It Catches My Heart in My Hands (Last Copy of Jon Edgar Webb, with Two Page Letter of Buk Bound in, Several Signed pages of Buk)
New Orleans; (October, 1963): Loujon Press. First Edition. Small Quarto. Item #031624
[4] 97 [4], errata [p.97]. Gypsy Lou Series N. 1. After his early poems were published in the "Little Magazines", this was his first important collection to be published. It was printed by the Webbs in 1963 in their Loujon Press. They had already published "The Outsider" and had named Charles Bukowski: Outsider of the Year, 1962. Here was their first publication and in the view of many who love fine printing their finest item which was dedicated to their friend, Charles Bukowski (who many critics called "the poet of Skid row [or of the gutter]." What is unique about this volume is that John Edgar Webb has written inside the rear flap that " [Third]? last mint copy /in stock-and oh how we/hate to part with thee/ (signed) Jon Edgar Webb/3/24/67" . Jon Webb wanted Buk to have some signed copies, so he sent him a sliver deco-write pen, giving him instructions to sign pages to be bound into volumes (here there are two pages] [see Soanes, p. 62-63), and the pastedown photograph of Bukowski (above their lament) with a slit across it(?). There is a remarkable two page letter with stamped envelope from Bukowski typewritten (not a facsimile) on June 14, 1964 to the Webbs in sixty-two lines with his colored sketches along the borders [also included is the original mailing envelope also decorated by Bukowski). Note: Bukowski had written the Webbs on May 1 about his move to a new location giving the address, but it is possible they had not received it because of their recent move from Santa Fe to New Orleans (Screams from the Balcony, p. 107). This letter also repeats his new address of 5124 De Longpre Ave, Los Angeles [see Soanes, p. 85ff.], and then notes: "the typewriter's first sounds in these walls, and a place doesn't become real until you've got the typer going, eaten, bathed, slept and made love there--until then you haven't moved in." He then notes that Francis [FrancEyE]] his girlfriend; Sounes, says her name was Francis Elizabeth Dean who became pregnant. He offered to marry her but she was content just to bear their child, Marina Louise Bukowski whose own poems were published in Chat Nois Review] "is at church while I drive the old ghosts of this place out of its walls." He mentions the old location where he got into trouble with landlord (cf. Sounes, p. 53-55), noting the kitchen table [is] looking out at Hollywood Blvd. [the poor part). describes a situation he recently got in at Mahawk's (?), there he went through a plate glass window, then notes also he has no shotgun like Hem[ingway] or Van Gogh, and "maybe no guts". He notes in the move he came across a copy of the Northwest Review with an article by Corrington on CHARLES BUKOWKI AND THE POETRY OF FLAT SURFACES. "If you haven't seen this one let me know and I will ship". Editor lost his job on this issue [he surmises because of an interview with Castro]. "Some very good poems in there by Whalen...and some interesting crap by and on Artaud. It was such an unusual edition for a university sponsored mag that I remember thinking then, well, the editor doesn't have much longer to go....Frances just came back from church, I believe they had a reading [notes participants Ray Bradbury, Bard Dahl implies they had his disdain]. Apparently, they don't like "little magazines..."I need another beer, am smoking a rotten cigar, the only one in the place, which sometimes I shread in my mouth but I feel the tobacco need." We live next door to a religious maniac--but I'd better save that for a poem....The bookcase is us, big belly of little magazines, bathtub drips, this place is a thousand years old but down on the ground floor...my god, this is the first time I've lived on the ground--except for park benches and jails--in twenty-five years? I sit here looking out on the street wishing I had a good cigar. Francis inserts ideas in the paragraph, he refers to her as S.S. [pen name she used as author of poem referred to earlier] her paragraph mentions Hank's sunlamp, he resumes after that paragraph-- wish she hadn't told you I've got a god damned sunlamp. I also have a set of barbells. I'm trying to look like Hemingway in his better days, trouble is I haven't used barbells or sunlamp in the past 2 or 3 years...Francis is getting ready to hang up the plaque [the one issued by the Webbs the preceding years] CHARLES BUKOWSKI, OUTSIDER OF THE YEAR--1962. [note: When the Webbs arrived in LA two months later (August 1964), they noted the plaque on the wall, [Soanes, pp. 68-69]. By God, these women are useful. notes words he is thinking of.. Closes with plea: God save the front tires of my cars a little longer....Buk. Bound with preliminary leaves of various colors and differing widths. hand-bound in stiff pictorial wrappers with cork-lined front cover, attached jacket with tissue sheet tipped-on (as issued), and pictorial flap over fore-edge around from rear and with a photograph of Bukowski mounted to rear. Nice. [Debritto, A10].
Price: $7,000.00