Mockingbird Wish Me Luck; Love Is a Dog From Hell; Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

Item Details

Santa Barbara, Black Sparrow Press, 1976-1979, Softcover

First and Fourth Printings, Near Fine with some minor age toning to the covers.

Three essential Bukowski poetry titles, all Black Sparrow Press softcovers, offered as a single lot. A tight little shelf of early Bukowski in the wrappers John Martin actually put in readers' hands bound in trade paper. Black Sparrow Press, under publisher John Martin, was Bukowski's home for decades and is now itself a celebrated name in American small-press publishing

Mockingbird Wish Me Luck. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1976. Softcover, 8vo, 159 pp. Fourth printing. Bukowski's second full-length collection, dedicated to Linda King — the book that includes "Mockingbird," one of his most anthologized poems. A later printing, priced accordingly, but a well-kept example: Near Fine with light, uniform toning, tight and square.

Love Is a Dog From Hell; Poems: 1974–1977. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1977. Softcover, 8vo, 307 pp. First softcover printing. Bukowski at the height of his mid-career powers, turning romantic wreckage into some of his most quoted lines. This is the true first paperback issue. Near Fine with a modestly tanned spine; tight and square.

Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. Softcover, 8vo, 125 pp. First softcover printing. Considered by some to be the best title of Bukowski's career.attached to some of his rawest, most lecherous, most alive poetry. First paperback issue, Near Fine in the original wraps — tight and square throughout.

Item #805202601