Corrington, John William (Bukowski, Charles)

Mr. Clean and Other Poems

San Francisco, CA: Amber House Press, 1964. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. “I am not saying that you cannot find a better poet if you look hard enough; there are enough of them blowing and mewing, god knows. But [John] William Corrington’s oblique and viscid honings recommend a little more than burial in the slush pile. I remember, upon reading the early works of Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson, I had the feeling of the words themselves digging into the page, gripping, or being like rocks at the bottom of a clear river. This is an essence that cannot be garnered by trickery. Corrington, although he is a poet, is also a shaper of the word that cannot be brushed away. There is this curious digging in. And I’ll be damned if I can ignore it. I have tried.” So writes the great American poet and novelist, Charles Bukowski, — whose blurb provision here speaks volumes. John William Corrington (1932-1988) was a novelist, screenwriter, poet and lawyer from Memphis, Tennessee. The fact of Corrington’s not being a household name, per se can likely be attributed to his genre-wide success in both writing and life. As an academic, Corrington achieved much: earning a B.A. from Centenary College in 1956; a Master of Arts from Rice in 1960; and a Ph.D. (from the University of Sussex) five years later, in 1965. By the end of the 1960s, a shift in Corrington’s aims can be observed; he devotes himself entirely to screenwriting, a practice he continues for rest of his life. Corrington and his wife, Joyce wrote five screenplays (for film and television) between the years 1969-1974 — a practice interrupted only by John’s decision to attend law school, which he graduates from in 1975. While we could surely go on tracing Corrington’s biography in the manner here prescribed, it’s the relation to Bukowski that concerns us Beat-&-Beyonders. Extant letters make clear that Corrington was among Bukowski’s earliest readers; among the very first to apprehend his seismic contributions to the art form. As early as 1961, Bukowski can be seen carrying on ‘Capital-C Correspondence’ (the kind done by Serious Literary Men [take the Olson/Creeley correspondence, for example]) with Corrington. Letters of philosophical import and literary-critical intensity dating as far back as February 1961 attest to this; and it is clear from what Corrington was able to ‘get out of’ Bukowski that this was not an uneven exchange of value. Corrington clearly encouraged Bukowski to forge fearlessly onward, the critics be damned — and considering that Corrington was already a professor by 1961, he is among the very earliest academics to support Bukowski’s work (publicly or privately). This work, “Mr. Clean and Other Poems,” was published by Amber House Press in 1964, and features drawings from one Ann Parisi (of whom little-to-nothing is known). The publisher utilized up-and-coming Frank Westlake who founded Bindweed Press c. 1954 in San Francisco at the very moment the San Francisco Renaissance was coalescing, and he is better known for his work printing psychedelic rock posters in the late 1960s. See Tina Moore’s article, “Frank Westlake: Pioneer San Francisco Rock Poster Printer,” for more on this. The book is handsomely produced, and the poems affixed to the pages inside deserving of the praise earlier afforded it; it is the work of a craftsman, which Bukowski, too recognized. Large-format softcover in stapled wrappers: the first (and only) printing of this deep-cut, Small Press production. In strong near fine condition with only modest-to-enunciated shelf-wear, bumping & slight crinkling (to uncut pages) at/to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge, slight crease-indentation to leftmost fine-edge at/near upper left-hand corner of front cover & similar, slight crease-indentation to rightmost fine-edge of back cover at center-middle; also at center middle seems to be an old-fashioned wine-ring (or at least the faint remnants of one); the perfect bohemian patina (and for a Bukowski-related relic, no less). Near Fine. [Item #5548]

Price: $30.00