A new Bukowski book came out this month, The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writing. Not my favorite subjects to read about but it's Bukowski.
It's easy to get distracted by the mythology he created about himself, the surly skid row alcoholic poet, but he's a fucking great writer. One of the few poets I can read without dozing off.
Years ago I was looking at a book of his poetry that came out after he died. It sucked. It was like a book that was incomplete when the author died, then the book was finished by a hack to make money off the dead guy.
It turned out I was correct. After Bukowski died his editor Charles Martin rewrote most of the poems for his posthumous collections. Removing curse words, references to drinking, rewriting, changing the meaning of his poetry.
I'm not sure why and he's never said but he might have been making Bukowski more palatable for mainstream audiences. And I doubt he ever respected Bukowski's writing skills. Ironic, because Martin is a terrible writer his changes are awful.
If you want to see examples check out The senseless, tragic rape of Charles Bukowski's ghost by John Martin at the Bukowski.net. Sad stuff, Bukowski stabbed in the back by his longtime editor and friend Martin.
Good news is that when Mrs. Bukowski found out about this Martin was fired and there's new editors that respect and enjoy Bukowski's work. The new stuff that's come out the last couple years is either unedited (poetry) or edited the way an editor should edit, not completely changed into something shitty.
With the internet it's impossible to hide, I'm sure Martin thought no one would discover his treachery. There's plenty of manuscripts to compare to the published versions to see what was changed.
It's easy to get distracted by the mythology he created about himself, the surly skid row alcoholic poet, but he's a fucking great writer. One of the few poets I can read without dozing off.
Years ago I was looking at a book of his poetry that came out after he died. It sucked. It was like a book that was incomplete when the author died, then the book was finished by a hack to make money off the dead guy.
It turned out I was correct. After Bukowski died his editor Charles Martin rewrote most of the poems for his posthumous collections. Removing curse words, references to drinking, rewriting, changing the meaning of his poetry.
I'm not sure why and he's never said but he might have been making Bukowski more palatable for mainstream audiences. And I doubt he ever respected Bukowski's writing skills. Ironic, because Martin is a terrible writer his changes are awful.
If you want to see examples check out The senseless, tragic rape of Charles Bukowski's ghost by John Martin at the Bukowski.net. Sad stuff, Bukowski stabbed in the back by his longtime editor and friend Martin.
Good news is that when Mrs. Bukowski found out about this Martin was fired and there's new editors that respect and enjoy Bukowski's work. The new stuff that's come out the last couple years is either unedited (poetry) or edited the way an editor should edit, not completely changed into something shitty.
With the internet it's impossible to hide, I'm sure Martin thought no one would discover his treachery. There's plenty of manuscripts to compare to the published versions to see what was changed.