King, Linda (Bukowski, Charles; Bennett, John)

Sweet & Dirty

Ellensburg, WA: Vagabond Press, 1974. Second Edition. Stapled Wrappers. "can one tell about one's own madness/ churning out of the soul/ in screaming pieces/ ripping chunks of tangled slop/ stupid blunders stumbling/ one on top of the other.../ can one see one's own madness?" ("Tell Me," first stanza, pg. 14) An early collection of poems by Linda King (b. 1940), an American sculptor, playwright, poet & editor who was the girlfriend of Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)- the cult favorite poet-denizen of the dive bar & the racetrack- during 1970-75. Some of these poems directly refer to Buk, & we might say that they all share a sensibility with his life & work, as per the quote above. First published in 1972, this copy is from the second edition of 1974, as noted at copyright-dedication page, which states: "To/ Charles Bukowski/ my/ on again/ off again/ love again." Chapbook in stapled wrappers, a production of the Vagabond Press, edited & published by John Bennett (b. 1938), a great & prolific Beat-&-Beyond author & publisher whom this writer has collected & corresponded with. For many years I was the delighted recipient of Bennett's emails of "Shards," short, most-evocative & perceptive Gonzo-Haiku writings for lack of a better description. I haven't received John's Shards in quite a while, & it's my understanding that he has retired in the care of his sister. John, I hope you encounter this curation & that you are well & happy. There is no entry in Debritto for this collection (though if I may suggest, this & her other solo works should be somewhere in your Section F), but here are excerpts from a wonderful anecdote of Bennett's reminiscences from B230, pgs. 158-160 (a 1966 issue of the Vagabond journal with contributions by Buk): "Linda King sent me the manuscript for Sweet & Dirty. She didn't identify herself as Bukowski's current squeeze, and I had no idea who she was, but I decided to make Sweet & Dirty a Vagabond Press book. I got a really nasty letter from Bukowski, he thought I was trying to get into Linda's pants (turns out she was wild and beautiful), and what followed was a long silence in which Bukowski did what he's done to a number of writers, sometimes for good reason, sometimes because he feels threatened- he began bad-mouthing me, in print and in person...things settled down between us. I moved to Washington state, published a little more Bukowski, and he did those great sketches for Six Poets. In one of the last letters I got from him (his health was failing), he told me I'd fought a harder, cleaner fight than anyone he knew." (pg. 159) A very significant & rewarding King collectible, of particular interest to the Bukowski-related completist & Bennett-Vagabond devotee (like me), in its penultimately rarest near-contemporary form. See also our item No.s 7368, 7370, 7372, 7374, 7376, 7378, 7380, 7382, 7384. In relatively quite fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, browning, faint scratching & occasional creasing to front, back covers & stapled spine; a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of same; several very short, closed tears to spine-edge esp. from lower corner; mild-to-moderate rubbing, browning to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with mild-to-moderate browning to blank inner covers & page leaves (the latter chiefly at blank margins/edges); tiny bumps at corners, occasionally edges of leaves. Fine. [Item #7386]

Price: $40.00