Oct 10, 2019 - Sale 2519

Sale 2519 - Lot 217

Price Realized: $ 4,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
BUKOWSKI, CHARLES. Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail. 8vo, publisher's wrappers printed in red and black, saddle-stitched, staples with no oxidation, trace of wear to top corners. (Eureka, CA): Hearse Press, [1960]

Additional Details

first edition of bukowski's first book, with a lengthy inscription by him: "Dear Reader - E.V. Griffith brought out this first collection of my poetry. As a first collection, long out of print, it might bring you $ or you might hide it under your shirt. It brought me stumbling into the poetry world after a solid 10 year drunk + hospitalization and near death. I have continued to drink and write, and, as you know, I will die. Charles Bukowski." Beneath his inscription, Bukowski has drawn a small self-portrait, and has added a drawing of a potted flower in yellow paint beneath his name on the title page. A superb copy of the author's first book, produced after numerous delays by early advocate and Hearse Press publisher E.V. Griffith. The lengthy, early, and humorous inscription written not quite as late as the 1970's (when Bukowski produced a small "Author's Edition" out of leftover copies), but likely around the time his literary reputation had just begun to take off. Krumhansl 3; Dorbin A1.