prized bukowski possessions (1 Viewer)

This may have been done before but I was wondering what bukowski books or such other things etc everyone valued more than others, sentimental or otherwise?
 
1st edition The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills, Black Sparrow, P.O. Box 25603, Los Angeles 90025

Beauti-ful and Other Long Poems, Wormwood Review chapbook, 1988

Various Wormwood Reviews with Buk inclusions & Buk solo chapbooks from early 60s, mint conditions, sold to me by Marvin Malone
 
"Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame" - First (1974); not with drawing - but signed with a large, red, flowing sig. The books is tight & smells of age. I love it. Beautiful.
 
letter.jpg


https://bukowskiforum.com/showthread.php?t=142
 
What's that letter, then - is it addressed to you? It looks good framed. A good talking point, you might say.

On your bookshelves there's a big, fat yellow book with Bukowski printed down the spine. What's that? I've never seen it before.

Man, I love your collection. What book's the painting in?

Cheers.
 
My favorite Bukowski item, sentimental choice: 2 1970s letters from Buk to my old pal, poet and small press editor, Leo Mailman. Leo rather innocently cut the signature and drawing from one letter (aghh!!!!), leaving a big hole in the page. He needed it for the paste-ups of one of his zines. He might have used a Xerox copy in his paste-up and preserved the letter, but few of us thought like that in those days. We were poets, not collectors. Leo edited NAUSEA, MAELSTROM and a MINI-REVIEW. He died about 15 years ago. A great guy.

Favorite for beauty, rarity and sheer wonderfulness: CRUCIFIX IN A DEATHHAND, Loujon Press book, very fine copy in wrap-around band. A gorgeous book in gorgeous condition. I keep this one in plastic. Maybe I need a beater copy to read at breakfast with my coffee and buttered toast?

Good topic.
 
Evas said:
What's that letter, then - is it addressed to you?
No, it's addressed to Nancy Flynn. It's in the manuscript archive here, I think the date is 1975.

On your bookshelves there's a big, fat yellow book with Bukowski printed down the spine. What's that? I've never seen it before.
That's the original VHS version of The Bukowski Tapes. It's a wide, double tape box.

Man, I love your collection. What book's the painting in?
War All The Time.
I think...
heh.
 
Where's the best place to purchase manuscripts? Or are these now only doled out to libraries and super-rich collecters with contacts? That listing on ebay - the one with the art - is in "Living On Luck," isn't it?
 
Alas, my favourite Buk item in my collection is nothing fancy.

It's a tie between a BSP 1st edition of Betting on the Muse, and a 1st edition of The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship. I really enjoyed that book, with Crumb art inside.
 
Here's my copy of FLOWER FIST inscribed to Jon Webb (To Jon Edgar Webb. One "Outsider" to another) and my copy of SIGNATURE #1. Both very near and dear to my heart. The cover of Targets has a great caricature of Buk.

flower.jpg target 1.jpg
 
Beautiful, nymark,
Thanks for sharing.
Any chance of me squirming into your will?
Man, really though,
What do you plan to do with such pieces?
Have them auctioned off after your death?,
Or let them be buried with you,
And if that's the case,
May I interest you in a beautiful, private plot in the most lovely cemetary :)

My most sentimental copy is the first Buk I owned,
Now a battered, taped-together awful looking red-wined-stained 19th or 20+ print of
Love Is a Dog.
 
It's interesting to see how Bukowski's handwriting style changed. cirerita, you saw some old notebooks, didn't you? I wonder when he switched to block letter printing? It seems unusual to switch so dramatically at such a late age. But according to nymark the provenance of that inscription is rock solid. Interesting.
 
mjp said:
But according to nymark the provenance of that inscription is rock solid. Interesting.

Ya know, it's funny you should mention that. When I took delivery on this piece, I had a shadow of a doubt. The handwriting isn't anything like I'd ever seen before (and I've seen plenty). I bought it from the archive of someone who published a lot of Bukowski so, as mjp states, I'm confident of its authenticity. It is early, early. That's for sure.

Here's another wild example. This my inscribed copy of RUN WITH THE HUNTED. Check this handwriting against the inscription on FLOWER FIST. Same "Ed...." Although not dated, an early example.

Run_1.jpg
 
Just as a disclaimer:

It is not my intention to boast or gloat. I am not seeking to stir a lot of envy by putting this stuff out there. I am assuming that this audience finds this stuff to be of interest. It's rare to find anyone who has the proper depth of appreciation for this material. Honestly, there aren't too many who really give a rat's ass about the trajectory of Bukowski's signature style.
 
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nymark said:
...there aren't too many who really give a rat?s ass about the trajectory of Bukowski's signature style.
Ha ha ha - true, very true. But pretty much anyone who does is probably here.
 

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