BUKOWSKI, Charles.. Epos. A Quarterly of Poetry.. Crescent City, Florida: EPOS, 1962, 1962.

Price: US$4844.09 + shipping

Description: First edition, one of 500 copies, this copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To John William Corrington, More poems. We go on until we stop - one way or the other. Charles Bukowski". The recipient was an American writer, lawyer, and intimate friend of Bukowski. Corrington was an English instructor at Louisiana State University when he first wrote to Bukowski in 1960. Bukowski was twelve years his senior, and neither poet had yet achieved any great success. Their work had been published in small magazines and literary journals, but they were far from established. "Corrington was not shy about expressing his admiration for Bukowski's poetry and viewed Bukowski as an ally in the great battle against the academic poets of their day. Bukowski, who had little formal education, and didn't care much for those who did, was easily enough won over by Corrington's tough jazzy talk (Southern style) and his persistent, often expressed belief in the importance of Bukowski's poetry" (Elkins, p. 562). Corrington published the first critical writings about Bukowski and his poetry: "Charles Bukowski and the Savage Surfaces" in the Northwest Review (1963); and "Charles Bukowski: Three Poems", The Outsider (1963). He also wrote the introduction to Bukowski's It Catches My Heart In Its Hands (1963). Bukowski dedicated Run With The Hunted (1962) to Corrington, and provided an introduction to Mr Clean and Other Poems (1964). Theirs was a "high-spirited, intense friendship between two struggling poets, who would both go on to make their reputation as writers" (ibid.). This is Bukowski's fourth volume of poems, an "extra issue" of the quarterly Epos, dedicated solely to his poems and drawings. James R. Elkins, ed., The John William Corrington & Charles Bukowski Correspondence: On Poetry and Writing, Legal Studies Forum, vol. 27, 2002. Octavo. Original yellow wrappers, spine lettered in black, front wrapper lettered in black and green with two green rules. With frontispiece and two illustrations by Bukowski. Edges lightly creased and rubbed with a few nicks at head, faint mark on front wrapper: near-fine.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom