San Pedro Apartment / First known public reading (1 Viewer)

Did Buk live his last years in that same apartment or did he 'move on up' a bit and buy a house with Linda.
I know I have seen here ( I think) and elsewhere the address of that apartment, including the apartment number. In fact I read a ridiculous interview at some point someone did with a woman now living in that same apartment, about his ghost, I'm sure we've all see it and I dont care to re-read it but what I wonder is is that address floating around and does Buk still receive mail from nutty fans there, and if the residents of the apartment over the years have knocks on the door, and how that all goes down.
'Sure, Come on in!'

Hannah ( I'ts 7 a.m. Sunday morning and I just woke up from a dream about being in that apartment and finding him hiding under the bed with a stack of his own books, cats surrounding him hissing at me.)
 
hannah

Interesting question. I hadn't heard about the ghost. I've had many dreams myself where Hank is in the afterlife (something he probably never believed in). He's always very mellow, all his anger at the world gone. Anyway, I'd like to hear about that apartment, too.
 
hi hannah, i think san pedro was the last place of residence, and it more than an apartment. b. sometimes wrote poems about writing from his room in san pedro, a room with a balcony that overlooked san pedro harbor and freeway. when i read a poem like that, like, "cool black air," he is there, still, literally. i'd recommend the collection, "the last night of the earth poems."
 
mjp: I just scanned the timeline for the first time, not to check Buk's addresses, but to see when the first known public reading was. The timeline says it was in 1969. Back in the 1980s, I got a letter from a guy who had know Buk for many years, since early in his career, and swore that he had attended a reading of Buk's in the mid-1950s. My memory of this is vague, but I think it was at a bookstore in L.A., and he might have given the name of the store and a year. I still have the letter somewhere. I wouldn't have thrown it out. I forget the letter-writer's name. I'll see if I can locate it and provide more details. Just thought I'd mention it.

On the apartment/house question, I originally thought Hannah was talking about an apartment in San Pedro, before Buk bought the house. Instead, maybe she's thinking of the DeLongpre or Carlton Way apartments.
 
If you can dig up the letter that would be very interesting. I've never read anything indicating an earlier reading.

There are only two letters from 1969 in Living on Luck, but in an early 1970 letter to Weissner, Bukowski says, "Christ, I even give poetry readings now."

That doesn't rule out an earlier reading, of course. But it kind of reinforces late '69 as being the first reading.

I'm sure we would all like to see that letter you have. Very intriguing.
 
Good question. But considering that he was barely published in the 50's, I would tend to doubt that he gave any readings.

But -- you can't discount the possible influence of Barbara Frye, his wife for more than two years during that period. I can see her encouraging him to do a reading. So who knows.

It would really be interesting to have the first hand recollection from that letter.
 
I completely forgot about this. Sorry. I'll get back on the case. I think the letter in question is in a stack of about 50 letters dealing with the sale of my Bukowski related chapbooks (the infamous memoir and the bibliography.) I glanced through the stack when I raised the topic but the letter didn't jump out and bit me on the ass, so I'll have to read through the stack until I find it. If it's not there, it could be anywhere in this cluttered house where we shift around boxes of old junk on a weekly basis until I don't know where anything is. It exists. I wouldn't have tossed it. But if it isn't in that stack (and I know where that stack is), then the odds of my finding it anytime soon are very slim. Thanks for the reminder. Feel free to nag if I don't report back in a few days.
 
I finished reading through that stack of letters but didn't find the one that mentions a 1950s poetry reading by Bukowski. There's another short stack I can look through (actually under the first stack, which is deeper than I thought...these letters are crammed in a cubbyhole and I can hardly see them all, just reach in and grab a handful at a time), but if it's not there, I dunno where it is. It makes sense to me that Buk might have read in the 1950s. He was a published poet then, and even though not well-known, many totally obscure, unpublished poets give readings. Maybe only 3 people show up; it happens all the time at little bookstores. Like mjp suggests, it could have been something Barbara Frye got him involved in. I'll keep reading the letters.
 
No, I haven't dug back into the stack of letters yet. I got sidetracked by other stuff (taxes, making a living, writing). I'll try to take a look soon. Thanks for the reminder. I, too, am curious as to exactly what I was told about Buk's 1950s poetry reading, and by who (or is it "whom?" Can't someone please settle that question forever?)
 
(or is it "whom?" Can't someone please settle that question forever?)

whom. who is used as a subject, whom as object.

who is that man?
the man by whom the poems were written.

[nerdalert. i know. it's okay to laugh at me.]
 
As a common sense sort of approach to grammar, "whom" should probably be dropped from the language because most people can't remember why or when to use it, and you never hear it in everyday language by normal people. Not to claim that I'm normal, but I often speak like one of those folks. But thanks for the explanation. I know I won't remember it, unfortunately. Some sort of mental block I suppose.
 
By the way, have I mentioned that I did look through the rest of the stack of letters, and did not find the one that discusses a 1950s Bukowski reading at a bookshop in L.A. Then I found a second stack of old letters nearby, and it may be in there. I'll look through those.
 
Ha-ha, that's right. - "Come Watson, the game is afoot"...:D
 
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