OPEN CITY No. 44, Mar. 1–7, 1968 — Bukowski Notes, Ralph Gleason, Liza Williams

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 is structured entirely as a Kafkaesque dialogue between Bukowski — addressed throughout as "Stirkoff" — and a nameless interrogating authority who calls himself the Winner and speaks with the smooth cadence of total power. The Winner asks Stirkoff about justice, joy, survival, his vicious father, the best piece of ass he ever had, the definition of a brave man and a fool, whether he plays with himself, whether he can build a bridge or make a gun. Bukowski answers with flat deflection — of course, sir; only one; many times, sir — eating raw eggs and a pound of hamburger in a thin-necked flower bowl while listening to Vaughn Williams or Darius Milhaud. The Winner declares that bridges and guns are the products of knowledge, that Time, Structure, and Flesh are being mostly wasted, that there are no wise men and no fools and if there isn't any white there can't be any Black. He threatens beheading, torture, screaming. Bukowski doubts it, sir. The Winner orders the guard to take this man to the torture chambers immediately. Bukowski makes one last request — may he take his flower bowl — the king leans forward, grimly, Vaughn Williams comes over the intercom, and outside the world moves forward as a lice-smitten dog pisses against a beautiful lemon tree vibrating in the sun.

The front cover features a bold caricature of a traffic court judge alongside coverage of jazz critic Ralph Gleason's warnings of a second American civil war and a report on government repression of the counterculture. The back cover carries Liza Williams' "In the City" column recounting a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, with photographs by Robert Gold. 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 excellent condition with an even fold, white pages and a bit of browning to the edges. Someone has corrected the mailing address in pen.