|
They invited me to spend an evening with them. They
were extremely warm and welcoming. And it came to pass that we spent a
number of evenings together. When I told them that I planned to launch
an audio magazine to be entitled The Cassette Gazette, they not
only expressed encouragement and support, they also passed an audio cassette
that they had recorded in their kitchen. They believed that I would find
it exciting and they were correct. It was Charles Bukowski, who also wrote
a colunm in their newspaper, reading some of his stories. When I returned to Paris, where I have lived since 1969,
I listened to the tape again and again. I knew that one of these stories
had to be on the first issue. And it came to be. The first number also
contained a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and read by Ferlinghetti. Shortly thereafter I sent this first number of The
Cassette Gazette to Ferlinghetti in California. More time passed and
when I next travelled to San Francisco, I called upon Ferlinghetti at
his City Lights Bookstore. One of the first things he said to me was how
much he liked The Cassette Gazette. And especially the Charles
Bukowski story. In fact, he liked the story so much that he contacted
Bukowski and started publishing him in his City Lights Editions. Years later, in 1978, Bukowski was in Paris for the Apostrophe
television programme. Earlier I called Bukowski at his hotel and we talked
briefly about Darlene and Bob, about Ferlinghetti, about my Cassette
Gazette and about the possibility of meeting later for a drink or
a meal. Alas it never happened. But I am nevertheless pleased with my
small contribution to the Bukowski explosion.
|
