the luck of the word, poem by Charles Bukowski

THE LUCK OF THE WORD (Excerpt)
by Charles Bukowski

throughout the years
I have gotten letters
from men
who say
that reading my
books 
has helped them
get through,
go on.
this is high praise 
indeed
and I know what
they mean;
my nerve to go 
on was helped
by reading
Fante, Dostoevsky,
Lawrence, Celine, Hamsun
and others…
a good book
can make an almost
impossible
existence,
livable
for the reader
and
the writer.

SOURCE: “The Luck of the Word” appears in Charles Bukowski’s collection Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories, available at Amazon.com.

Illustration: “Mr. Chinaski as seen by The Art Warriors” (theartwarriors.com) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED — featured in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology.

The Luck of the Word, poem by Charles Bukowski

THE LUCK OF THE WORD (Excerpt)
Poem by Charles Bukowski

throughout the years
I have gotten letters
from men
who say
that reading my
books 
has helped them
get through,
go on.
this is high praise 
indeed
and I know what
they mean;
my nerve to go 
on was helped
by reading
Fante, Dostoevsky,
Lawrence, Celine, Hamsun
and others…
a good book
can make an almost
impossible
existence,
livable
for the reader
and
the writer.

***
“The Luck of the Word” appears in Charles Bukowski’s collection Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories.

Illustration: “Mr. Chinaski as seen by The Art Warriors” (theartwarriors.com) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED — featured in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology (2013).

Mysteries by Knut Hamsun

In his novel Mysteries (1892), Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) offers a master class in how to open a story, introduce a main character, and create dramatic interest. Henry Miller called  the novel “closer to me than any other book I have read.”

The opening paragraphs set up the story and the basic plot in a suspenseful way that pulls in the reader. No wonder so many of the modern masters – including Ernest Hemingway, John Fante, and Charles Bukowski – admired Hamsun and considered him one of their greatest teachers.  According to Isaac Bashevis Singer, “The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.”

Now let’s hear from Hamsun about the man in the yellow suit. 

MYSTERIES, Chapter 1 (Opening passage)

by Knut Hamsun

In the middle of the summer of 1891 the most extraordinary things began happening in a small Norwegian coastal town. A stranger by the name of Nagel appeared, a singular character who shook the town by his eccentric behavior and then vanished as suddenly as he had come…

It all started at six one evening when a steamer landed at the dock and three passengers appeared on deck. One of them was a man wearing a loud yellow suit and an outsized courduroy cap. It was the evening of the twelfth of June; flags were flying all over town in honor of Miss Kielland’s engagement, which had been announced that day. The porter from the Central Hotel went aboard and the man in the yellow suit handed him his baggage. At the same time, he surrendered his ticket to one of the ship’s officers, but made no move to go ashore, and began pacing up and down the deck. He seemed extremely agitated, and when the ship’s bell rang the third time, he hadn’t even paid the steward his bill. 

While he was taking care of his bill, he suddeny became aware that the ship was pulling out. Startled, he shouted over the railing to the porter below: “It’s all right. Take my baggage to the hotel and reserve a room for me.” 

With that, the ship carried him out into the fjord.

This man was Johan Nilsen Nagel.

The porter took his baggage away on a cart. It consisted of only two small trunks, a fur coat (although it was the middle of summer), a satchel, and a violin case. None of them had any identification tags. 

Photo: Men’s Wearhouse

John Fante’s Homage to Knut Hamsun

“Please God, please Knut Hamsun, don’t desert me now.” JOHN FANTE, Dreams of Bunker Hill

Black Sparrow Press published Dreams of Bunker Hill in 1982, the year before John Fante passed away at age 74.  During Fante’s final years, he suffered the debilitating effects of diabetes — losing both his vision and his legs to the disease. But despite the challenges and disappointments in his life — including frustrating years as a Hollywood screenwriter — Fante never lost that “animal gusto” (to use Raymond Chandler‘s expression) that allowed him to create great works of art.

Case in point is his final novel Dreams of Bunker HIll — a bookend to his masterpiece Ask the Dust — which explores the writing career of his fictional alter ego Arturo Bandini. Dreams of Bunker Hill is fresh, full of life, funny, and feels like the work of a young man — though a blind, septuagenarian Fante dictated the book to his wife Joyce, who transcribed his words into written form. How Fante was able to envision a book he couldn’t outline or see has always inspired and amazed me.

What I love about Fante’s novels is that they seem a total revelation — even if you’ve read them before. They are always there, waiting to be enjoyed.

In the final pages of Dreams from Bunker HIll, Fante calls on his idol, Knut Hamsun, to help him write his novel — and Hamsun didn’t let him down.

Hemingway’s Homage to Hamsun

“Knut Hamsun taught me to write.” ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Bukowski’s Homage to Hamsun

“We walked out on the veranda with our drinks and watched the afternoon traffic…I told her that Knut Hamsun had been the world’s greatest writer. She looked at me, astonished that I’d heard of him, then agreed. We kissed on the veranda, and I could smell the exhaust from the cars in the street below. Her body felt good against mine.” CHARLES BUKOWSKI, Women (Chapter 21)

An Appetite for Literature

“Knut Hamsun is the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.”

             ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

Read Hunger by Knut Hamsun for free at Project Gutenberg here.

Happy Birthday, Knut Hamsun!

I used to live next door to a woman from Norway. Once when I mentioned my admiration for Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun, she corrected my pronunciation of his first name from “Newt” to “Ka-newt” – yes you pronounce the “K.” Am I the only American who didn’t know this?

I first learned of Hamsun’s novel Hunger years ago when a colleague at an ad agency recommended it (yes, some people who work in advertising have souls!). As soon as I read Hunger, the novel ranked among my top-five favorite books. I reread it every few years and each time get caught up in the protagonist’s story as if reading about this starving writer for the first time. Here is the opening line:

It was in those days when I wandered about hungry in Kristiania, that strange city which no one leaves before it has set its mark upon him.”

Hamsun’s work had a huge influence on some of the 20^th century’s leading novelists. Here are some of their words:

 “Hamsun taught me to write.” ERNEST HEMINGWAY

 “I told her that Knut Hamsun had been the world’s greatest writer.” CHARLES BUKOWSKI, Women

“Please God, please Knut Hamsun, don’t desert me…” JOHN FANTE, Dreams of Bunker Hill

In 1920, Hamsun won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lived to the great age of 92, passing away in 1952. Toward the end of his life, Hamsun suffered from a form of dementia that caused him to make political statements where it’s unlikely he knew what he was saying. Let’s forgive and forget.

Knut Hamsun invented the modern novel, and has been praised by legions of our finest writers for his innovations – such as stream of consciousness and interior monologue – that bring the protagonist to vivid life and allow readers to know the story’s hero to the bottom of his soul.

Photo: Clancy & Knut  (copy of Hunger purchased at thrift store for $1)