Charles Bukowski and LouJon Press

Before Black Sparrow, there was LouJon.

Jon Edgar Webb and his wife Louise — known in the French Quarter as "Gypsy Lou" — ran LouJon Press out of New Orleans with a hand-operated letterpress and an uncompromising vision for what a literary publication could be. They published four issues of The Outsider magazine between 1961 and 1969, attracting a level of talent and achieving a standard of production that no other poetry journal of the era could match.

Bukowski appeared in all four issues. In Outsider 3 (1963), he was named Outsider of the Year — his face on the cover, a large center section devoted to his work. It was one of the first times the literary world took serious notice.

LouJon also published Bukowski's first two true books: It Catches My Heart in Its Hands (1963) and Crucifix in a Deathhand (1965). Standard copies of both titles turn up regularly on the market. The ones here are different — each has something special, such as a full page original drawing or an aphorism added by Bukowski himself. That's not something you find anywhere else.

This collection also includes letters, magazine appearances, and paintings by Gypsy Lou Webb — a complete picture of one of the most important small presses in American literary history.

Browse everything below — and read the descriptions. Each one has a story.