also Penguin Poetry 13 out. but won’t be printed in U.S. until June 26, this year. Bukowski-Norse-Lamantia. but we are already in trouble. the slick-poetry academy boys and critics are already after our asses. Sinclair Beiles wrote a good review of Penguin 13, said it was the best of the series, but London Magazine refused to print the review and Beiles sent it to a South African paper which also refused to print the bit. Beiles wrote Norse that he thought Hal and I were the best living writers using the English language. which is neither here nor there, but the battle’s on, and Hal suggested that we fight back instead of taking it as we have all these years. so, again, I come to you two…Nikos Stangos, the editor, has review copies which he can mail out. and I wonder if you might know anybody who could possibly give us a favorable review, or if not favorable at least unbiased and unprejudiced before the reviewer sits down? all my work is taken from It Catches and from Crucifix. and Hal’s is all good. Lamantia weak here and there. but I’ve agreed with Hal to enter battle. so if you know of any reviewer who might not be stricken with Creeley-itis, please let me have their addresses…and many many thanks. I know I’ve laid a lot down on you here. now must rush out. [* * *]

[To Jim Roman]

February 25, 1969

REMEMBER THE STARVING WRITER!

how’s that for an opening line? anyhow, sent you a good month or so ago, upon request, a signed copy of The Curtains Are Waving. you mentioned a bit of remuneration. it was my next-to-last copy. did you receive it?

I hope that you haven’t caught “Corringtonitis”*!

(* a refusal to acknowledge receipt of mail and refusal to answer inquiry. a disease which befalls one usually after a trip to England, say the University of Sussex at Brighton for one’s Ph.D.**)

(** an over-exaggerated accomplishment which is attained more through drudgery than skill. i.e., a “lickboot,” a “chilblain,” a gatherer of calloused candlewick; i.e., a terrible bit of wading through shit.)

Notes of a Dirty Old Man is out,—paperback. a gathering of filthy stories and inane ravings. $1.95. you can probably located one in Fort L., Jim, at your local book or liquor store, but look in the porny section. I don’t think the stories are dirty. when they lean to sex, and many of them do, I believe that sex is a very tragic and a very laughable matter.—see Boccaccio, The Decameron. we are all so ludicrous and lousy with our miserable sex organs. I hope that if you read these stories, you will understand, not misunderstand the intent. I am down to one copy, but if you can’t find any out there, let me know if you wish an inscribed copy, “To Jim Roman,” etc. etc. whatever.