OPEN CITY No. 82, Dec. 13–19, 1968 — Bukowski at the Races, Poets Fight Back Benefit, Ad for The Doors at the LA Forum, Mothers of Invention, Creedence Clearwater Revival

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 follows Jack Fandley through a long day at the track: picking horses, reading the dead dog in the program, working the crowd psychology. A giant named Candy appears at the window. A grey-haired woman slides in beside him under the blankets. Cecelia takes the lead through the backstretch. The column closes with Jack going to sleep and the morning line dropping again.

A half-page advertisement with photo documents the New York "Poets Fight Back" benefit — held at Washington Square Methodist Church on November 29 to support Open City's obscenity fight and Jack Micheline's Skinny Dynamite. Bukowski was the guest editor who published Skinny Dynamite but declined to participate in the benefit reading. Those that did include Ed Saunders, Taylor Mead, Diane Wakowski, Tuli Kupferberg, Ray Bremser, Jack Micheline, Jerome Rothenberg, Ted Joans, and others.

The front cover leads with Robert Igriega's investigation into the use of Mace on Loyola University students at an Open City meeting, in striking orange and black two-color, alongside Paul Krassner's "Ten Advantages of Violence" and a news item on Allen Ginsberg's crash injury. Interior includes record reviews of Dillard and Clark, Frank Zappa's Ruben and the Jets. Back cover features a one-night-only Doors advertisement for the Forum with Sweetwater and Jerry Lee Lewis. Full broadsheet format, 22.5" x 15.5", orange 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.

Slightly uneven fold leading to some of the top and bottom pages sticking out a bit, but minimal tears to the page edges. A small tear to the top of the vertical fold and a small hole on the front cover where the vertical and horizontal folds meet (doesn’t impact back cover). Some browning along the edges, but paper is white and color is intact.