Signature of 20 year old Bukowski (1 Viewer)

mjp

Founding member
I'm sure there are earlier examples out there, but I think this is the oldest I've seen. A 20 year old Bukowski's signature on a government form dated May 13, 1941:

Bukowski-signature-1941-05-13.jpg
 
Great! Now, where have I put my LAHS yearbook?
 
Buk-SSN.jpg


This would also seem to put his first employment, at Sears, in 1940 rather than 1939 as has been written in the bios. He was unemployed when he filled out this form, and most employers, especially a large company like Sears, would need a social security number to put you on the payroll (or they would apply for the number for you).
 
When I bought my first house, they REQUIRED me to sign my full name, not my legal signature, including the "jr", which I never use, It is odd. They required the same thing of the 20 year old Hank in 1941. That is not necessarily his signature. It is a cursive writing of his name. My legal signature looks like a big loopy BRRS, but for some companies and government agencies, that it not good enough. I'm not sure how they would handle it is I was illiterate. An X used to be good enough for a signature, not requiring someone to write out their full legal name in cursive...

You could tell how they were busting his balls in the way that they made him write the address. Notice that he wrote L A, CA and they make him write "os ngeles" next to it. ha!
 
Yeah, it's very generic and formal, but the block lettering style is already the same way it would be throughout his life.

This isn't far from some early 60s signatures we've seen. Before he adopted the more open signature we're used to.
 
yeah, I noticed the cool Buk "all-caps" block printing, which is how I have written for the last 25 years.

And, yep the signature looks similar to those in the early Loujon books...

Very cool!

Bill
 
Has he misspelt his mother's maiden name.. FETTE?
 
I wondered the same thing, but I didn't dig around to see what the marriage certificate said (doesn't Sounes reprint that in one of the books?).
 
The birth-certificate says 'FETT', which is acurate.
I seem to remember, that Hank has mispelled the name in a much later letter, where he also writes 'FETTE'.
 
He may not have known how it was spelled. I didn't know how to spell my mother's maiden name until after she died. I just never saw it in print, never saw the birth certificate, marriage certificate, wherever it was I finally saw it.
 

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