OPEN CITY No. 62, July 26–Aug. 1, 1968 — Bukowski on Neal Cassady, Cops Bust Open City, Pink Floyd, Newport Pop Festival, Richard Pryor

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 a firsthand account of Bukowski's encounter with Neal Cassady shortly before Cassady's death in Mexico in February 1968. Bukowski watches Cassady jogging and bouncing through the Open City office, eyes out on toothpicks, singing like a kooky bird, and follows Bryan and Cassady on a long night drive. The column turns on a near-miss car crash on Carlton Avenue — the hairline, the divining line — and closes with Bryan's phone call a few days later: "Neal's dead, Neal died." Bukowski's final meditation is of Cassady alone under a frozen Mexican moon.

The front cover leads with John Bryan's account of the July 17 police raid on the Open City offices — two vice cops walking in and arresting Bryan for obscenity over a photograph of the Asylum Choir musicians — in striking teal and black two-color, alongside John Bryan's editorial "The Anonymous Hypocrite" on law, police, and City Attorney Roger Arnebergh.

 Interior includes a Pink Floyd advertisement for their Shrine Exposition Hall appearance, July 26–27, and a feature on Richard Pryor at the Troubadour. The back page carries a full-page Newport Pop Festival advertisement for August 3–4 at the Orange County Fairgrounds, featuring Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, The Byrds, Country Joe and the Fish, Canned Heat, Electric Flag, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, and Blue Cheer. Full broadsheet format, 22.5" x 15.5", teal and black spot color on cover, black and white throughout interior.

Provenance: Mailing label on front cover addressed to John E. Bryan, 22420 Edgecliff Drive, Euclid, Ohio — the editor's father at his home address.

Small hole where the vertical and horizontal folds meet, small tear in same place on back cover. Uneven folds result in pages sticking out from the cover, leading to small tears on the page edges. Small tears on the left and right side of the horizontal fold. Color vibrant but white pages have light browning.