Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1 Viewer)

[HenryChinaski]

I recnetly purchased a copy of this on ebay. The copy has one of the original covers that looks like this:

its the third printing, printed in may of 76

now the question I have is this: The printing that City Lights is currently still printing, has it changed in any way from the copy that I have? Has anything been added or taken away?

 

[mjp]

Probably not, considering the two skinny books that are re-releases of Erections seem unchanged, as far as the stories themselves are concerned. Though I believe one controversial story was left out of the reprints...

I don't have the original Notes to make a comparison...I think I almost bid against you on that one. ;)

 

[HenryChinaski]

ahhahahahaha are you serious?
thats funny. i saw a first edition of it on there and the cover wasnt black and white...it sort of had a blueish tint to it. i'd love to get that but the bid was getting up there. i only paid 20 for this one.

 

[mjp]

The blue one you're thinking of is a later reprint. I have one of those here. It's the smaller format like The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and Other Stories and Tales of Ordinary Madness (those two books reprint Erections, Ejaculations and General Tales of Ordinary Madness). The black and white image above is the original cover. Both are City Lights, as is the brown, woodgrainy cover you also posted.

 

[mjp]

Speaking of City Lights, the City Lights version of Shakespeare Never Did This reproduces Montfort's photos is much better quality than the Black Sparrow reprint. I've seen a couple of the City Lights versions on ebay lately, going for around $25. Before the BS version came out, that book could set you back $100, so it's reasonably priced now.

 

[HenryChinaski]

I wonder why that is? I don't think I've ever seen a version of Shakespeare...by City Lights. I mean I knew they first published it but I just hadn't came across it on ebay. If you come across another one, plz post the link here. I'd love to see pics.

 

[Jason]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Charles-Bukowsk...ryZ29223QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[HenryChinaski]

whoa cool, thanks jason. yeah I've actually seen that before. Is it much different from the black sparrow print out today? other than being in much better quality like mjp said?

 

[Jason]

I don't know what, if any, differences there are in terms of the books' content.

 

[mjp]

The Black Sparrow version has more text at the end, about Mannheim? Not sure. The City Lights version ends after chapter 25; Barbet got us on that plane to America... I believe the BS edition adds chapters/poems after that.

 

[HenryChinaski]

for some reason when I got this book, I thought it would have this photo in it but mine doesnt.

was it supposed to be in it?
on the back cover of mine theres a pic of Buk and Linda at this same place and Buk's wearing the same clothing.

 

[mjp]

That's the back cover of the original City Lights version.

 

[HenryChinaski]

ah gotcha.

I was just a little disappointed because this is one of my favorite pictures and its nowhere to be found in the black sparrow book.

 

[HenryChinaski]

well I'm about halfway through this and to my amazment, I realized that THE LITTLE TAYLOR was in this.
this is probably one of my all time favorite short stories. It's so old and raw...
this book is slowly becoming a favorite.

 

[HenryChinaski]

I just read one of the stories that coincides with The Barfly Screenplay. It's basically the whole part where Wanda beats him over the head with her purse and he wakes up in a pool of blood. I can see BIG TIME similarities. And the bartender Jim is in some of the stories where he opens and closes the bar.

 

[hank solo]

He seemed to frequently re-use little scenes like those in his writing, both prose and poetry.

The 'bar in Philadelphia' is my favourite chapter in 'Factotum' too (and how disappointed am I that there's no such scene in the recent movie)...

And yet Bukowski would say that the period he writes about in 'Barfly' is one he hadn't written much about. Perhaps his memory wasn't so good?

 

[mjp]

He seemed to frequently re-use little scenes like those in his writing, both prose and poetry.

Like, "driving to the bank in my BMW to pick up my American Express gold card..." - there is another poem in the latest Ecco release that repeats this scenario.

Perhaps his memory wasn't so good?

Something I've noticed in working on the database is he rarely repeated poem or story titles, which leads me to believe he either had a very good memory, or a system for keeping track of his work.

cirerita - in your digging did you ever come across any kind of list or notebook or anything to suggest he kept a record of titles?

 

[cirerita]

mjp,
nope. I think B trusted Martin regarding this. He usually sent a batch of poems to Martin without any kind of indication whatsoever as to changing titles or things like that. I think B left most of the editing job to Martin, including which poems would be included in a given book, the order of the poems, etc.

Though there are notable exceptions, I'll talk about that some day, maybe in the "dispelling myths" thread.

 

[mjp]

Hmm. Perhaps that is Martin's hand at work then. I noticed in Come On In! that there is a poem titled Fooling Marie (the poem). Which I thought was an odd title until I checked the database and found a short story called Fooling Marie.

But then to confuse matters, there is Fooling Marie in the Wormwood book Beauti-ful - which I assume is a poem (I don't have that book to check, but wormwood typically printed the poems, not short stories, though the database lists it as a story, probably incorrectly). That is likely the same poem that is in Come On In!





Is anyone asleep yet? Ha. I can only imagine how boring and ridiculous all of this looks to someone outside the cult...

 

[cirerita]

what?????? this is not boring at all, this is the most passionate thread ever on dear old Bukowski!!!! :p

I haven't read Come On In yet so I can't compare that poem with the one pub. by the W.R. -if it's a poem, that is.


But that was Martin's hand at work for sure. Just check "An Empire of Coins" as pub. in The Roominghouse Madrigals, then check "An Empire of Coins" as pub. in Betting on the Muse, and then come back here so we can have a good laugh.

God, this is becoming kind of boring now!

 

[HenryChinaski]

I MADE THIS THREAD AND IT IS NOT BORING.
ahahahahhahahahahhahahha

I dont have a copy of come on in yet either.

 

[greenfaerie]

hello,i love you.i don't neglect you but I indeed use you.I was hoping to get some more of Bukowski 's writtings for I can't afford to buy them .So,he who let himself be used -send me anything of Bukowski's on [email protected] ,what's all that fuzz with the right or wrong edition? a litltle bit corny,don't you think?excuse my english,I'm Romanian.

 

[HenryChinaski]

i'm not really particular when it comes to editions unless it's one i really want. there is a big difference though in say a first edition and a ninth or 12th printing. theres just something calming about holding something old rather than something brand new.