Here is an archive of the West Coast's better, if not the best, of the small presses. Unfortunately, BSP is now defunct, but many of their titles, including works by Bukowski, are in print. John Martin, editor-in-chief, was a financial genius when it came to publishing books, creating a cohesive project with other independent companies that included binding, printing and distributing a book, a model we should all think about.
I was recently in San Francisco and stopped in the Last Gasp warehouse (www.lastgasp.com) and was talking to Jon Longhi, who wrote "Wake Up and Smell the Beer." He's been working at Last Gasp for years, met and knew Bukowski, Jack Hirschman (who was recently chosen as SF's Poet Laureate) and a score of others both famous and infamous. Last Gasp has traditionally been the major distributor for BSP books and they were consulted by Ecco, who now publishes Bukowski, about reissueing many titles, and what they should and should not do. Of course, they told 'em not to change a damn thing, which is what they did. Thank God!
2 comments:
and now when witless consumers buy a bukowski book brand new off the barnes and ignoble shelves good ol' rupert murdock racks up the cash. cheers to the downfall of one of the best our kind has had to offer, squelched beneath the bloody wheels of commerce.
cheers sky. cheers.
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