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Hollywood: First Edition Inscribed by Charles Bukowski with “Hank”

Hollywood: First Edition Inscribed by Charles Bukowski with “Hank”

Regular price $450.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $450.00 USD
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This is a First Trade Edition Hardcover copy of Charles Bukowski’s novel, Hollywood.

It was published by Black Sparrow Press in 1989 and is about the making of the film, Barfly.

This copy came from estate of Red Stodolsky, owner Baroque Book Store and a close friend of Charles Bukowski. Bukowski would go by Red’s shop regularly and the two would go to lunch at Musso & Frank Grill. But first Bukowski would sit and sign a pile of books for Red to sell. The great thing about these copies is that Bukowski actually held the books as he signed them. With the limited-edition Black Sparrow Books, Bukowski would sign individual pages that were later inserted into the books.

This copy is Inscribed to “Arnie and Cindy”. Arnie was Red's son and Cindy was his daughter-in-law.

In addition to his name, Bukowski signed this one “Hank”, a salutation Bukowski only used for close friends. He has added the words, “Now I know why movies are so bad”.

This copy is in Near Fine condition with some spotting on the top of the page edges.

Also comes with a  4” x 6” Banes & Noble card printed on textured paper promoting its long-ago Prints & Posters Gallery sub-brand.

Hollywood is a “fictional” novel about the creation of the film Barfly, which came out two years before Hollywood was published. I say fictional in quotes because so much of the novel does document the creation of the film and even the characters are easily identifiable. For example:

Frances Ford Lopalla = Frances Ford Copolla
Firepower Productions = Cannon Films
Francine Bowers = Faye Dunaway
Jack Bledsoe = Mickes Rourke
Rick Talbot = Roger Ebert

The novel follows Barfly director Barbet Schroeder (Jon Pinchot in the novel) as he moves to Los Angeles, buys a giant old America car, moves into a seedy neighborhood, and is frequenting the home of Bukowski and wife Linda Lee almost daily. This part of the story climaxes with Schroeder threatening to cut off his hand with an electric saw in an executive suite of Cannon Films Firepower Productions if the studio doesn’t pick up the film.


File Box 4 and Case 5
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