Charles Bukowski Run with the Hunted 1962 Midwest Poetry Chapbooks

Description

Published in 1962, Run with the Hunted is Bukowski’s third chapbook and a key early statement from a writer still operating far outside the literary mainstream. Issued by Midwest Poetry Chapbooks in Chicago, the book belongs to the small-press ecosystem that allowed Bukowski’s voice to circulate before broader recognition, capturing his raw, unsparing style at a formative moment.

R. R. Cuscaden (Robin Reay Cuscaden, 1931–2005) was a poet, editor, and small-press publisher active in the Chicago literary underground of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He co-edited Mainstream: A Quarterly Journal of Poetry and later Odyssey, both of which published early work by writers who would become central to postwar American literature, including Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). Cuscaden went on to edit Midwest: A Magazine of Poetry and Opinion and founded Midwest Poetry Chapbooks, a hand-assembled series created to circulate contemporary poetry outside mainstream publishing channels. He published Run with the Hunted as the first title in the Midwest Poetry Chapbooks series, issuing the book in a small edition of approximately 300 copies. Though never a prominent public figure, Cuscaden was an early and committed supporter of Bukowski’s work, providing one of his first sustained publishing platforms. Today, Cuscaden’s magazines and chapbooks are recognized as important artifacts of mid-century American small-press and outsider poetry culture.

This is one of the small number of early Bukowski chapbooks that define his pre-Black Sparrow period. Copies in good condition, especially presented in custom-made housing, are increasingly difficult to acquire.