John Martin (1 Viewer)

[Johannes]

... pimping!!

Nobody knows, but I always had the feeling that the famous 100,-/month were a more or less spontaneous support from Martin, a kind of help to get started. The "for the rest of your life wheter you write anything or not" part sounds like as much myth as the fact, that Bukowski survived on this 100,- alone.

 

[kristopher]

(and he certainly made terrible editing choices in Women... that much is clear).

I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding this or have missed something obvious in the past. Are you saying John Martin changed words or added his own shit to the novel as he did with the posthumous poetry releases?

 

[hank solo]

Are you saying John Martin changed words or added his own shit to the novel as he did with the posthumous poetry releases?

Well, someone sure said that.

 

[mjp]

Are you saying John Martin changed words or added his own shit to [...] the posthumous poetry releases?

See the link in this post for a demonstration of that.

 

[Hosh]

mjp said:

The $100 a month story is pretty legendary in Bukowski and Martin's mythology

And it's also probably fair to wonder just how well this whole deal would've worked had it not worked out...had Bukowski not written his ass off, and had Black Sparrow not been able to established itself as it did.

The myth (if I remember it correctly) was for $100 a month for life , regardless of BSP sales. And, if there was no money coming in, well we might all know a different story about the $100 gamble.

 

[mjp]

In that case Martin probably would have had Bukowski murdered, then continued to write the poems himself under Bukowski's name. In fact, he probably would have preferred that. But then he wouldn't have had time to publish the other 492 Black Sparrow authors that no one reads.

So it sounds lose/lose when you look at it that way.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

As in John Fante?

But point taken.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Why did I think it was $100. a week? Duh?

 

[kristopher]

Well, someone sure said that.

Wow

Thanks

Do you guys know the specific changes? Again, I'm sorry if this is obvious to you.

See the link in this post for a demonstration of that.

I just want to thank you.
I've owned this book for a while and I would've never known of these edits.

 

[Bill Sikes]

"Black Sparrow authors that no one reads."

...like %$#@^& Martin publishing that jack-off andrei codrescu...

 

[mjp]

Keep going everyone. There are one or two more notable BSP authors. But after you've named all five of them, there are still 492 that you've never read. That doesn't mean he was wrong to publish them. But BSP was Bukowski. Without him, by 1980 Martin would have been selling paperclips again. Or maybe you believe all those Andrei Codrescu and Wanda Coleman sales bought Martin's house. I wouldn't share that belief, but what do I know.

Maybe you're right. Martin once characterized the Bukowski royalties as "pennies." That was about 10 years ago. I guess they bought those houses and cars real cheap. HarperCollins must have paid him those millions of dollars for the rights to four BSP authors (hmm, why just four?) because they just wanted to get rid of the money. Get some pennies in return. That must be it.

I'm going to write a book about Martin and call it Pennies From Pedro. I'll get Neeli Cherkovski to ghost write it with me, and Lind King to paint a picture of a unicorn for the cover. I'll interview Martin for it, then change everything he says. You know, to make it interesting and well-written. FTW!

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I have some Tom Clark and Michael Lally titles from BSP that are good.

But again, point taken.