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Charles Bukowski: Broadsides

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SECTION B:
This index includes broadsides featuring poems and stories from  the 1940’s to the late 1960’s: from Bukowski’s first appearance to roughly the time that his work started being published in collected volumes by John Martin’s Black Sparrow Press; the period of time covered by Sanford Dorbin’s Bibliography.

1. Bukowski, Charles. 20 TANKS FROM KASSELDOWN
First edition:
Washington D.C.: Black Sun Press, Spring 1946
Broadside, 12″ x 16″,  (c. 1000 copies). Published as part of PORTFOLIO AN IN­TERNATIONAL REVIEW, No. 3, edited by Caresse Crosby.
(Dorbin D2, Krumhansl 1)

2. Bukowski, Charles. HIS WIFE, THE PAINTER
buk_hiswifeFirst edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, June 1960
Broadside, 5″ x 11″, (c. 201 copies), letterpress printed. Published as Hearse Broadside No. 1.
(Dorbin B1 and C248, Krumhansl 2 and 14a)

Note: according to Dorbin [see Dorbin B1], there were variant examples on paper without the blindstamp (Strathmore Artist) of this and three other Bukowski broadsides later assembled as part of Coffin, No.1. He believed that all could have been printed on scrap stock.

Note: according to Krumhansl, “201 copies were published 16 June 1960, 50 of which were distributed to various poets and friends of E.V. Griffith, publisher of Hearse Press. 150 copies were included in Coffin 1 and the remaining copy was used for the offset paste-up of Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail.”

3. Bukowski, Charles. THE PRIEST AND THE MATADOR *
buk_priestFirst edition:
n.p.: privately printed, 1962
Broadside, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed.
(Dorbin B4, Krumhansl 10)

Note: according to Krumhansl, “Published sometime in 1962. Bukowski believed that this item was produced by students at Northwestern or Purdue. Dorbin could not verify this information but ascertained that it was picked up by some mid-western area students after the publication of Run with the Hunted in 1962.”

4. Bukowski, Charles. SAME OLD THING, SHAKESPEARE THROUGH MAILER
buk_sameoldFirst edition:
Storrs: Wormwood Review, 1963
Broadside, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed.
(not in Dorbin, Krumhansl 11)

Note: an offprint of pages 2 and 3 from The Wormwood Review, Vol. 4, No. 3, Issue 11, edited by Marvin Malone (Storrs: The Wormwood Review, November 1963).

Note: according to Krumhansl, “500 copies, of which 29 were signed and numbered, were issued gratis sometime in 1963”.

5. Bukowski, Charles. THE PAPER ON THE FLOOR
First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1964
Folded broadside, 7″ x 11″ sheet folded once to make four pages, (151 copies), letterpress printed. Published as part of Coffin, No. 1, edited by E.V. Griffith.
(Dorbin C250, Krumhansl 14b)

Note: according to Krumhansl, “151 copies were published in 1964, 150 of which were laid into the portfolio [Coffin, No. 1] and one used in the offset paste-up of Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail“.

6. Bukowski, Charles. THE OLD MAN ON THE CORNER
First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1964
Broadside, 4″ x 11″, (150 copies), letterpress printed. Published as part of Coffin, No. 1, edited by E.V. Griffith.
(Dorbin C249, Krumhansl 14c)


7. Bukowski, Charles. WASTE BASKET 
First edition:
Eureka: Hearse Press, 1964
Broadside, 5″ x 6″, (150 copies), letterpress printed. Published as part of Coffin, No. 1, edited by E.V. Griffith.
(Dorbin C251, Krumhansl 14d)

8. Bukowski, Charles. TRUE STORY *
buk_truestory_xFirst edition:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
Broadside, 10″ x 14.5″, 30 copies, letterpress printed by Philip Klein.
(Dorbin B6, Krumhansl 18)

Note: according to Krumhansl, “30 signed copies were published April 1966: 27 copies numbered 1-27 plus 3 copies lettered A-C. Designed and printed by Philip Klein.”

9. Bukowski, Charles. ON GOING OUT TO GET THE MAIL *
buk_ongoing_xFirst edition:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
Broadside, 10″ x 14.5″, 30 copies, letterpress printed by Philip Klein.
(Dorbin B7, Krumhansl 19)

Note: according to Krumhansl: “30 signed copies were published May 1966: 27 copies numbered 1-27 plus 3 copies lettered A-C. Designed and printed by Philip Klein.”

10. Bukowski, Charles. TO KISS THE WORMS GOODNIGHT *
buk_tokiss_xFirst edition:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
Broadside, 10″ x 14.5″, 30 copies, letterpress printed by Philip Klein.
(Dorbin B8, Krumhansl 20)

Note: according to Krumhansl: “30 signed copies were published June 1966: 27 copies numbered 1-27 plus 3 copies lettered A-C. Designed and printed by Philip Klein.”

11. Bukowski, Charles. THE GIRLS / FOR THE MERCY MONGERS *
buk_thegirls_xFirst edition:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
Broadside, 10″ x 14.5″, 30 copies, letterpress printed by Philip Klein.
(Dorbin B9, Krumhansl 22)

Note: according to Krumhansl: “30 signed copies were published July 1966: 27 copies numbered 1-27 plus 3 copies lettered A-C. Designed and printed by Philip Klein.”

12. Bukowski, Charles. THE FLOWER LOVER / I MET A GENIUS *
buk_flowerloverFirst edition:
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
Broadside, 10″ x 14.5″, 30 copies, letterpress printed by Philip Klein.
(Dorbin B6, Krumhansl 24)

Note: according to Krumhansl: “30 signed copies were published October 1966: 27 copies numbered 1-27 plus 3 copies lettered A-C. Designed and printed by Philip Klein.”

13. Bukowski, Charles. THE NATURE OF THE THREAT AND WHAT TO DO
First edition:
San Francisco: Nevada/Tattoo Press, 1969
Broadside, 8.5″ x 11″, offset printed. Published as part of  Peace Amongst the Ants
(Krumhansl 33)


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[* not in archive]

Charles Bukowski

buk

Section A: Books and Chapbooks
Section B: Broadsides
Section C: Contributions to Books and Anthologies
Section D: Contributions to Periodicals
Section E: Miscellaneous Prose

Henry Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer.

His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambiance of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, in the LA underground newspaper Open City. Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s.

Regarding Bukowski’s enduring popular appeal, Adam Kirsch of The New Yorker wrote, “the secret of Bukowski’s appeal. . . [is that] he combines the confessional poet’s promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-fiction hero.”

When Bukowski was 24, his short story “Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip” was published in Story magazine. Two years later, another short story, “20 Tanks from Kasseldown”, was published by the Black Sun Press in Issue III of Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly, a limited-run, loose-leaf broadside collection printed in 1946 and edited by Caresse Crosby. Failing to break into the literary world, Bukowski grew disillusioned with the publication process and quit writing for almost a decade, a time that he referred to as a “ten-year drunk”. These “lost years” formed the basis for his later semi-autobiographical chronicles, although they are fictionalized versions of Bukowski’s life through his highly stylized alter-ego, Henry Chinaski.

During part of this period he continued living in Los Angeles, working at a pickle factory for a short time but also spending some time roaming about the United States, working sporadically and staying in cheap rooming houses. In the early 1950s, Bukowski took a job as a fill-in letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service in Los Angeles but resigned just before he reached three years’ service.

By 1960, Bukowski had returned to the post office in Los Angeles where he began work as a letter filing clerk, a position he held for more than a decade.

Jon and Louise Webb, now recognized as giants of the post-war ‘small-press movement’, published The Outsider literary magazine and featured some of Bukowski’s poetry. Under the Loujon Press imprint, they published Bukowski’s It Catches My Heart in Its Hands in 1963 and Crucifix in a Deathhand in 1965.

Beginning in 1967, Bukowski wrote the column “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” for Los Angeles’ Open City, an underground newspaper. When Open City was shut down in 1969, the column was picked up by the Los Angeles Free Press as well as the hippie underground paper NOLA Express in New Orleans. In 1969 Bukowski and Neeli Cherkovski launched their own short-lived mimeographed literary magazine, Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns. They produced 3 issues over the next 2 years.

In 1969 Bukowski accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin and quit his post office job to dedicate himself to full-time writing. He was then 49 years old. As he explained in a letter at the time, “I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.” Less than one month after leaving the postal service he finished his first novel, Post Office. As a measure of respect for Martin’s financial support and faith in a relatively unknown writer, Bukowski published almost all of his subsequent major works with Black Sparrow Press. An avid supporter of small independent presses, he continued to submit poems and short stories to innumerable small publications throughout his career.

Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994, in San Pedro, aged 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.

References consulted:

Debritto, Abel. “Cacoethes Scribendi: A Comprehensive Checklist of Charles Bukowski’s Earliest Publications, 1940-1969”, published in RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN LITERARY STUDY, Vol. 35, edited by Jackson R. Bryer and Richard Kopley
New York: AMS Press, September 2012

Dorbin, Sanford. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1969

Fogel, Al. CHARLES BUKOWSKI: A COMPREHENSIVE PRICE GUIDE & CHECKLIST — 1944-1999
Surfside: The Sole Proprietor Press, 1999

Krumhansl, Aaron. A DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PRIMARY PUBLICATIONS OF CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1999

Online resources:
Collecting Bukowski
Bukowski.net
Wormwood Review