Hi,
It need not be about respect for Bukowksi that you get permission. It should be that you don't want to lose everything to HarperCollins or Linda Bukowski if they decide to sue you! If HarperCollins wants that amount in advance, then that is the verdict. The other people on the net with similar projects may a) have permission b) not have permission. If they have permission, it may be from a movie tie-in. For example, the factotum soundtrack of the soundtrack to the movie "Born Into This". Those last two clearly have permission. The others may not. Should Linda decide to sue any of those not getting permission, there will be hell to pay. US copyright law allows for very, very stiff penalties for willfully violating copyright. This could hit you if not never even sell one. Just producing it and making it available. The possible scenario is you produce it and make it available for sale. You sell a couple hundred dollars worth of CDs. Linda finds out (she has many friends on this forum) and she sues you. When she wins, you could lose tens of thousands of dollars on a judgement. It would be crippling.
There are people here that have Linda's mail and e-mail address. Still, I doubt that they will pass it on. It is nothing personal, but I would not want to be the one that gave it up knowing that it would be ignored by the receipient who will find it an invasion of her privacy, especially since you asked the right person and did not like thieir answer.
Getting the rights to E.A. Poe is easy. As far as I know, he is all public domain. There should be no permission needed to reprint his words. If you read his poem and record it, you would own the copyright. Now if you want to use a recording of William S. Burroughs reading Poe, then you would need to contact the Burroughs people. Cole Porter is probably covered by ASCAP (I'm not as familiar with music), where they are set up to get royalties from airplay. Book publishers are not. They will want the money up front (or know that the project will be a profitable venture) and they know that the CD will not sell and there will be no airplay. They will not grant the rights only to never get a dime (which is what will probably happen). To cover the $30,000 that they say that they want, you would have to sell what, 30,000 copies of the CD? I would be VERY, VERY surprised if you could sell 300 copies and I'm a guy that buys EVERYTHING. Even so, I'm not even interested in Bukowski that I have already heard set to music....
Of the two movie tie in CDs with Bukowski voice overs, I would bet they both lost money. They were released as official movie soundtracks, so they are probably not expected to make money and are more about the movie having a soundtrack.
Sorry to seem like I'm being a pain, but again, you asked and the answer was $30,000. You can't go to Mom, when Dad says "no."
All best,
Bill