Charles Bukowski. Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories. Charles Bukowski

Offering: Charles Bukowski. Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1996. VG+ with hint of shelfwear on the board's extremities and in glassine DJ as published. #87 of 226 signed copies. Bright, clean, and unread. Published posthumously, Betting on the Muse brings together poems and short stories drawn from Charles Bukowski's prolific late period-works that oscillate between grim humor and startling clarity. The collection feels like one of his final testaments: poems about aging, gambling, horses, women, and the unrelenting ache of memory. It's Bukowski facing his own myth head-on, still fiercely independent and unsentimental to the end. This signed, limited edition was produced with the precision and care that defined John Martin's legacy. Bound in red cloth-backed boards designed by incomparable Barbara Martin, each copy features Bukowski's signature a tipped-in page. This is one of the press's last true collaborations with Bukowski's estate before the imprint's transition. A late-period Bukowski classic, beautifully bound and signed-a cornerstone volume for collectors of Black Sparrow Press and the poet's enduring legend.