What the hell happened in 1942-1944 and 1955-1958? (1 Viewer)

[cirerita]

ok, I know the 1942-1944 period is really an obscure one and I really didn't expect to find much info in the correspondence I recently received. A while ago I even wrote to Harper's, The New Yorker, Poetry and Esquire, but no luck. I was told they had no Bukowski material from those periods. I know most stories were rejected and returned to Bukowski, but I was hoping they might have kept the letters from Bukowski -they're quite revealing, as you know. I think they might have those letters, but -obviously?- they're not going to waste their precious time trying to find them in some forgotten cardboard boxes.

But the 1955-1958 period is the one which is really driving me mad. In the last letter from Burnett (early 1955), he says he's returning some "old stories" to Bukowski, and in the last letter from Crosby (early 1955), she also says she's returning a rejected story. This means that Bukowski had those stories -and possibly others- before he left for Texas. What the hell happened in Texas??? All the material from that period -1955 thru' 1958 plus those other rejected stories he received in early 1955- is not at UCSB, Huntington, Tucson, USC, Long Beach or any other library with a large Bukowski collection. Did he give it to Barbara somehow? I doubt it. Where is it, then?

Sometimes I'm so dumb that I overlook the simplest explanations. What do you say? -Not about my being dumb, of course :D

 

[Bukfan]

Could it be that he tore up those rejected short stories thinking they were no good?
Why keep rejected stories when obviously nobody wants to print them?
Anyway, that's my guess...

 

[cirerita]

Hmm, I don't think so. Why then would he ask the editors to return the stories? And why would he submit the same story to different mags?

I know he told some editors NOT to return poems because he would just throw them away, but I don't think he ever said that re. stories. For some reason, he wanted to keep those stories -maybe to submit them again to some other journal.

 

[Bukfan]

Ah, he asked the editors to return the stories! You did'nt say that in your first post! In that case you're right, there must be a reason why he wanted them back. Maybe to submit them to other mags, as you say. Or maybe he gave them away to friends later on if the other mags also rejected them? There could be a chance that they still exists somehere.

 

[Father Luke]

Okay. I'll play.

My guesses. . .

He lost his virginity to a three hundred pound whore in '43. Is this the one who stole his writing? As in:

to the whore who stole my poetry

Then in the matter of the 55 - 58 question.

He was divorcing Barbara, and reconnecting with Jane. Things become misplaced in relationship rearrangements.

Can this information suggest something, to you, sir?

Hope so. I am here only to be truly helpful!

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Good points here, FL. I can't help but think, given Buk's passion when his father threw his poems out on the front lawn, that Buk would be a pit bull about holding his work near.

Despite his disdain for the human race, and his self-depricating manner in many stories/poems, it seems to me that he truly held his writing as something to be preserved (hell, he was right about that...).

So if these are missing, it was probably not because he didn't care about them (just my opinoin). So, I'll bet they are out there somewhere. If anyone will ever find them, it'll be Cirerita.

So, your theories hold some water. Make that beer, or Cutty Sark.

 

[cirerita]

That must have been a different whore, because she took the poems, not the stories :D

I think there were many more rearrangements and changes of address in the 40's than in the 50's, and yet, B. kept asking for the stories to be returned to his different addresses and he didn't lose them as he submitted again to other mags in the late 50's!!! The lost stories, and that's my guess, were the ones which were not returned to Bukowski. He did keep the ones which were returned to him. Then, what the hell happened in 1955-58? I don't think he lost all that material -including all the manuscripts which appeared in Harlequin and the Frye/Bukowski correspondence. I don't think he gave it to Barbara. I don't think... hmm, I guess I'm running out of ideas. Too early in the morning ;)

 

[roni]

He lost his virginity to a three hundred pound whore in '43.
Is this the one who stole his writing? As in:
to the whore who stole my poetry

Don't think so. As I remember, in that poem he talks about "all the others who take his money" (not verbatim). So it wouldn't be his deflowering-whore.

Things become misplaced in relationship
rearrangements.

True. Could be something there.

 

[1fsh2fsh]

. If anyone will ever find them, it'll be Cirerita.

my thoughts exactly. Hell, we wouldn't want you to run out of work..:D