Shakespeare Never Did This by Charles Bukowski (Black Sparrow Press, 1995 Expanded Edition)

A particularly attractive copy of Charles Bukowski’s Shakespeare Never Did This, published by Black Sparrow Press in Santa Rosa in 1995, with photographs by Bukowski’s longtime friend and photographer Michael Montfort.

Originally published by City Lights in 1979, this 1995 Black Sparrow edition is a revised and expanded version, adding material to Bukowski’s account of his 1978 trip through Europe. The book combines Bukowski’s prose, travel observations, poems, and characteristically unfiltered commentary with Montfort’s black-and-white photographs documenting Bukowski during the journey. The result is part travel narrative, part photographic portrait, and part autobiographical record of Bukowski at the height of his literary notoriety. The 1995 edition is recognized as the expanded Black Sparrow version of the work.

The photographs are a major part of the book’s appeal. Montfort documented Bukowski extensively, and this volume includes candid images of Bukowski traveling, drinking, performing, and interacting with people in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The copyright page identifies the text as originally copyrighted in 1979, with additional text copyrighted in 1995 by Linda Lee Bukowski and the photographs copyrighted by Michael Montfort.

This is the trade paperback issue, ISBN 0-87685-968-6, in the original illustrated wrappers. The copy appears Very Good to Near Fine overall. The covers remain bright and clean with strong color, only light general handling and minor edge wear visible in the photographs. The spine appears sound without significant creasing, and the interior is clean and well preserved. For a large-format paperback of this age and type, it presents very nicely.

The oblong format and bold Black Sparrow design make this one of the more visually distinctive Bukowski books, and the combination of Bukowski’s writing with Montfort’s photographs gives it considerably more collector appeal than a standard later Bukowski paperback.