OPEN CITY No. 42, Feb. 16–22, 1968 — Bukowski Notes, Neal Cassady Obituary, Judy Collins, Venice Police Riots

An issue of the Los Angeles underground weekly in the full broadsheet format, featuring Charles Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." The column opens on a New Orleans sidewalk where Bukowski watches a drunk Frenchman and a drunk Italian locked in a slow, absurd loop of friendship and violence — the Italian knocking the Frenchman's head against the wall, the Frenchman insisting he is his friend, the whole car eventually joggled into the street before the Italian slices the Frenchman's hands on the door. Bukowski moves on to a cab company job working the gas pump and register under a man named Sanderson, who keeps him around to protect the money and shows him where the gun is. The real action is a nearby whorehouse run out of a soft-drink stand, presided over by a quiet electric woman named Elsie in a little girl's dress, who one night brings 3 or 4 young colored girls into the place — all beautiful, all laughing, buying drinks and talking — and Bukowski sits confused and happy among them for two nights running until the Italian cabby Pinelli stalks in, lifts the lid off the soft drink container, and declares the drinks are for taxi drivers only. Bukowski leaves Elsie staring down at that, walks out to pump gas, and the column closes with him reflecting on the strange power the two of them had — they could kill a man or save him — and that nothing was ever promised.

The front cover leads with dramatic photographs of armed riot police confronting Venice Beach residents. Interior includes a full-page obituary for Neal Cassady — the real-life inspiration for Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's On the Road and driver of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters bus — written by editor John Bryan. Also featured is an in-depth report on LA's all-black outlaw motorcycle club, the Black Choppers. The back cover features Liza Williams' column on Judy Collins with photograph. Large tabloid format, 17" x 11", black and white throughout.

Provenance: Mailing label on front cover addressed to John Bryan Sr., father of Open City editor John Bryan, and a newspaper man himself.

This copy is in great shape with an even fold and very white pages. There are some small tears and folds to the top and bottom pages. Someone wrote Love! Love! Love! at the top of the masthead in blue ink. Some light browning on the edges.