Portions From a Wine-Stained Notebook (3 Viewers)

chronic

old and in the way
Just looking at Scott Harrisons new ebay listings and came across this in one of his descriptions:
By-the-way for the first time in decades City Lights expects to publish a new Bukowski title sometime in 2009. Essays and picked-up pieces.
This is the first that I've heard of a new City Lights title. Anyone have more info?
 
"Essays and picked-up pieces". Funny description. It's actually essays and short-stories. A few details have been mentioned on the forum. But it's D. who should do the talking, not me ;)
 
Cool. While Bukowski was alive, City Lights took stuff that was too raw for Martin's tastes, so this should be an edgy new collection.
 
Great news! Let's hope it will be published later this year. It's been a great Buk year so far. We got the new DVD's and now there's a new Buk book on the way. Fantastic...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I expect many more collections of Bukowski material, although not from Ecco. I was reading in the H.S. bio that Martin said about half of the poetry Buk wrote was unpublishable, just words on the page. Other editors may see merit in some of those poems.
 
I have it on good authority that the last book of poems will be the last book of new poems ever. That does not rule out short stories, of course. Or letters, for that matter, but I understand that there will be no more poems. Buk had a very high rate of publishable poems, but I hear that what is left unpublished should remain unpublished.


Bill
 
I expect many more collections of Bukowski material, although not from Ecco. I was reading in the H.S. bio that Martin said about half of the poetry Buk wrote was unpublishable, just words on the page. Other editors may see merit in some of those poems.

On the former, I sent City Lights a message on their website, inquiring about whether thay might have some "Buk sh@t in their colon."

My words, of course. I was far more diplomatic. I said " Hey f#ckers, publish all the Bukowski sh*t you are shoving up yer a$s and hiding from yer wives.";)

Still no word.:p

Seriously folks, I'm here all week...I sent a very plaintive e-mail explaining that we are all masturbating slowly in anticipation of any use of the word "and" or "the" with Buk on the cover...

...just let me know when I should be serious.

I really did send a nice request to City Lights...
 
That's great, Stickpin! Maybe they'll give you a release date...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
wow, this is great news. wonder if there are any titles floating around?

It's a very loooooooooong title ;)

I have it on good authority that the last book of poems will be the last book of new poems ever. That does not rule out short stories, of course. Or letters, for that matter, but I understand that there will be no more poems. Buk had a very high rate of publishable poems, but I hear that what is left unpublished should remain unpublished.

There are some uncollected poems which are great, though not many. The unpublished stuff is really below par.
 
I have it on good authority that the last book of poems will be the last book of new poems ever. That does not rule out short stories, of course. Or letters, for that matter, but I understand that there will be no more poems. Buk had a very high rate of publishable poems, but I hear that what is left unpublished should remain unpublished.
Bet I know who that authority is, and if he says so, it's so. But he won't live forever. Later, after he's passed on, I expect there'll be more poetry collections. Even if the work is technically below Buk's standard in terms of literary value, I would think that fact would be more than outweighed by the biographical/historical value. Personally, I'd read his shopping lists, and enjoy them. A "bad" or "mediocre" Bukowski poem full of typos pounded out when he was drunk would be very much of interest. A book full of them would be a feast.
 
Bet I know who that authority is, and if he says so, it's so.... A "bad" or "mediocre" Bukowski poem full of typos pounded out when he was drunk would be very much of interest. A book full of them would be a feast.

That would be fun, if not difficult to read...
 
I got this email in my mailbox today.

Dear Ryan,

Thanks for contacting City Lights. We'll gladly confirm that rumor! This fall/winter, we'll be releasing Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook, a sampling of previously uncollected work including Bukowski's first and last short stories, and the first column from "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." Keep checking back at www.citylights.com for more info-- soon we'll have a page created for the title in our "Forthcoming City Lights titles" section, and you can find out all the details then.

Best wishes,
Maia


********

Maia Ipp
Marketing & Publicity Associate
City Lights Publishers
 
Bet I know who that authority is, and if he says so, it's so. But he won't live forever. Later, after he's passed on, I expect there'll be more poetry collections. Even if the work is technically below Buk's standard in terms of literary value, I would think that fact would be more than outweighed by the biographical/historical value. Personally, I'd read his shopping lists, and enjoy them. A "bad" or "mediocre" Bukowski poem full of typos pounded out when he was drunk would be very much of interest. A book full of them would be a feast.

The poems that are not published would probably not be allowed to be published ever. That may have been part of the Huntington deal, I don't know. I can see some collections of poems that were in magazines goming out someday in the not so near future, but there is no cache of unpublished poems that I think will ever see the light of day.

Bill
 
There must be short stories enough from various mags to make a new collection.

Great news from City Lights! Nice title too. Good job, HC!
 
The poems that are not published would probably not be allowed to be published ever. That may have been part of the Huntington deal, I don't know. I can see some collections of poems that were in magazines goming out someday in the not so near future, but there is no cache of unpublished poems that I think will ever see the light of day.
That may be the case, but if so, it's a shame. One or two editor's judgement -- however authoritative -- is never the final word on quality, or significance of literary work.
 
For your grandchildren to read.

... or for my grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren ( - "Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point...!")


sure, you're right. It's unlikely we will see the day ourselfs.
But then, who knows. Sue Hodson of Huntington once told me, a critical edition will certainly happen, even though it's not on the agenda yet. So, they ARE aware of the 'need' for it.

Imagine to go through all the parts of the process when he wrote 'the crunch' - to see how he developed it and created all these different versions and to see which ones he totally abandoned. Or reliable information on which poems he wrote in which night in which order - this would tell us something, I think. Or the Jane poems - were they mostly written in bulks, with larger distances inbetween - or did he do one or two of them constantly every now and then. Are the (unpublished) worse poems only other forms of better (published) poems he wrote the same night or did he merely write many totally different things a night, some good some bad. when writing prose, did he do any poems that very day/night and if so, are they somehow related to the specific prose part? etcetc.

All valid questions. And we'll not see the answer from the form in which his work is published now.
 
Unless copyright law changes, it is what 75 years after the death of the author, it is public domain, right? Does this apply to only published works?

So, in 2068 if any of us are here, we can put out volumes of unpublished poems using Cireritas archives, or by looking thru the Huntington.

Or do I have something wrong here?

Bill
 
I'll be younger than you guys, and as you well know, vegetarians live longer :D :D So I'll put out those volumes myself. By then, we won't need to feed machines to make copies. It will be some sort of mental shit.

Too bad I'm kinda retarded...
 
i'm even younger, and vegans live even longer! so i'll be a sprightly 87, and i imagine that my small press will have developed into quite a publishing empire with that many years to percolate. i'm on it.
 
I heard from the publishing editor (after leaving my question @ City Light's website) that the book is going to be nearly 300 pages, and if it is a success, they may do another.

I had indicated that I had some thoughts about the end product, and I suggested to him that some of us would love to see a deluxe hardcover, much like BSP, since the ecco stuff has been somewhat disappointing, but I acknowledged that City Lights almost never, or never, puts out hardbacks. No response on that yet. Anyway...sit tight until the Autumn.
 
Great! Now we have the title, page number and when it'll be released. Let's hope the book will be a success so they'll make another ...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Apparently, when it's ready for public presentation, information regarding the book will be available here:

http://www.citylights.com/publishing/

On the left-hand side, click on "Forthcoming Books."

From their website: "Here's a list of what we're working on now, and what we're planning for the immediate future. Take a look, tell your friends and sign up to receive an email alert to let you know as soon as they become available. When you place your order, you'll receive a 30% web-only discount."

So, if those of us who are interested can hit them with a bunch of orders, perhaps that would help City lights recognize the market for more Buk...plus we get a discount.:cool:
 
Is there someone that is trying to get them to do a limited edition hardcover? I'd pay bucks for one. I know that they could sell them out. It would not be a bad way to make some money and put out something special...

Bill
 
I had sent an inquiry to City Lights from their website, asking about whether this volume was indeed going to happen, and the publishing editor responded. As you know, Bill, I share the name of a certain person who had a little something to do with Black Sparrow Press, and I received an e-mail indicating that he really wanted to talk to me about this. Well, after we got the facts sorted out (I'm not him, in other words), I mentioned that I had an idea or two about what the Buk-buying public might want to see for this publication. He e-mailed back saying that he would like to hear my idea, and I told him how I thought that Buk fans would love to see a deluxe hard cover; something akin to what BSP used to put out. I also mentioned what you said above; I bet they could sell them out because there's a pretty big market.

I never heard back from him after that, which really isn't too surprising. Apart from the fact that City Lights doesn't do many hard covers, being a scientist doesn't carry too much weight in the publishing business, apparently. ;)

Edited to add: I'm just thinking that this is where you may have heard about a possible hard cover, because I had posted that earlier. Obviously, I have nothing to do with this book other than wanting to own it. Perhaps someone is actively working on a hard cover, which would be great.
 
Hi John (from MA, not CA),
That is where I heard it. It will probably not happen, but I cannot imagine why they would not do it if they thought that there was demand for somethign like this. It would also be somethign that every Borders, B&N, etc would want to carry, so sales would not rely on walk in sales at City Lights or word of mouth...

It is funny though, that they responded that they wanted to talk to you. At least your name is not George Bush or you may have received a completely different reply...

Bill
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top