This is a beautiful little chapbook produced by the Synaesthesia Press in 1995.
This is a “Special Copy” that is hand-numbered #7/11 and contains the first appearance of Bukowski’s short story “House of Horrors” as a tipped-in photocopy of the manuscript. The short story would later appear in the March 2010 issue of Playboy and the book Absence of the Hero (2010).
This copy also comes with a hand-written letter from publisher Jim Camp to the legendary Jeffrey Weinberg of Water Row books, delivering this copy and 25 regular copies of the chapbook for distribution on the East Coast. Camp talks about upcoming issues, including one with an unpublished poem that John Martin exchanged for ceasing publication of the chapbook.
Camp makes it a point in the chapbook to note that “all work used without anyone’s permission.”
As you would expect, John Martin did not take kindly to this. In a April 2006 posting on the Bukowski Forum, Camp shared his story:
In 1995 I published a chapbook called 4 Poets…
243 copies were printed. I gave about 2 dozen away, sold maybe a dozen more (at $3 a pop) before John Martin purchased the rest. He also sent me a nice letter asking not to do it again.
All work, except Bukowski's, was authorized...in a sense.
Ferlinghetti handed me a poem at a reading in Fort Worth, Texas, in '93 (maybe '94) to use at my discretion; Denis Johnson gave Steve Fisher a poem to use at his discretion; Steve Fisher gave me a poem while he was alive to make a broadside…
All poems laid in a drawer until I discovered Steve had taken his life.
Without anyone's permission, I made the chapbook. I was teaching high school at the time, and used the xerox machine in the multimedia room during my breaks to print the book. I collated and stapled them at home after work.
I used different card stocks as mock-ups to see what I liked best...resulting in a handful of covers that, while kinda cool, didn't make the final cut; instead, I went with the mint green paper stock for the final edition of 243.
Since I had these odd color mock-ups, I made a special edition of 11, tipped in an essay called "The House of Horrors"...11 was the exact number of mock-up covers I had, so 11 was the number of my special edition. I made copies of the manuscript essay, and stapled them into the covers. I gave these all away. I think Martin paid me for the final 3 I had...or I gave them to him...
This is something I'd never do again, and highly advise any publisher against, but when you're a young publisher, and excited about making a book, well...you do stupid things.
The covers (back and front) feature a drawing by Charles Bukowski and there are four more previously unpublished drawings inside.
There is also a previously published essay written by Bukowski in 1964 entitled "A Depressive State of Affairs for Kings, Witches, and Elevator Boys." In it, Bukowski expresses his disgust for the university professors and schools of poetry that are supported by the establishment.
In Fine condition, this is a rare item with great Bukowski drawings.
Box 11
