On Writing by Charles Bukowski

Author:Charles Bukowski
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

[To Marvin Malone]

April 4, 1970

[ . . . ] my hope is that the Wormwood Review goes on as long as you do. I have watched the magazines since around the late 30’s, so I can’t cover for Blast or the early Poetry, A Magazine of Verse. But I would place Wormwood on top along with the old Story magazine, The Outsider, Accent, Decade, a very definite force in the moulding of a lively and meaningful literature. if this sounds stuffy, let it. you’ve done a blockbuster job.

let me roll a smoke. there. yes, I understand your wish not to hear from the prima d’s, but I’d like you to know I’m not a p.d. you might have heard some shit and scam on me but I’d advise you to ignore gossip. I am a loner, always have been, and just because I’ve had a few madrigals published doesn’t mean I’m going to change my ways. I never did like the literary type, then or now. I drink with my landlady and landlord; I drink with x-cons, madmen, fascists, anarchists, thieves, but keep the literary away from me. christ, how they bitch and carry on and gossip and cry and suck. there are exceptions. Richmond is one. there’s no bullshit about him. I can drink 5 or ten cans of beer with Steve and he will never come up with the sad literary bullshit, or any kind of bullshit. you ought to hear him laugh. but there are other types. many other types. mothers’ boys. salesmen. pitchmen. weaklings. sucks. vicious little fawns. [ . . . ]

yes, I’m hustling via the typer and brush, what the fuck. and it has been a fine life—and I’ve made it writing and painting exactly the way I’ve felt like it. how long I can stay on top of the water, I don’t know. your offer of $10 for 2 poems, damn gracious. well, since I’m hustling, can we cut that in half? how about $5 for 2 poems? can you make that? that would make $20 on the 8 poems, when published. the reason I hustle is not only the kid—for that’s a sob story, after all, even if I do love her—but it’s hard to typewrite down on skid row, you know. so, Malone, if you can make the 20 I’ll take the 20, whenever, all right?

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