Original Typescript From 1960: My Yellow Dog and I by Charles Bukowski

This is a very early typescript of Charles Bukowski poem that should probably be in a university archive. Titled, My Yellow Dog and I, the poem has never been published.

In his book, “Every Piece of the Puzzle,” Bukowski scholar Abel Debritto documented this poem as written in 1960. Although it is not dated, the address on the poem is 1623 N. Mariposa Ave. in Los Angeles. Bukowski moved to this address after his divorce from his first wife Barbara Frye in 1958. During his time there he slept on a Murphy bed that folded up into a wall and wrote on a small metal typewriter table. He would stay there until May 1964 when his girlfriend Frances Smith became pregnant and the two moved to his famous DeLongpre Ave. address.

It's important to note that Bukowski didn’t sign his submissions at this point, nor did he make carbons of these poems. He referenced this method of submission in a letter published in the March 1960 issue of TRACE magazine.

“Anyone can be an editor, but not everyone should be. The least these fly-by-nighters could do is return submissions You list them in TRACE, and we send – many of us not egotistical enough to keep carbons. How cold can a man or woman be, simply to wastebasket poetry sent in good faith, with return postage and envelope? And it is not an ordinary occurrence, it is a continuous one.”

Because he was such a prolific writer, Bukowski was probably not exaggerating when he later claimed that hundreds of his poems were lost forever during those years.

Fortunately, My Yellow Dog and I was not lost, although it probably went missing for decades. I received the manuscript from a gentleman who claimed he purchased a large box (contents unknown) during the liquidation of a bookstore in Miami many years ago. That’s all I know about the history of the manuscript.

In reading the poem, you realize Bukowski has not yet found the voice that would (very soon) define his style – although there are certainly glimpses of it. Because of the manuscript’s origin in Florida, it’s also quite possible that it was submitted to EPOS magazine, which was published out of Cresent City, Florida. Bukowski began being published by EPOS in 1959 and (desperate to be published anywhere) tended to take a more classical approach to the poems he submitted so they fit in better with the style of the magazine.

Regardless, this is a very early manuscript of which there were no carbons, making this the only original copy of the poem in existence.

The manuscript is in excellent condition with some light wrinkles and two folds for mailing.

It comes in a beautiful custom box created by Gibbs Bookbinding of Los Angeles.

Crate 4