Open City May 3, 1968 – The Weird World of Charles Bukowski

The May 31,1968 issue of Open City featured a fairly incoherent piece by Charles Bukowski. For some reason, it was not titled “Notes of a Dirty Old Man,” but rather “The Weird World of Charles Bukowski”.

This is one of the large format versions of Open City, measuring 16” x 23”. This copy is in Very Good + condition with an approximately 2” tear on the right side of the fold.

Charles Bukowski appeared in at least 40 issues of Open City, a free weekly published by the legendary John Bryan. Bukowski would also be at least partially responsible for the paper’s demise. As a contributing editor of the paper’s arts section, Bukowski published Jack Micheline's Skinny Dynamite in one issue, prompting the paper to be charged with obscenity. The resulting legal costs would subsequently shut the paper down.

Bukowski’s columns in Open City would be the basis for the Bukowski book, “Notes of a Dirty Old Man”, published by Essex House in 1967 and City Lights Books in 1973.