Beerspit Night and Cursing (48 page)

my album in Outsider #1
: eleven poems were published as “A Charles Bukowski Album” in the first issue of the
Outsider
(pp. 48-53).

Satis
: “A 350 Dollar Horse and a Hundred Dollar Whore” and “What Seems to Be the Trouble, Gentlemen?” were published in the Spring-Summer 1962 issue.

Lawrence…Ship of Death
: written a few months before Lawrence died in 1930.

The Priest and the Matador
: published in the Winter 1961 issue of
Epos
; rpt. in
BW
(41).

Agenda…Shot-toe
: Cocteau’s “Leoun”; see note to CB’s letter of 3 January 1961.

my own book
: never published, whatever it was.

Cookson
: William Cookson, editor of
Agenda
and a Pound scholar.

Mancho
: i.e., Manchu. SM apparently added Chinese ideograms (probably from Pound’s
Cantos
) to some of her letters.

Outsider…jazz thing
: a survey of jazz by several writers appeared in issues 2 and 3 of the
Outsider
.

Cuscaden
: R. R. Cuscaden, publisher and critic.

Satis
: two of CB’s poems appeared in the Spring—Summer 1962 issue, along with Cuscaden’s critical essay “Charles Bukowski: Poet in a Ruined Landscape.”

Remains
: published in
Outcry
in 1963, rpt. in
DRA
(65).

review
: unidentified; Dorbin lists three reviews of CB’s work for 1962—in
Rongwrong, Outcry
, and
Gallows
—but I doubt any of these could be described as a “liberal N. York rag.”

Mead and Rutherford
: editors of
Satis
.

cummings…Jeffers
: all of these writers died between July 1961 and September 1962.

“
dog howl
”: source unknown.

Wormwood Review 7
: includes CB’s poem “Thank God for Alleys,” rpt. in
RM
(206).

Outsider
3: three of CB’s poems appeared in #3 (Spring 1963), along with a reprint of Cuscaden’s essay from
Satis
: see CB’s letter of 28 January 1963 below.

3 submissions
: never published;
A & P
had ceased regular publication by this time.

a novel
: CB would write his first novel,
Post Office
, seven years later.

a book of my poems: It Catches My Heart in Its Hands
, published in October 1963.

Frost is dead
: died 29 January 1963.

Cosmic warheads have moved off
: a reference to the Cuban missile crisis.

Sacramento woman
: the poet Ann Menebroker.

book: It Catches My Heart in Its Hands
—a lavishly designed production. It had an introduction by Corrington, which SM criticizes in her next letter.

Ollie
: proprietor of a tavern near SM’s cabin; Gilbert thinks her name may have been Olivia Fort.

Hunter Ingalls
: (1934-), poet and later a professor of art history.

Princess Ra Set
: a goddess mentioned often in the
Rock-Drill
Cantos (91/631-33, 92/638, 94/661), a conflation of two male Egyptian gods into a female divinity. SM identified with Princess Ra-Set and created both a ceramic and a painting with that title (see note to her letter of 8 February 1961 above).

missing line
: in “Dinner, Rain & Transport,” a line (“I can prophecy evil”) was dropped between lines 9-10.

targets 15
: six poems by CB appear on pp. 4-20 of
Targets
#15 (September 1963).

old address
: CB had moved from North Mariposa to De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood.

an exhibit
: a generous selection of SM’s work was exhibited in September 1964 at the Severence Center in Cleveland, her only one-woman show.

new collection:
Crucifix in a Deathhand
, published in April 1965.

New York Times (Rexroth)
: Kenneth Rexroth reviewed CB’s book (along with those by three others) in the 5 July 1964 issue of the
New York Times
.

Kali Yuga
: the fourth and most decadent of the four ages (yugas) of the Hindu world cycle.

H. D.…words conceal?
”: from part 8 of “The Walls Do Not Fall.”

Wax Wrath…chats
: Rexroth had a regular books program on KPFA, the Berkeley-Pacifica station, which SM undoubtedly listened to.

Behan
: Brendan Behan (1923-64), Irish playwright.

Soma…Svaha
: all Hindu deities.

cosi sia
: Italian: “so be it.”

yr book: Crucifix in a Deathhand
, which would place this undated letter in mid-1965.

Mr. Cayce
: Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), American spiritualist whose works SM would study the rest of her life.

dammitALL Bukowski
: cf. the opening of Pound’s Canto 2: “Hang it all, Robert Browning…” (6).

Veryl Rosenbaum
: a writer who planned to publish a collection of CB’s letters (which never appeared). In April 1966 CB wrote to Rosenbaum: “I know that the book of letters a long way away but if it ever happens, run what you wish. only there is something I’d wish you to strike out in reference to Sheri Martinelli. I don’t know if I did, but I might have mentioned her in other letters as ‘Pound’s x-whore.’ she’s a fine woman but don’t think she’d understand. In a sense, I am a romantic; I mean when I call a woman a whore, I mean, in
my
language, a woman who loves
one
man and
one
man only and I use the term in fondness to depict faithfulness, and there is no derogatory intent involved” (
LL
65-66).

Red Bricks in My Eyes
: unpublished.

Master Kung
: Confucius (Kung Fu-tse). He is usually called Kung in
The Cantos
.

Not with the Sunburnt Fury of a Whitman
: also unpublished.

office-mobile
: SM did much of her work in a camper up until she died.

daughter’s
: Marina Louise Bukowski was born 7 September 1964 to CB and his common-law wife, Frances Elizabeth Dean (1922-).

Uncle in Andernach
: Heinrich Fett, in his seventies at the time. Andernach, in northern Germany, was CB’s birthplace.

Blaz
: Douglas Blazek (1941-), poet and editor of the magazine
Ole
, to which CB contributed.

yr book
:
Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts
, published by Blazek’s Mimeo Press in August 1965. (This long story was reprinted in CB’s
South of No North
[1973].)

CRITICAL ARTICLES
: by this time CB was regularly writing essays and reviews in addition to poetry; see Dorbin 64-65.

Reid
: Reid B. Johnson organized SM’s show.

The Children of the Ghetto
: once-popular novel about Jewish life by English writer Israel Zangwill (1864-1926).

“if they hate you…
”: John 15:18.

Ovid
: the Roman poet spent the last years of his life in exile on the coast of the Black Sea.

Here’s to you…never wert
: a parody of Shelley’s “To a Skylark.”

Cold Dogs…Atomic Scribblings: Cold Dogs in the Courtyard
was a poetry chapbook published in the summer of 1965.
Poems Written…
, another chapbook, was scheduled to appear in 1965 but was postponed until 1968.
Atomic Scribblings from a Maniac Age
was advertised in early 1966 as forthcoming from Border Press, but never appeared.

The Webb
: the Webbs’ edition of
Crucifix in a Deathhand
, priced at $7.50 when first published.

Mary
: Mary de Rachewiltz (née Maria Rudge), Pound’s daughter by his mistress Olga Rudge.

“
Expect…Resentment
”: source unknown.

Walter deLaMere
: English poet and novelist Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), singled out in CB’s letter of 22 April 1961 as one of “very few poets of pure aspect.”

Patunjoli
: i.e., Patanjali, founder of Yoga and author of the
Yogasutras
.

Appolonius of Tyana
: i.e., Apollonius, Greek Neo-Pythagorean philosopher of the first century A.D., mentioned often in the
Rock-Drill
Cantos.

Swedenburg
: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish philosopher and mystic.

Sloans
: unidentified (“of no importance,” said Gilbert).

Kay Harrison
: SM credited this woman with introducing her to astrology.

Pat Green
: Gilbert thinks she may have been a member of the San Francisco Art Guild.

Bukowski edition of the A & P
: issue 7, dated 20 March 1966 (but not published until the following month), consists of astrological charts and readings for CB, his daughter, Ezra and Dorothy Pound, H.D., and mutual friends.

a longplay of me talking
: advertised as
Bukowski Talking
, it never appeared.

Patchen
: Kenneth Patchen (1911-72), American writer and painter.

Richmond…Hitler Painted Roses
: Steve Richmond’s book was published in April 1966.

Steppenwolf #1
: CB reviewed Corrington’s
Lines to the South and Other Poems
(1966) under the title “Another Burial of a Once-Talent.”

Bobby Watson
: both of CB’s bibliographers credit Darrell Kerr and Charles Potts with editing
Poems
, not Watson.

All the Assholes
…: a chapbook published in September 1966. The story was reprinted in CB’s
South of No North
(1973).

“
they call this Friday good
”: from Eliot’s “East Coker,” part 4.

Steel Splinter
: in his letter of 23? July 1960, CB claimed his parents were “splints of steel.”

“
whimper…BANG
”: from the conclusion of Eliot’s “The Hollow Men.”

“
moving slowly like a dancer
”: cf. “move in measure, like a dancer,” from part 2 of Eliot’s “Little Gidding.”

Pythagoras
: Greek philosopher and mathematician of the 6th century B.C.

Joyce’s…alone
”: misquoted from
Chamber Music
#35: “Sad as the seabird is, when going / Forth alone.”

Wearing his trousers rolled
: from Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

Abner Dean
: American cartoonist and illustrator (1910-1982).

Eliot’s…reserved for age
”: from “Little Gidding,” part 2.

Eliot…coffee spoons
”: another quotation from “Prufrock.”

“
If you
…
H.D
.”: from “The Moon in Your Hands” (quoted earlier in SM’s letter of 19 April 1961).

stir’d me out of the dust
: an echo of Pound’s remark to
SM
in Canto 93: “You have stirred my mind out of dust” (652).

Leslie Wolf Hedly
: Leslie Woolf Hedley (1918-), minor American writer, editor of a magazine called
Inferno
(1950-56). CB rejected some of his poems when co-editing
Harlequin
(Sounes 39).

Layton…Evidence
: CB’s review of Irving Layton’s
Laughing Rooster
appeared in
Evidence
#9.

And the Moon
…: first published (with different line breaks) in 1969 in
DRA
(108).

woman
: by 1966
CB
had separated from Frances Elizabeth Dean.

EP
’s “
priestess astray in the streets
”: source unknown.

Di Chirico
: Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), Italian surrealist painter.

Animus…Canto
95: actually, the epigraph to Canto 90, from Richard of St. Victor’s
Quomodo Spiritus sanctus est amor Patris et Filii
.

“
to work is to pray
”: an anonymous Latin saying (
laborare est orare
).

The Stupid…after Work
: both published in
The Eight Pager
in 1966.

John Bryan
: journalist and editor; CB occasionally contributed to his magazine.

Neal Cassady
: Denver hipster immortalized in Kerouac’s
On the Road
and
Visions of Cody
.

DeMop
: Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893); poem from which this is taken unknown.

Today…No. 1
”: a brief article written by Jay Robert Nash.

Ole…Wondering
: in
Ole
#3 (November 1965); see
SB
169-71.

Wang Shou-jen
…
The Way of Chinese Painting
: Chinese philsopher (1472-1528); the book is unidentified.