Various (Blazek, Douglas (Editor); Bukowski, Charles; Congdon, Kirby; Wantling, William et al.)

Olé No. 3 (November 1965)

Bensenville, IL: Doug Blazek (Open Skull Press), 1965. First Printing. Stapled Wrappers. "horsefeet down the window's way | is it real? where am I? hell, | drunk again? curtains like the | sadness of a Garbo film | or people climbing into lifeboats | in a shitty swine-like | effectual sea. old songs like | bats in the dark | kissing my nose. | the characters in Camus and | Genet (I guess a lot get into Genet) | are almost right -- they hardly | try." (opening stanza, Drunk Again and Wondering, Wondering...., Charles Bukowski). Olé magazine, edited by Polish-American poet & Mimeo Revolution founder Doug Blazek (b. 1941), ran eight issues in 1964–67. Blazek was a factory worker in the Chicago area when he started Olé, running it off a mimeograph machine out of Bensenville, Illinois. Olé deliberately published raw, gutsy, working-class verse with Blazek often being credited for promoting what got called "meat poetry," a reaction against the polished academic style of the period. Each issue was mimeographed in a limited run of about 400 numbered copies. It is generally treated as the cornerstone title of the Mimeo Revolution and was the first mimeographed magazine to achieve genuine national circulation. German-American poet Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) appeared in all eight issues; the Blazek–Bukowski correspondence of these years is an important literary thread, as Blazek later edited A Bukowski Sampler in 1983. Olé 3 features Bukowski's Drunk Again and Wondering, Wondering.... (Debritto, B204, pg. 154), a largely unknown, uncollected entry from the derelict deity. Olé 3 also features poems from Beat Generation adjacent poet Kirby Congdon (1924-2023), Poet and Audience; American poet & ex-convict William Wantling (1933-1974), The Flower and an untitled entry; plus many more. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England for founder Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), J.G. Ballard (1930-2009) et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our Item No.s 8217 & 8366). After prevailing against censorious harassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining gems of Unicorn & Public House, including this small-press bedrock. Chapbook-Format Journal in Stapled Wrappers: first-&-only printing. A most collectible Mimeo Revolution magazine in its rarest contemporary form, with relevant association & very distinguished provenance. In relatively fine-to-very fine condition with mild-verging-on moderate age-toning & spot-staining mostly to fine edges of front, back covers & spine; an occasion of mild smudging & creasing to bottom corner of back cover; mild age-toning & rubbing to text block. Interior fine-to-very fine with mild age-toning mostly to blank margins & fine edges of page leaves. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #9372]

Price: $100.00 save 10% $90.00