The November 1970 issue of Knight Magazine featured Registered Letter, a chapter from Post Office, three months prior to Bukowski’s first novel being published.
The text is primarily Chapter 14 from the novel, but there is also an intro of sorts and a short scene with his girlfriend that did not appear in the novel.
More importantly, this is an unedited chapter from the book. This is the way Bukowski wrote it and intended for it to be read. It’s unclear why some of the edits were made in the first place. For example, Bukowski named his female character Betty Fairstar in the original typescript, but it was changed to Betty Williams in the novel.
This short quote from a Bukowski letter to Carl Weissner from July 11, 1970, explains the situation Bukowski was in:
By the way, I have sold 3 or 4 chapters from the novel to the dirty mags, one of them out the other day; already paid for the others. That’s before I mailed the typescript to Martin, which is like sending one of your children to the fucking tombs. Anyhow, I typed the stories right out of the typescript and I didn’t hear any complaints about dangling participles…
This issue also includes a very cool eight-page photo spread on George Lucas and the making of THX 1138.
Illustrations for this story were done by John Asaro, who studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and the Art Students League in New York. He worked as an illustrator in Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City from 1960 to 1973. He returned to Art Center College of Design as in instructor of painting until 1981, when decided to devote himself to his own fine art.
This copy is in Near Fine-minus condition with a barely visible crease on the front cover, some light creases along the spine, and a $1.00 price stamped on the cover.
Bukowski would appear in four issues of Knight between 1970-1972. Knight was published by Holloway House out Los Angeles. Founded in 1959, Holloway also published Adam magazine as well as biographies about Jayne Mansfield and Ernest Hemingway. After the Watts riots in 1965, the company began to focus on black writers aimed at a black working-class market, a niche filled by no other publisher. Their authors included Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), Joseph Nazel, Leo Guild, Roosevelt Mallory, Odie Hawkins and Donald Goines.
Box 22
