"POEMS LIKE GUNSLINGERS ASK ME WHAT THE HELL MY GAME IS": FIRST LIMITED EDITION WITH ORIGINAL SILKSCREEN ILLUSTRATION, SIGNED BY BUKOWSKI

BUKOWSKI, Charles. Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. Octavo, original half red cloth, original acetate dust jacket. $1750.

First limited signed hardcover edition, number 49 of 100 copies handbound in boards by Earle Gray, illustrated with an original signed silkscreen of a Bukowski drawing and additionally signed by Bukowski on the limitation page.

First edition: Collected poems from some of the peak writing years of cult hero and "laureate of American lowlife" Charles Bukowski (Time). "Bukowski's writings presented a vision of America starkly different from other celebratory accounts of post-World War II prosperity. Barflies, whores, and vengeful managers populated his pages. But at the same time, he made the down-and-out, crapulous life seem romantic" (ANB). This is number 49 of 100 handbound copies featuring an original silkscreen by Bukowski (signed "Buk"), tipped in as issued, also signed in full by the poet on the limitation page. A paperback issue, a trade hardcover issue (500 copies) and an unillustrated numbered signed issue (300 copies) appeared in the same year. Fogel 63b. Krumhansl 68e.

Minor fading to endpapers. A very nearly fine copy in the original acetate jacket.