John Martin

DirtyJersey13

DirtyJersey13

The Cruelty of Loveless Love
Nice one esart. Today, not only do you have to spoon feed adults, you also have to tell them what flavor they should be tasting. I never knew Buk or Martin personally, so I can't speak for them. In the end, I love Buk's writings, and that's enough for me.
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
mjp said:
The $100 per month was 25% of Martin's income. Maybe that's what you read. And that was their deal, 25% of Martin's income, it was never specifically $100 a month. That just happened to be 25% of Martin's income at the time.

I don't recall reading what Bukowski made at the post office, but a little Googling shows that a postal clerk in 1970 would have made about $7500 a year (plus health insurance and a yearly bonus), which was right around the national average wage. So when Bukowski quit he was probably making around $625 a month. More than six time's Martin's $100.
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I see! Then I got it backwards. :fool:
So, Buk made around $625 a month. Then getting only $100 instead from Martin makes it even more of a gamble than I thought. Of course, he had his savings, plus he did some readings, but still.
 
EmEll

EmEll

It was a huge gamble for both of them. John Martin had a wife and two kids to support when he made this deal.
 
EmEll

EmEll

OK, someone told me that, but I can't really verify it. If I get back to the source I'll repost, but for now consider it a mistake.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
The end of that page is what really tells the story. I also find it a bit convenient that they tallied up his expenses and they were exactly $100 (and that Martin or Bukowski would remember those figures). You can see in letters that he paid more than $100 for his phone bills some months.

Good story though. Obviously. People still tell it.

Anyway, around and around we go. I think if he had to live on $100 in 1970 (after living on more than six times that amount for some time) he would have had to go back to a factory job. Or coconut man, or dog biscuit baker or...
 
Johannes

Johannes

Founding member
... pimping!!

Nobody knows, but I always had the feeling that the famous 100,-/month were a more or less spontaneous support from Martin, a kind of help to get started. The "for the rest of your life wheter you write anything or not" part sounds like as much myth as the fact, that Bukowski survived on this 100,- alone.
 
K

kristopher

LickTheStar said:
(and he certainly made terrible editing choices in Women... that much is clear).
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I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding this or have missed something obvious in the past. Are you saying John Martin changed words or added his own shit to the novel as he did with the posthumous poetry releases?
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
mjp said:

The $100 a month story is pretty legendary in Bukowski and Martin's mythology
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And it's also probably fair to wonder just how well this whole deal would've worked had it not worked out...had Bukowski not written his ass off, and had Black Sparrow not been able to established itself as it did.

The myth (if I remember it correctly) was for $100 a month for life , regardless of BSP sales. And, if there was no money coming in, well we might all know a different story about the $100 gamble.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
In that case Martin probably would have had Bukowski murdered, then continued to write the poems himself under Bukowski's name. In fact, he probably would have preferred that. But then he wouldn't have had time to publish the other 492 Black Sparrow authors that no one reads.

So it sounds lose/lose when you look at it that way.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Keep going everyone. There are one or two more notable BSP authors. But after you've named all five of them, there are still 492 that you've never read. That doesn't mean he was wrong to publish them. But BSP was Bukowski. Without him, by 1980 Martin would have been selling paperclips again. Or maybe you believe all those Andrei Codrescu and Wanda Coleman sales bought Martin's house. I wouldn't share that belief, but what do I know.

Maybe you're right. Martin once characterized the Bukowski royalties as "pennies." That was about 10 years ago. I guess they bought those houses and cars real cheap. HarperCollins must have paid him those millions of dollars for the rights to four BSP authors (hmm, why just four?) because they just wanted to get rid of the money. Get some pennies in return. That must be it.

I'm going to write a book about Martin and call it Pennies From Pedro. I'll get Neeli Cherkovski to ghost write it with me, and Lind King to paint a picture of a unicorn for the cover. I'll interview Martin for it, then change everything he says. You know, to make it interesting and well-written. FTW!
 
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