New poetry collection: "Storm for the Living and the Dead" (1 Viewer)

Just got the galleys for Storm:

I just finished writing a little something about this book vs the changes in the posthumous collections. Hopefully, it will be online before the book comes out next month.
wow. waiting for it.

(quite beautiful the dracula drag buk, the blue hair really did the job)
 
Received a copy today, here are some pictures. Haven't read it yet, but thought you'd like a look.

First thing I noticed was there's no table of contents. Though the sources are in the back, so that's good. If the TOC or sources had to go, I'm glad they kept the sources. 256 pages of poetry and illustrations, 98 poems (actually, 99 - there's a poem printed on the back cover for some reason). I'll post a TOC when I get a chance.

At first glance it seems to be made up of more than a few things we've already seen, but judging by the first page of the sources, there will be enough new stuff here to satisfy. And to the average bear, pretty much all of this will be new.

Paper is very thin, as we've come to expect, but that seems to be the way it goes for mass market books these days.

ecco-storm-c1.jpg

ecco-storm-c2.jpg

ecco-storm-c3.jpg

ecco-storm-3.jpg

ecco-storm-4.jpg

ecco-storm-5.jpg

ecco-storm-6.jpg


And here's the press release.

ecco-storm-1.jpg

ecco-storm-2.jpg
 
Is some of the font on the cover raised? Whatever the case may be, looks good. Very cool. You have my approval so you can now proceed. You're welcome.
 
Besides Abel, did anyone know this was coming out? Bought it on the secondary market for a few bucks extra, but wished I had known it was coming out.
 
Book is in the database now.

33 new additions:

the human inhuman
song of the vanquished
good service, at last
to the drunks along the bar before closing time
in this
I was shit
the bumblebee
the rope of glass
charity ward
phone call from my 5-year-old daughter in Garden Grove
hooked on horse
fuck
2 immortal poems
love song
something about the action
Venice, Calif., nov. 1977
chili and beans
go to your grave cleanly
a long hot day at the track
and the trivial lives of royalty never excited me either
the way it goes
a man for the centuries
the world of valets
rip it
Henry Miller and Burroughs
being here
the only life
a reader writes
1/2/93 8:43 PM
musings
storm for the living and the dead
cover charge
good stuff
Four of those are alternate titles from manuscripts, and a couple more are alternate titles for things that were already in the database (like Venice, Calif., nov. 1977, and 1/2/93 8:43 PM), but it's still 20+ new titles.
 
as the holy bible teaches us
now this is off-topic, but did you know, that the ancient (and still to-day) jewish scholars find every single letter in the TORA to be holy (as written by God himself), so that they don't even correct obvious errors, when they transcribe it.
They only make a remark on the margin, but leave the text intact.

This cautiousness and behaviour has led to the fact, that all jewish biblical texts, that came upon us through the centuries appear to be authentic (compared with the oldest manuscripts we have, which, to my knowledge, are the Dead Sea scrolls and maybe the Nag Hamadi finds, both [in part] from BC) and true to the original.
No bored secretary or such things with the Jews.

Like religion or not, but this result is one heaven for any scholar of history, cultures, philosophy and theology.
Just on a sidenote.
Now back to the latest BUKOWSKI.
 
Congrats Abel. Look forward to reading it.

Just wondering: Is the title in any way connected to the finishing line of J.Joyce's short story "The Dead?" Also filmed by John Houston.

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

 
Congrats, Abel! I´m looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it won't be released on English Amazon till 14. December, but then it´ll make a great xmas present for myself. :)
 
"A fine question, and one that, for now, doesn’t seem to have a clear answer. Why sanitize a beloved, successful, full-time writer after his death? Why not save yourself the trouble (editors, I know you have plenty of trouble) and just let Bukowski be Bukowski (which, in life, people seemed pretty content to do) and sell thousands upon thousands of books as a result?"

cute.
 
In case you were curious (and I doubt you were) thanks to links from MJP's article and the PBS links, traffic to my article on posthumous edits has gone up by about 500% (from an admittedly low base). Mainly readers in the US, Canada and Germany.
The word on the posthumous edits is definitely out thanks to MJP, Abel and the posters here.

The page is this: https://alexanderadamsart.wordpress...humously-published-poems-by-charles-bukowski/
Long-term posters have already seen it.
 
i wonder if john martin's caught wind at all of this small but growing public awareness.

he's in his late eighties now.

but there's still time to repent...
 
Yeah, it is still going around. Though links to my blog peaked about a week ago.

graph.png


As for Martin being aware of the article, it doesn't matter. Even if repentance were to come from his corner, it wouldn't change the ugly reality of the situation. So any mea culpa that could potentially come from him would be too little too late.

He's not in control of his legacy any longer, which is fitting, considering the damage he's done to Bukowski's. Now that he's cashed all the checks and exited stage left (shout out to Snagglepuss the [allegedly] queer cougar, not Rush), it's up to history to decide where he stands. In as much as history cares.

On the bright side, at least he can't do any further harm. And he seems to have people in his circle who get off on whispering gossip into his ear, so I'll bet he's well aware of the bold PBS headline, at least.
 
Here's a litle something I wrote for LitHub:
http://lithub.com/charles-bukowski-wrote-so-fast-his-publisher-couldnt-keep-up/

Other than changing the original title--"Charles Bukowski, that fucking anarchist"--and a couple of minor edits to tone my language down, this piece reflects what I think about Bukowski's submissions.

There's an accompanying piece of sorts that I wrote about the posthumous edits that the Paris Review accepted for publication, but they got cold feet and changed their mind at the very last minute. Apparently, it was not neutral enough. Oh, well...
 
"All Bukowski ever did was flag his favorite poems with a star [*] when sending a new batch to Martin..."

I think we're still getting that wrong. It just doesn't pass the smell test when you look at some of the "starred" manuscripts. I find it hard to believe that some of these were among his "favorite" poems at the time:

https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...75-06-22-hayleys_leaving_town.jpg&workid=1413
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...06-22-against_the_window_panes.jpg&workid=490
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...w=poem1975-07-19-airplane_spin.jpg&workid=500
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...ow=poem1975-07-22-the_fathead.jpg&workid=3110
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...?show=poem1975-07-22-the_edge.jpg&workid=3086
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...p?show=poem1975-07-22-visitor.jpg&workid=3847
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...poem1975-07-22-a_lovely_couple.jpg&workid=329
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...php?show=poem1975-07-26-jones.jpg&workid=1766
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...ow=poem1975-07-30-the_meaning.jpg&workid=4938
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...ow=poem1975-08-31-garter_belt.jpg&workid=1308
https://web.archive.org/web/2020/ht...5-09-06-my_father_and_the_bum.jpg&workid=2061

If you compare those to the "unstarred" manuscripts from the same period of about two months, there is nothing remarkable about the starred poems.

But what do I know. Maybe he wasn't a good judge of his own work. That's not uncommon.

And before anyone points to this, yeah, I've seen that. I'm sure it's legitimate, but since it's presented without context, it just leaves me with more questions than answers. All of the evidence outside of that excerpt seems to contradict what that apparently says (I say "apparently," again, due to lack of context). Which leads me to believe the asterisks could have meant something else.

Anyway, the asterisk/star thing was so short lived and so insignificant, I'm not sure how it ever became such an enduring discussion point.
 
But what do I know. Maybe he wasn't a good judge of his own work. That's not uncommon.
That's exactly it, I think. I, too, was kind of surprised to see Bukowski was flagging a few poems that were not as good as other poems he was writing at the time.

He did use stars to flag his favorite poems in the mid-1970s. The excerpt above was not the only time he said he used them. Thing is, I think to recall it was Martin's idea, not Bukowski's, and that's probably why Bukowski gave up on that idea pretty soon.
 
My copy finally arrived from the UK, which was faster than amazon.ca and not more expensive. I actually like the cover, the paper, the feel of it, even the smell.
It felt great to open a book 100% Bukowski. Prayer for the broken-handed lovers, I was shit, I think of Hemingway, all sumptuous.
Thank you Abel and mjp and all involved.
I remember when I first heard mjp complaining of the rape and the changes. I then realized that the feeling I had when I bought all the posthumous publications was validated. I had thought that Buk had lost something or that I was over his genius.
 
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Yes, I know the book is all Abel but the rape was your main obsession.
I actually thought that you were nuts! ;))
the words punch you in the gut! I was just ranting in my flannel pyjamas to a neighbour about it, not knowing if they had read anything by Bukowski.
Now I definitely need a nap.
 
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