Manuscripts

mjp · Jan 1, 2015

In case anyone feels like reading, there are 100+ new manuscripts on the site, mainly in 1985 through 1990 (40+ from 1990 added today, and half of those are "new," meaning uncollected and/or re-titled).

Still have about 40 to add from 1990, then a couple hundred from 91-93.

Then there's another batch (hundreds) waiting to be processed after that. Target completion date is 2099 or so.

roni · Jan 2, 2015

Thanks mjp, Thanks!
You're kickin' goddam fuckin' ass!

and thanks to Dora, who I guess has been one main-contributor to this last extension.

mjp · Jan 2, 2015

Dora's contribution is the "another batch" I mentioned. I'm still working on the Harrison eBay manuscripts if you can believe it.

It would be a lot faster to just throw them onto the site without any cross-referencing, but the cross-referencing is important, and it helps to show how many poems were re-named and altered.

roni · Jan 2, 2015

You're definitely right:
having the material in a reliable order with cross-references etc is what makes the whole thing of buknet a Heaven of a Nirvana (while without that it would've been "only" a Total Miracle).

There's a reason, why You are our Maximo Lider, (even tho your hair started to get grey).
And that reason is: You just Do a Most Decent Job here like No One else could do. I said that and I mean it.

GDPR 4124 · Jan 5, 2015

I'm not sure what impresses me the most: the immense productivity of Buk himself or the productivity of you guys here on the forum keeping our old man's spirit alive. Thanks for this!

mjp · Jan 11, 2015

1990 is finished, manuscript pages updated.

- 42 manuscripts added
- 16 titles new to the database

Kind of interesting that near the end of the year Bukowski wrote some cynical, biting poems, none of which Martin collected.

Also added genius by the shore, yet another dig at Richmond. Bukowski dated it 1990, but it's a computer printout, so it had to be 1991 (or later).

Purple Stickpin · Jan 11, 2015

mjp said:
Kind of interesting that near the end of the year Bukowski wrote some cynical, biting poems, none of which Martin collected.

Of course, the good news is that he didn't edit them either.

mjp · Jan 11, 2015

Well, yes.

If we assume Martin was putting a spin on Bukowski with his "editing" of the posthumous books, then it's no surprise that he would exclude the darker, angrier poems. Though it's worth noting that when Bukowski was alive about the only thing Martin didn't use were some of the more nonsensical poems. Which was probably smart, because most of those are pretty stupid.

So far in the stuff from the 90s I don't see this decline that some people talk about. Certainly if the end of 1990 is any indication Bukowski was still full of piss and vinegar, and there are some great poems there. I think getting the rest of the 90s manuscripts up there will go a long way toward dispelling that particular myth.

Purple Stickpin · Jan 11, 2015

mjp said:
So far in the stuff from the 90s I don't see this decline that some people talk about.

The Last Night of the Earth Poems is among his best collections; probably his most strong since Love is a Dog from Hell. This alone should help to dispel the myth. The Last Night is strong not just because of the content, but how that content represented a coming full-circle for him. Many of the 50s and early/mid 60s poems are full of long, convoluted lines of imagery, which I love, but they aren't his peak. The Days Run Away is a stand-alone watermark, but Mockingbird, Burning in Water, and Dog from Hell are a high point of refined poetry in contrast to the earlier works. Play the Piano, Dangling, and War/1981-1984 are very good, but not great. You Get So Alone is the epitome of terse. Good, even very good, but not great. The Last Night distilled down all the styles to one concise and clear form - his true voice, if you will.

What was I saying?

Johannes · Jan 12, 2015

mjp said:
So far in the stuff from the 90s I don't see this decline that some people talk about. Certainly if the end of 1990 is any indication Bukowski was still full of piss and vinegar, and there are some great poems there. I think getting the rest of the 90s manuscripts up there will go a long way toward dispelling that particular myth.

I think a poem like fat boy from the database is a good example for that. It kicks ass in the best Bukowski way ever, imho, and is very funny too.

Yet at the same time the late Bukowski (about mid 80's till his death) used to insert some strange sounding adjectives and other stuff into his poems and prose which the early Bukowski never did. Like in this poem (fat boy) the sentence:

"it was true, I found them attractive, especially later in the night when I got ghoulishly sentimental"

Ghoulishly sentimental? Now that sounds like a fucked up Martinization alright, doesn't it? Yet it's an original manuscript. First I thought that Martin did those things. But now I think that Bukowski liked to play around with stuff like this in his later life.

zobraks · Jan 12, 2015

Johannes said:
Yet at the same time the late Bukowski (about mid 80's till his death) used to insert some strange sounding adjectives and other stuff into his poems and prose which the early Bukowski never did.

Well, in a letter to Eugene Donders (Reach for the Sun, page 237) he wrote:

On writing... the simple word usually gets it better, it seems to carve it deeper into the paper...
Still, there are odd times when I like to throw in an almost awkward word that somehow becomes not awkward when it gets worked into a sentence.

mjp · Jan 12, 2015

Johannes said:
a poem like fat boy...

"WHAT'S THE RAPE, FUCKER?"

Good thing he didn't say 'rape' in a blog post. It gets a certain type all bent out of shape.

mjp · Sep 6, 2015

New 1969 manuscript added (courtesy of the owner of Carol's new gallery).

Compare it to the published version at your own risk.

Andreas · Sep 6, 2015

mjp said:
Compare it to the published version at your own risk.

I'm in the happy position to say that none of those fucked up posthumous poetry collections are on my bookshelf. They've never been there. That's not because I'm so clever, but just because of mjp's explanatory work. It saves me the trouble of choking on the stupid efforts of a pseudo poet.

Johannes · Sep 7, 2015

Beef Tongue stuck in my head when I read The People Look Like Flowers At Last

.

I remember thinking: What other poet on the planet could have written about a subject like this? Like many times the answer is: no one.

"BEEF TONGUE! BEEF TONGUE!"

Jesus.

-------------------

It's quite a while that I read The People Look ... but even from memory I can tell you that it's badly chopped up in the published version.

Andreas · Sep 7, 2015

Johannes said:
What other poet on the planet could have written about a subject like this? Like many times the answer is: no one

Yep.
The titles and covers of the posthumous poetry collections once attracted me, but at that time I neither knew this site nor anything about the heavy editing of his work.

Digney in Burnaby · Sep 7, 2015

How it appeared in The Outsider, volume 2, number 4/5:

https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/thoughts-on-editions-and-editors.3117/page-2#post-57023

roni · Sep 7, 2015

Digney in Burnaby said:
https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/thoughts-on-editions-and-editors.3117/page-2#post-57023

=> Shared Sept. 2008!!

Thanks, Digney! for this reminder, that there were early first contributors here, who built this place and shared at a time when it was difficult to find Any of the rare stuff!

Sometimes I get the feeling that members who have joined 3 or 5 years ago aren't really aware of the situation back then and take everything here for granted without the awareness that manymany small contributions, everyone of us had gathered bit by bit and posted [I'm NOT really talking of me here, since my own contributions have been extremely minor compared to others!!], built this archive.

mjp · Sep 7, 2015

77 new letters to Steve Richmond added to the manuscripts section of the main site. ~~Scroll, scroll and keep scrolling. They're at the bottom of the page.~~ No need to scroll anymore, letters are in a separate section.

Some good things in there, including the manuscript for Bukowski's intro to Hitler Painted Roses.

Big up to a certain mysterious Canadian woman for supplying those copies.

Bukfan · Sep 7, 2015

Thank God, for mysterious Canadian women!

mjp · Sep 8, 2015

November 1966, "John, what's his name?, sold his library for $49,500 to some university. Can you imagine that? He wants to run a book of my poems but I'm already down to Webb on the next set. So to keep him quiet I told him I'd write him a novel."

John what's-his-name - I'm going to have to use that.

$49,500 in 1966 is $364,585 today, in case you were wondering.

mjp · Mar 25, 2018

mjp · Apr 1, 2018

hugthedark · Apr 2, 2018

Thank's MJP!

mjp · Apr 23, 2018

Black Swan · Apr 26, 2018

Hymn From The Hurricane Of The Blinking Eye is great.

the only hell is where you are.
the psychiatrists and psychologists ask money to tell you that hell is your imagination.

mjp · May 20, 2018

mjp · Jun 5, 2018

mjp · Jun 11, 2018

zobraks · Jun 11, 2018

At the end of Jack (one of the funniest poems for me) he wrote/typed "beanstock."
Shouldn't that really be "beanstalk?" Am I missing something?

Manuscripts

mjp

roni

mjp

roni

GDPR 4124

mjp

Purple Stickpin

mjp

Purple Stickpin

Johannes

zobraks

mjp

mjp

Andreas

Johannes

Andreas

Digney in Burnaby

donkeys live a long time

roni

mjp

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"

mjp

mjp

mjp

hugthedark

mjp

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!

mjp

mjp

mjp

zobraks