It Catches My Heart in Its Hands: Signed by Bukowski with Quotation On Rare White Paper Stock

It Catches My Heart in Its Hands was produced by LouJon Press by Jon and Louise Web, founders of LouJon Press. It was printed on an old sheet-fed press and bound in their tiny apartment in New Orleans in 1963. Unlike the Bukowski chapbooks that came before, this was a true book and an incredible book at that. 
This incredibly beautiful book is every bit a piece of art as the poetry itself. It was hand-printed on thick paper stock of various colors, dispersed with tissues and hand-bound with a cork-lined cover. The detail, the printing methods, the craftsmanship, and the pure insanity it took to create the book was as unparalleled then and as it is today
What actually makes this copy rare is the white, heavy stock page on which Bukowski has added a quotation. This page is absent in most copies of the book. Bukowski’s signature and date usually appears on the first blank page, which is purple.

Why Jon Webb stopped sending Bukowski the white pages for signing is unknown. Perhaps he couldn’t afford the white paper stock for all copies and started sending him the purple pages to sign.

On the white page on this copy, Bukowski has written:
SOME MEN BELIEVE THAT
SINCE GENIOUS OFTEN GOES
UNDISCOVERED UNTIL DEATH
THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE
GENIOUS, BUT THEY ONLY
HAVE
            DEATH.
Charles Bukowski
4-7-63

This copy is in very fine condition. It has the orange tint over the cork boards, but other colors were used on these copies as well. The wrap-around jacket underneath the cork is on yellow paper (some are white). 

This copy also comes with the uncommon letterpress sheet that is a facsimile of the  letter he sent to the Webbs upon receiving the first copy of the book on November 23, 1963. The sheet measures 10.5” x 8” and is folded once, with the deckled edge sticking out above the portion of the sheet paper below it. The other three pages are blank.

The letterpress sheet is in Fine condition.

In addition to publishing two Bukowski books, Jon and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb published four issues of The Outsider magazine, which became the standard for poetry journals at the time. No other publication attracted nearly the talent that appeared in its pages and the production value of the magazine itself was unrivaled. Bukowski appeared in all four issues, with a large collection of poems in Outsider 1 (1961) and as the named “Outside of the Year” in Outsider 3 (1963), featuring Bukowski on the cover and a large center section.

File Box 3 and Case 5