Looking for a specific version of "style" (1 Viewer)

[FSeditor]

Hi all,

I have a query in this regard, if anyone can shed light?

I'm looking for a published transcription of the Bukowski poem, 'Style', however, there seems to be x2 versions of this poem:

The first one can be heard from this audio here:


(and also seems the most prevalent version on the web - but from unverified sources). The second, is an abridged version that I found in HarperCollins 'Mockingbird Wish Me Luck', published in 2009.

This second version seems heavily edited, and omits a whole verse of the poem!! It seems to really become diluted in this more recent edit.
I'm looking to reproduce the poem but am unsure what the correct version is!?

Is there a consensus on this anywhere, or does anyone know where or if the full version has been published in an official capacity? Further digging (and from the very helpful poem section of this website) I can deduct that it has been previously published in the New York Quarterly review - but I haven't been able to check which version they ran with.

Any help would be much appreciated!

F

 

[mjp]

The second, is an abridged version that I found in HarperCollins 'Mockingbird Wish Me Luck', published in 2009.

Mockingbird Wish Me Luck was published in 1972. The version you're reading in the 2009 printing is the same as the originally published version.

I'm not sure at the moment where that recording came from, whether it was done before or after the publication, so it's hard to say what's going on. Generally speaking when Bukowski read his poetry - especially in front of an audience - he could easily stray from the original text.

But you're right, this one is quite different from what ended up in the book.

 

[FSeditor]

Hi mjp,

Thanks so much for the response.

I guess this leads me to ask whether you know of any publication that HAS printed the transcript of the audio... ?

Finding it difficult to find a source that I can acquire the adequate rights to use the full version, rather than the shortened one from the book.

Thanks, any further guidance is very much appreciated.

F

 

[d gray]

that's from the "bukowski reads his poetry" recording.

made in '72 i believe.

 

[mjp]

The New York Quarterly and All's Normal Here versions have the full poem. But rights would be through HarperCollins no matter which version you want to use.

 

[FSeditor]

That's very helpful - I am in touch with HarperCollins and the estate's lawyer.

Thank you all very much!

 

[roni]

there's also a version in 'The Bukowski-Tapes', where he reads it (plus afterwards giving some additional advice on judging people by the way they're lighting their cigarettes).