Virgin letters (1 Viewer)

ROC

It is what it is
Does anyone know if the 4 volumes of letters printed by Virgin in the UK reproduce all the letters from 'Screams...' 'Living...' and 'Reach...'?
I want basic reading copies but I don't want to buy them if there are bits missing.
Thanks in advance.
 
Good question. I haven't bought the UK editions because I already have the Black Sparrows, but publishers do weird things, and it's possible the UK editions left out some text or even included extra text not in the U.S. edition (less likely but possible). Aside from the text, are the photos the same? Has anyone compared the editions in detail? I hope the answer is that they're identical because I already passed on getting the UK books cheap at $2 a throw.
 
those UK versions have shown up in a lot of bookstores (Canada, US), pretty cheap (as David mentioned). I got the set for 20 bucks (not as good as David's deal...). When you lie them all down in a square the covers are the face of a typewriter (nice!).
You would think everything would be reproduced from the earlier BSP's, but going through all of them and comparing I'll leave to the truly HARDCORE collectors...
 
the photos I can live without, for sure.
Looks like I'll have to buy the virgins as readers - suck it and see - as they say.
 
By photos, I meant reproductions of handwritten letters with drawings. Those are in the Virgin editions, aren't they? I wonder if they're the same as in the BSP editions.
 
Well, being a "truly HARDCORE collector" I have finally gotten around to ordering these.
I will let ya'll know what I see.
What I'm interested in mainly (apart from having reading copies) is whether the letters have been regrouped in proper chronological order - correcting the disparity in the BSP editions where they kept turning up early letters to start the books with.
Any day now.
 
OK - for anyone that cares...

They did take the time to put all the letters in order...which is great.

Volume 1 is 1958-1965
Volume 2 is 1965-1970
Volume 3 is 1971-1986
Volume 4 is 1987-1994

So volume 1 & 2 contains letters from Screams and Living on Luck, volume 3, letters from Living on Luck and Reach and volume 4, just Reach.
There are editors notes at the start of each book, written (I presume) by Seamus Cooney.
Volume one has the 8 pages of letters - actual copies - like Screams. Likewise, all the footnotes corrections and explanations are the same as in the BSP editions.
I re-read with interest Cooney stating "I have transcribed and selected roughly 50%" of the letters available to me. Hmmmm.

Unless you were a real BSP nut, I'd say this is afar better way to buy the letters.
No, I'm not on commission from Virgin Books.
 
The German version, 'Schreie vom Balkon' (='Screams from the balcony') is one thick brick of a book collecting from all three volumes, but leaving a lot.
Then - Carl Weissner added a lot of letters (mostly to him) that weren't in the BSPs.

There is a strange tradition in German Bukowskis, to vary from the original volumes:

There is not one book of his poetry that's a 1:1 copy. They also split the 'Erections' (into 4 books) and 'South' (into 2). They even changed some novels - e.g. it is known, that the translation of 'Women' (German: 'Das Liebesleben der Hyäne' = 'Love tale of the hyena') is based on an earlier manuscript, containing passages that were deleted for the BSP publication.

There will be a wale of work for cats to create a historical-critical edition, when 'they' discover Buk in 100 years.
 

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