Buk responding. Or are they all the same story? Either way, hysterical letter. What a keepsake!

I'm a couple-a weeks late, but Welcome!
 
I'm already using Father Luke's enhancement of my letter from Buk as a screensaver. If I'm wrong, someone needs to tell me! In the meantime, says I, bring on the t-shirts, or I just might make one (or more) myself.
 

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