PBA Galleries

Typed Letter, signed. 11x8½". With original envelope. Signed at close 'Buk' with sketches of a bird, the sun, a dog, the little man and bottle, and a flower. Also, a 7x5" black & white photographs of Bukowski, credited to Linda [Lee] Beighle on rear.

A letter to Bukowski's European agent and German translator, Carl Weissner. Bukowski writes about a discussion with the hotel switchboard operator during a stay in Detroit for a reading: "Slept in hotel 200 years old, stayed 3 nights and days. Awakened one morning sick, retching, phoned down to switchboard lady: "Look, I have a complaint. I wake up sick here every morning and the first thing I've got to look at is that American flag out there. Can't something be done about it?" She got very pissy-assed and asked if I didn't LIKE the American flag. 'look,' I Said, 'I just told you. I'm sick and it makes me sicker. If that makes you uptight, just forget it's a flag. It's just a matter of white and red stripes waving in my face. And the stars. I've got a bad stomach.' They didn't take the flag down for me, Carl." He also writes about various film options on his novels and relates: "If just one of these turns into a movie I'm going to buy a new pair of shoes." The photograph, taken by his future wife, is of Bukowski sitting on the steps of his apartment smoking a cigarette.