Bukowski, Charles

Folded Card "To celebrate the opening of Maurice F. Neville Rare Books"

Santa Barbara, CA, USA: Black Sparrow Press, 1977. Limited First Edition. Folded Sheet. “Vallejo writing about / loneliness while starving to / death; / Van Gogh’s ear rejected by a / whore; / Rimbaud running off to Africa / to look for gold and finding / an incurable case of syphilis; / Beethoven gone deaf; / Pound dragged through the streets / in a cage; / Chatterton taking rat poison; / Hemingway’s brains dropping into / the orange juice; / Pascal cutting his wrists / in the bathtub; / Artaud locked up with the mad; / Dostoevsky stood up against a wall; / Crane jumping into a boat propeller; / Lorca shot in the road by Spanish / troops; / Berryman jumping off a bridge; / Burroughs shooting his wife; / Mailer knifing his. / –that’s what they want: / a God damned show / a lit billboard / in the middle of hell. / that’s what they want, / that bunch of / dull / inarticulate / safe / dreary / admirers of / carnivals.”--Charles Bukowski, “What They Want.” Maurice F. Neville was a lifelong collector of Modern Literature, especially the works of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), William Faulkner (1897-1962), and Charles Bukowski (1920-1994). In 1977, Neville opened Maurice F. Neville Rare Books in Santa Barbara, CA and specialized in Modern first editions, rare publications, and signed items. The book store, which ran for nearly twenty years, was a hub for collectors, writers, and fellow booksellers alike. Through the store and Neville’s love of literature and reputation of patronage of artists, Neville and his family built long running relationships with many writers, booksellers, and collectors over the years; as his son Morgan Neville (b. 1967), American Academy Award-winning filmmaker once said of the family’s relations in an interview: “Our house was always open to all folks of the book trade – my parents had an open door policy. I remember we had people from an auction house once stay for three months, as well as endless book dealers and many writers. It sounds pretentious to call it a salon, but there was an atmosphere of lots of interesting people passing through having late night conversations. I remember having breakfast one morning with Charles Bukowski at our kitchen table. He had been out drinking at a reading with my parents, and they had come back to our house and put him to bed in our guest room. He woke up in the middle of the night, and I guess by habit he would hide his keys in his wallet because he was used to getting rolled at the shadier places he had lived. So he went stumbling through the house into my parents’ bedroom around 5 AM and said, “My name is Charles Bukowski, just give me my keys and my wallet, and I’ll leave you.” My mom got up and said, “Chuck it’s okay! You can go back to sleep, it’s fine.” They all became friends and would go to the track together.” All of this is to say that, in its hayday, Maurice F. Neville Rare Books was a store of renown and is legendary in collector circles. Offered today is a unique rarity, What They Want, a poem by Charles Bukowski, handsomely printed as a pamphlet to celebrate the opening of Maurice F. Neville Rare Books. A finely printed 4 page pamphlet with a printing for the first time of Bukowski's poem, What They Want, which was reprinted a month later in the collection Love Is a Dog From Hell (1977, Debritto, A59, pg. 33). The poem is about collectors and admirers of writers and artists. Designed by Barbara Martin and printed by Graham Mackintosh, the small edition was created by publisher John Martin of the Black Sparrow Press and given to Maurice F. Neville intended as a gift edition to be presented to attendees of his now fabled rare book store. Written on the back in pencil at upper left corner reads: “8/8/88 Black Sparrow / 24 [indecipherable] st. / Santa Barbara, CA / MXD [?].” Folded pamphlet. Limited First edition of unknown limitation, 75 of which were signed by the author as stated at the back cover. In relatively very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges, light smudging/staining to front and back covers, and very minor age-toning to same. Very Fine. [Item #8462]

Price: $50.00