| BUKOWSKI IS NOW BARGAIN
BASEMENT? One of the saddest
things I've seen this month has to be the sale of a Charles Bukowski
hardback first edition COME ON IN sell on Ebay for around £5 ($10) complete
with the wraparound band in fine condition. I'm talking about a FIRST
EDITION, not a mass market paperback to read on the tube and then spill your
lunch over and (sadly) break the spine. Not only that but the book had been
mutilated by a remainder mark, which usually means some couldn't care less
shop assistant daubing it with a felt tip pen. Putting aside my annoyance at
the whole concept of putting a 'remainder mark' on a book, what does this
say about the status of Charles Bukowski? For a long
time I've not been alone with the view that Bukowski is published too often
and that some more stringent form of quality control should be exerted at
his current publishers Harper Collins, who took over - very unfortunately
from the special Black Sparrow Press a few years ago. A new Bukowski title
was a special event a few years ago, not any more. If you are being
remaindered, which is happening increasingly to Bukowski books, you are no
longer in such big demand, you are descending to the bargain basement. I did
fear this corporate slipping when Black Sparrow folded. Harper Collins don't
publish with the same intricate attention to fine detail that John Martin's
press once did. They don't release the promotional posters or give the new
release of a Bukowski book the attention it deserves, the cover designs are
awful. Charles Bukowski is just another widget in their global operation and
it is failing him. Black Sparrow understood their writer and published
quantities they could handle, he was a very special writer to them, now he is just another number to the suits at Harper Collins. They may
as well be selling plastic Christmas donkeys. I fear Bukowski has been sold
to the darkside.
SOME BUKOWSKI BOOKS FOR SALE
all prices include post in UK
overseas please ask about prices
CHARLES BUKOWSKI...HUSK...a poetry broadside originally given
away with Beat Scene magazine No 15...as new...£15
THE HUNCHBACK OF EAST HOLLYWOOD: A BIOGRAPHY OF
CHARLES BUKOWSKI by Aubrey
Malone...published in the UK in 2003...photos...& as new. Signed by
Malone...£11
I'M BUKOWSKI AND THEN? by ENRICO
FRANCHESCHINI...very limited edition chapbook, a rare Italian
encounter with Buk...2001...AS NEW...£4
CHARLES BUKOWSKI...THE FLASH OF
LIGHTNING BEHIND THE MOUNTAIN: NEW POEMS...2004 USA hardcover First
Edition...FINE condition...£35
SLOUCHING TOWARD NIRVANA: NEW POEMS...Advance
uncorrected proof copy..2005 USA softcover from the Ecco Press, very good
condition, a little out of the run of the mill...£35
CHARLES BUKOWSKI...70 MINUTES IN HELL...compact
disc released on the Chinaski label...Bukowski reading in 1969. NEW
COPY...£20
CHARLES BUKOWSKI...LOCKED IN THE ARMS
OF A CRAZY LIFE...by Howard Sounes...1999 UK paperback biography of
Bukowski...new copy...£9.75
SUNLIGHT HERE I AM: INTERVIEWS & ENCOUNTERS
1963-1993...edited by David Calonne...brand new 2003 USA
paperback...mint...£15 |
