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The complete run of the important literary journal that published some of the most influential midcentury American writers, with Issue #3 inscribed by Charles Bukowski to Los Angeles poet Jack Grapes (whose poems appear in the joint Issue 4 & 5). Five volumes in four, as issued. Three softcover volumes (Issues 1-3) and one hardcover volume (the joint Issues 4 & 5), all printed letterpress by Jon and Louise Webb at their Loujon Press (first in New Orleans and then in Tucson, Arizona). Softcover volumes a bit creased and worn, with pages toned due to paper quality, and one leaf loose in Issue 3 (laid in at original position). Hardcover volume bright and fine throughout aside from one foxed leaf. With the original printed dustjacket on the hardcover volume. Ink ownership signatures of Jack Grapes ("Marcus J. Grapes") to title-pages of softcover volumes. A Very Good+ set overall, with one issue inscribed "Hello Jack Grapes - Charles Bukowski" with a classic Bukowski doodle. The Loujon Press, founded in 1960, launched Charles Bukowski's career and brought together countless other writers and artists. These five issues feature the work of writers including Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Denise Levertov, Kenneth Patchen, Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Robert Creely, Robert Bly, and many, many other figures who built and shaped the landscape of mid-twentieth century literature. The press, its artistry, and its impact were covered in a documentary, The Outsiders of New Orleans: Loujon Press, in 2007. Fifteen of Jack Grapes' poems appear in an eight-page "album" in the joint Issue 4 & 5. Grapes is a Los Angeles poet, publisher, and former editor of the poetry journal ONTHEBUS (1989-2017). Bukowski corresponded with Grapes and inscribed several books to him throughout the 1960s. In the spring of 1965, Grapes, then a young poet with a burgeoning career, wrote to Bukowski to share his chapbook This Thing Upon Me (titled from the first line of Bukowski's poem "Old Man, Dead in a Room") and to ask for advice from the more experienced writer. In Bukowski's response, he praised Grapes' poetry chapbook ("the first 4 lines of poem 10 are as good as anybody can write") and added, "Well if you want advice from an old man - the writing comes out of the living and if you've got to sell-out to stay alive, sell as little as possible, save what you can. it's when you give it all up to them that you are dead. don't be in a hurry to make it. it's more important to sit around in the sunlight or sleep. it will come along if you let it.I am honored, of course, that you 'stole' the title THIS THING UPON ME, and hope that you find some poems in CRUCIFIX. I have signed some pages, one of them to you, must get them in the mail so the people can get their books. It seems so strange to be signing pages. is this the way it happens? your turn now. hail, Buk".
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