The Outsider 2: Inscribed by Jon Edgar Webb with Custom Box

Published in 1962 by LouJon Press, this copy of The Outsider 2 is inscribed by publisher Jon Edgar Webb on the front tissue sheet. It also comes with a customer-build box.

This issue featured two first appearance Charles Bukowski poems:

• Sick Leave
• To A Lady Who Believes Me Dead

Surprisingly, neither poem would ever be published by Black Sparrow Press.

It would take 45 years for Sick Leave to be published again when it appeared in The People Look Like Flowers At Last (2007).

Bukowski also submitted the Sick Leave to South And West magazine, where it also appeared in 1962. Bukowski also selected it for his book Cold Dogs in the Courtyard, published in 1965.

Other contributors in this issue include William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, Gregory Corso, Jean Genet and many others. Black and white photographs of New Orleans musicians and illustrations by Kenneth Patchen

This copy is in Near Fine-minus condition. The front tissue page with the inscription has torn at the staples, but remains very secure with the binding. There is a crease on the upper right cover that impacts the first half of the pages. There are small folds and nicks to the oversized covers. Inside the pages are surprising white with very little yellowing.

An important publication not only for Bukowski collectors, but for the small press, New Orleans and literary history as a whole.

John Edgar Webb and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb were the founders of LouJon Press.  They published four issues of The Outsider magazine, which became the standard for poetry journals at the time. No other publication attracted nearly the talent that appeared in its pages and the production value of the magazine itself was unrivaled. Bukowski appeared in all four issues, with a large collection of poems in Outsider 1 (1961) and as the named “Outside of the Year” in Outsider 3 (1963), featuring Bukowski on the cover and a large center section.

The Webbs were also responsible for transforming Bukowski into an established writer, even if fame wouldn’t occur until years later. They published Bukowski’s first true books, “It Catches My Heart In Its Hands” (1963) and “Crucifix in a Deathhand” (1965). These books are true works of art in and of themselves. The detail, the printing methods, the craftsmanship, and the pure insanity it took to undertake these endeavors was as unparalleled then and as it is today.

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