Bukowski, Charles

Broadside: "Night Work"

West Branch, IA: The Toothpaste Press for Bookslinger, 1981. Limited First Edition. Single Sheet. “my cat | leaped | into the fireplace | burning | as Van Gogh | slit | the rear screen | and entered | looking | for | the blue whore | of nowhere.” (night work) This postcard-sized poetry broadside features Charles Bukowski’s (1920-1994) “night work,” which is from Bukowski’s 1981 collection Dangling in the Tournefortia. “As a commission, I printed a broadside of a short poem by Charles Bukowski, using white ink on jet black paper, which I believe came from the Fabriano mill in Italy,” Toothpaste editor Allan Kornblum says in Abel Debritto’s most-comprehensive Bukowski bibliography A Catalog of Ordinary Madness. Toothpaste, which originated as a mimeograph magazine, evolved into a small press, and eventually led to Coffee House Press in Minneapolis. Colophon at recto does not give a run size, but Kornblum says in A Catalog he printed “about 500” copies to distribute at the American Booksellers Association to promote the Blake Sparrow Press release of Dangling. (Debritto, A72, p. 40) Single sheet (6 ½” x 4 ½”). Limited Edition as previously described. In Fine-Very Fine condition with faint rubbing & scratching to recto & verso; there is one tiny, visible bump at the top edge. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8460]

Price: $40.00