It's possible that this has been discussed previously, but I searched and couldn't find anything.
So, I was leafing through some of my chapbooks and I noticed something very odd in my copy of All the Assholes in the World and Mine. I was checking out the publication information page/front colophon and I was noticing that the list of "Other Books by Bukowski" was enticingly short - just nine titles, which is rather cool. Then I noticed that, neatly sandwiched between Confessions of an Man Insane Enough to Live With Beasts and The Genius of the Crowd, was Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an Eight Story Window. (Yes, Eight, not 8.) I know that 8 Story Window was first published in '68 - June, I believe.
My copy of Assholes clearly states First Priniting, 1966 with Douglas Blazek's signature.
So, what's the deal - did Buk have the 8 Story Window idea back in '65 or '66 already sold to a publisher? Were the contents of 8 Story Window largely written in '66 and Blazek perhaps took a statement from Bukowski about an upcoming book called...and ran with it? Odd that it appears before Genius of the Crowd however, which adds some weight to it having been somehow established before Genius of the Crowd.
Another oddity that, as the years go by, becomes harder to pin down. Hopefully someone here will be able to unlock the riddle.
As an extra bit of trivia, despite the Henry Chinaski character having been created in '65 in Confessions of an Man Insane Enough to Live With Beasts, the Chinaski name does not show up in Assholes. He is the great Puchinski.
So, I was leafing through some of my chapbooks and I noticed something very odd in my copy of All the Assholes in the World and Mine. I was checking out the publication information page/front colophon and I was noticing that the list of "Other Books by Bukowski" was enticingly short - just nine titles, which is rather cool. Then I noticed that, neatly sandwiched between Confessions of an Man Insane Enough to Live With Beasts and The Genius of the Crowd, was Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an Eight Story Window. (Yes, Eight, not 8.) I know that 8 Story Window was first published in '68 - June, I believe.
My copy of Assholes clearly states First Priniting, 1966 with Douglas Blazek's signature.
So, what's the deal - did Buk have the 8 Story Window idea back in '65 or '66 already sold to a publisher? Were the contents of 8 Story Window largely written in '66 and Blazek perhaps took a statement from Bukowski about an upcoming book called...and ran with it? Odd that it appears before Genius of the Crowd however, which adds some weight to it having been somehow established before Genius of the Crowd.
Another oddity that, as the years go by, becomes harder to pin down. Hopefully someone here will be able to unlock the riddle.
As an extra bit of trivia, despite the Henry Chinaski character having been created in '65 in Confessions of an Man Insane Enough to Live With Beasts, the Chinaski name does not show up in Assholes. He is the great Puchinski.