Open City — Charles Bukowski's Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Before most people had heard of Charles Bukowski, Open City had already made him.

Published out of Los Angeles by John Bryan between 1967 and 1969, Open City was a weekly underground tabloid that gave Bukowski something the poetry magazines never could — a mass audience, a regular paycheck, and complete creative freedom. His column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" ran in close to 90 issues, reaching readers who would never have picked up a poetry magazine. It's fair to say this was the moment Bukowski was finally discovered.

He could write whatever he wanted. It would be published days later. And he got $10 a column.

The column would eventually become one of his most enduring books — first published by Essex House in 1969, then by City Lights, where it remains in print today. But the original source material appeared here first, in these pages, in a tabloid newspaper that few people knew existed and even fewer preserved.

These copies belonged to John Bryan Sr. — the editor's father, himself a newspaper man — mailed to him directly as they were published. They are among the few surviving copies of a paper that was never meant to last.

Want to know more? Read our article: 55 Years On, Charles Bukowski's 'Notes of a Dirty Old Man' Ages Well.

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