mutterings and ravings no. 57
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 21:54:22 -0700
Sender: Bibliofind News and Views <NEWS@BIBLIO.BIBLIOFIND.COM>
From: Harry Nudel <nudel-soho@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: m&r la meme chose
About a 1.000,000,000 yrs ago..before commodity traders and mtv execs
were willing to pay 1 to 2 thou per..for walk-ups in the E.
Village.....that were left for the poorest of the poor and poets..Got to thinking about this..when I was mushing around the storage
space last week looking for some Franklin Lib...signed...guy has bought
about 20 of 'em from me ...why do you ask?..because I have the
booklets....ok...each to his own madness...and I find a book of Poems by
Harold B....(which i thot were in the trunk when the car got towed
away)....but no luck....terrible stuff.."warm marble thighs"..."buried deep
in the arteries of pain"...I never knew Mr. B..but his wife G....... took over the bookstore on
E.7th St...a hole in the wall jammed wedged packed with...(now a xerox
shop)...must have bought a book or two from her..because down the block
there was another hole..rammed jammed pack...run by a retired postal
worker...wonderful guy..called his wife of 50 yrs every afternoon..'hi
darling"....and lived off his pension and then the little some...G....was difficult...a walking pardigm of a little learning is
dangerous...her husband had scouted and sold the good stuff to Gotham
etc...she inherited the rent controlled apartment (in the same E.10th
building where Harold Rosenberg and his De Kooning's lived), the two
daughters and enough of a book 'jones' to soldier on...G....eventually moved a block East to a much bigger store...walk down
steps...two bay windows..(now a Japanese Consignment
Store..Tokyo..7)...where she moved the same still stock...her two pack a
day habit...her cheerful manner.."ya gonna buy somethin' or what"...she had
whittled down the paying customers with a lifetime of book curmedegenous to
a couple a day...those whom she had't scared off ..and the few stray
tourists...I usually found something to buy..as she used to say "you always find
something to buy" in her tone there was touch of reproof...mostly mimeod
poetry etc...(someone told me they found a nice MOVIEGOER)...G kept up till
1960..then forgot about it....a kind of pre-Harold B. Cultural
Amnesia...I'd come in sometimes in the 5 Aft...cold shadowy Nov...she had
taken in $5.00...She had some OK Beat Stuff in the window...and a Harold Stash at
home...over the years..she sold me a Charles Henri Ford or two ltd
signed...which I still have managed to have over 20 yrs...and a bunch of
Parker Tyler's...etc etc...these were new so she must have had a bunch...On
one of these long Fall Aft..I bought a Basil Bunting for a few bucks.....i
actually thought about it...I like a dummy asked for a bag...when I got
home I realized the bag was full of grease and had badly stained the
book...20 yrs...go by...last Week same book gets sold over Net to Sao
Paolo... my first sale to South America...it;s a long journey..friends...more next time...e.7th St.., Gertrude and
her two daughters,....the revenge of good intentions....even if you try to
forget..your dreams remember..forget-me-not...DRn..
=========================================================================
From: John Wiser
Subject: Re: m&r la meme chose
Harry Nudel reminisces
About a 1.000,000,000 yrs ago..before commodity traders and mtv execs
were willing to pay 1 to 2 thou per..for walk-ups in the E.
Village.....that were left for the poorest of the poor and poets..
[trim lit crit]
..because down the block
there was another hole..rammed jammed pack...run by a retired postal
worker...wonderful guy..called his wife of 50 yrs every afternoon..'hi
darling"....and lived off his pension and then the little some...
We called him "Good Max" to distinguish him
from "Bad Max," a dealer on Eighth Avenue
with a crammed-to-the-rafters shop of LP records,
a foul-mouthed illiterate.grifter.I mustn't let Harry N get me started....
I lived in the E Village during the years
when 4th Avenue was going down the drain
...if I knew then what I know now
[sniff] I wouldn't be talking to the likes of yez...John Wiser
previous
|
       |