Mockingbird wish me luck is it real? (1 Viewer)

[jamesapt10]

These are some pics of my broadside/flyer no. 2 it was a gift from a friend and I'm keeping it up either way but wanted to know if it is real. The paper is very fine almost like tissue paper and the 80/100 is in red ink. Story was that it belonged to some one that worked for black sparrow press and has been folded in a book until about two years ago. Thanks for your help.

 

[nado]

Looks pretty real to me. Here is a link to a similar broadside. Read the fine print underneath the photo.

 

[mjp]

Story was that it belonged to some one that worked for black sparrow press and has been folded in a book until about two years ago.

I think they were all folded, by the way (for mailing), so whether it was in a book or not doesn't really matter. It's legit though. To answer your question.

Read the fine print underneath the photo.

I'm not sure I buy the claim that the red ink magically disappeared from that Mockingbird broadside on the collecting site. There are signed copies of all of the Black Sparrow broadsides outside of the stated editions, and the odds are that's what that one is. Unless the original owner is here and wants to prove me wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

If the signature is the thing - as it should be - the numbers are irrelevant. And those numbers are somewhat deceptive anyway, since there are always more than xxx copies of something with a xxx limitation.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Not all of these were folded, as I have unfolded versions for Bring Me Your Love and Play the Piano... Those are unsigned, so possibly all of the signed versions were folded, who knows? I wonder about storing these in the books because these flyers are printed on very thin stock, unlike the earlier letterpressed prospecti for The Days Run Away or Post Office.

 

[jamesapt10]

That helps thanks. I saw the copy on the collecting site before I posted and his comment about the numbers was one of the things that concerned me. I also was wondering are all the broadsides printed on that fine paper?

 

[d gray]

not that it matters but...i like that poem but the line about "feathers parted like a woman's legs" always felt wrong to me. i think "conversation on a telephone" is a much better poem.

not that i wouldn't love to have one of those broadsides! that book was my introduction to bukowski.

 

[Papillon]

Not all of these were folded, as I have unfolded versions for Bring Me Your Love and Play the Piano... Those are unsigned, so possibly all of the signed versions were folded, who knows?

I have an unfolded but signed Play the Piano. It is lettered too (not to muddy the waters even more). The thing that gets me about the OP's broadside is the *slash limitation*. Seems weird to me but it is probably just me.

 

[jordan]

That's the right handwriting for the numbering. I've seen some of these with very faint numbering - could be a combination of the pen/paper and sun exposure. I've also seen them folded and unfolded, signed and unsigned. There's no consistency with this stuff. And I don't know why the slash is weird - in the book editions, the smaller numbered limitation is almost always indicated with a slash. (For example, a signed Hot Water Music would be numbered "75," whereas a painted Hot Water Music would be numbered "75/100.")