OLE and Doug Blazek — The Friendship That Brought Bukowski Back to Prose

Between 1964 and 1968, Doug Blazek and Charles Bukowski exchanged hundreds of letters. They were fellow poets, fellow outsiders, and genuine friends — until they met in person, after which, like several of Bukowski's literary friendships, the correspondence abruptly ended.

While it lasted, it was extraordinarily productive. Blazek published Bukowski in all eight issues of OLE between 1964 and 1967. More significantly, he published the chapbooks that marked Bukowski's return to prose — Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts and All the Assholes in the World and Mine. He also published A Bukowski Sampler, collecting 46 early poems and an excerpt from an unpublished novel.

When Blazek published his own chapbook Skull Juices in 1970, Bukowski wrote an eight-page introduction — one of the most compelling pieces he ever wrote about another writer's work.

This collection brings together all eight issues of OLE, including rare hand-colored variants, along with the chapbooks Blazek published and the items that document one of the most significant literary friendships of Bukowski's early career.

Other significant poets and writers who appeared in OLE include James Baldwin, William S. Burroughs, Anaïs Nin, William Carlos Williams, Harold Norse, Al Purdy, William Wantling, Charles Plymell, Steve Richmond and d.a. levy.

Many significant poets appeared alongside Bukowski in poetry journals in the 1960s-1970s, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of magazines.