![]() ![]() In 1986, Martin moved the press from an office at his home in Santa Barbara to it's own building in Santa Rosa, California. Publishing 12-15 books a year, Black Sparrow Press has printed more than 500 titles to date. Black Sparrow has also published authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and Paul Bowles. Profits from more than 40 Bukowski titles published by Black Sparrow have helped subsidize their publishing of many lesser known literary figures, including Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, and Diane Wakowski. Martin turned a profit for the first time in 1971, and has continued to do so ever since. Black Sparrow began as a side line business, but within 1 1/2 years, it became a full time endeavor for Martin.Īt least initially, Black Sparrow published avant garde poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction, primarily by West coast authors, many of whom had been rejected by the East Coast publishing houses. Bukowski would be the first author that Black Sparrow published. Martin sold his personal collection of approximately 2,000 modern first edition books for $50,000, and began Black Sparrow Press with the profits. Martin offered Bukowski $100 a month, which was 20% of his own salary, to quit his post office job and write full time. He looked through a closet full of Bukowski's manuscripts, and decided to start the small literary publishing company he'd been thinking about for some time. Overwhelmed by the caliber of Bukowski's writing, Martin went to visit him at his home in Los Angeles. In 1966, John Martin, manager of an office supply company in California, came across the poetry of Charles Bukowski. ![]()
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