Inscribed with Original Drawing by Charles Bukowski: Poems and Drawings (1962)

Published in 1962 by EPOS magazine, Poems and Drawings was billed as an “Extra” issue, but most consider it to be Charles Bukowski’s sixth book.

This copy belonged to Stanley Kurnick, who ran a poetry workshop at a local Unitarian Church. Frances Dean Smith, mother of Bukowski’s only child Marina, attended the workshops regularly -- to the annoyance of Bukowski. Kurnick would later be the hapless subject of the Bukowski poem “A Note Upon A Workshop Instructor With Tiny Hairs Under His Chin” – where he is identified as Ramsey instead of Stanley.

This copy of the book was most likely part of Kurnick’s personal belongings, which were found on an L.A. sidewalk in 1996 with a large collection of manuscripts, including 68 poems by Bukowski.

The inscription reads:

To Stanley Kurnick
Poems from a jail-bird,
Charles Bukowski

Interestingly, the inscription is in cursive, which was unusual for Bukowski who usually used block writing in all caps.

Beneath is a unique drawing of Bukowski’s Little Man behind bars.

This copy is in Very Good ++ condition with a heavy crease along the front spine and a lighter vertical crease down the middle of the back cover that impacts the pages in the book, but not the inscription page. There is some toning to the outside and inside of the covers, and small creases and bumps to the oversized covers. Interior pages are clean and quite bright and white.

EPOS: A Quarterly of Poetry was a journal edited by Evelyn Thorne and Will Tullos out of Cresent City, Florida. The first issue appeared in Fall 1949 and was published until the 1970s. Bukowski would appear in 12 issues of EPOS between 1959 and 1970.

While Bukowski respected the editors for publishing consistently on time compared to other small presses, he didn’t care for the poems they published. The poems in the early issues of EPOS have a slightly different style, with Bukowski attempting to fit in to get published.

In addition to the ink drawing, there are also three printed drawings, two of which are also quite different in style from other Bukowski drawings. They have an almost antiquity feel in their composition.

The works in Poems and Drawings include: