Screams From the Balcony. Selected Letters 1960-1970.

Bukowski, Charles.

ISBN 10: 0876859163 / ISBN 13: 9780876859162

Published by Black Sparrow, 1993

About this Item

A Fine copy in a Fine mylar dust jacket. 1/326 copies Signed by Bukowski with a Bukowski seriagraph print. This collection of letters chronicles Bukowski's life from his first days as a poet having meager success through his resignation from his postal job to pursue writing as his sole source of income. In between, the letters reveal in raw and uncensored fashion how a hard-drinking, hard-living man followed his own vision of poetic truth and artistic integrity. Earlier letters are written to the few editors, poets and admirers who had become aware of Bukowski's wild poetry. In them, we see the 40-year-old author struggling to make ends meet through an alcoholic stupor of which he is neither ashamed nor apologetic. We read of his thrill as his first book appears-- directly in the aftermath of the assassination of JFK. Even as his fame grows and his friends are convinced that he has made it, Bukowski remains in ill health and financial insecurity. The honesty, humor and lack of pretension in these letters make them a must for Bukowski fans and an engaging read for anyone interested in literary lives. Reproductions of letters and an afterword by Cooney round out the volume nicely. Seller Inventory # 22605

Bibliographic Details

Title: Screams From the Balcony. Selected Letters ...

Publisher: Black Sparrow

Publication Date: 1993

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Edition: Limited Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

In letters from the 1960s, the poet recounts his efforts to succeed as a writer, his inability to quit his day job, and his battles with manic depression and other illnesses

From the Publisher:

This first volume of letters shows America's most celebrated literary "outsider" to be a consummate master of the epistolary form. As a letter writer, Bukowski is as lyrical and immediate as in his poetry, as hard-edged and truthful as in his "fictional" prose.