IF WE TAKE

[Los Angeles]: Black Sparrow Press, 1970. Near fine.. First edition, association copy, with an extraordinary inscription and drawing from Bukowski at a pivotal moment in his career to Hal Norse, perennial literary scenester and author of the classic cut-up novel BEAT HOTEL. Norse was a frequent Bukowski correspondent beginning in the mid 1960s, and it was Norse who recommended Bukowski to Penguin Press for their Modern Poets series — then Bukowski's highest-profile appearance to date (they appeared together in the thirteenth installment). But the two didn't meet in person until January of 1969, a little less than a year before this inscription. Norse (truncated) recalls the experience in his book MEMOIRS OF A BASTARD ANGEL: "I knew that a wild Falstaffian ruffian had come to shake things up with more fiction than fact, more fantasy than truth [...] Bukowski was misshapen [...] He looked [...] during down and out" (p. 420).
Indeed, the poet was down and out, frustrated at his job for the post office and desperate to find a way to support himself from his writing alone. He would find that opportunity later the same year when Black Sparrow publisher John Martin famously offered Bukowski a guaranteed $100 a month for life if he wrote for the press full time. According to Martin, their agreement went into effect January 2nd, 1970 — just six days after this inscription and only a few weeks before Bukowski completed his first novel, POST OFFICE. (IF WE TAKE was the first of many Black Sparrow greetings Bukowski would do for Black Sparrow Press.)
Norse and Bukowski remained life-long — if contentious — friends and correspondents (a collection of their letters has been slated, but delayed, for publication since 2002). Quite simply, one of the closest and warmest Bukowski associations we've seen. 5.5'' x 4.5''. Original string-tied stiff printed wrappers. One of 350 copies. [8] pages. Inscribed by Bukowski to Harold Norse: "12 -27 - 69 / For Hal Norse - / We've both been / through the fire, / dear friend, and / there's more to come - / more fire more o / so much more fire, / and we can only / wonder if we will / kill ourselves first, / or they. No matter - / they will never know. / yrs, / Charles Bukowski." Bukowski has also added to inside of front cover an illustration of a man smoking, signed "Buk." Touches of rubbing, soil. Well preserved. (Inventory #: 41204)