Bring Me Your Love
One story, illustrated by Robert Crumb — 376 copies signed by both men, and the start of a collaboration that outlasted Bukowski.
- 1983
- Savage
- Melancholy
- Wry
- autobiographical
- voice-driven
- dark
- spare
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeBring Me Your Love, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1983, prints a single Charles Bukowski short story as a book, illustrated throughout by Robert Crumb. It was the first of three Bukowski–Crumb collaborations, and the hardcover edition ran to 376 copies, hand-numbered and signed by both of them. The story is about a man visiting his wife in a mental hospital while his new girlfriend waits at the hotel, and the pairing works because both men look at people closely and refuse to flatter what they see. There's No Business followed in 1984, and the two men worked together a final time on the journals published in 1997, three years after Bukowski's death.
The story, in more detail
Crumb was the best-known artist of American underground comics, and Bukowski had built his readership through the same small-press and underground-newspaper world. They first worked together in 1983. The result is a book-length object made from a single story, which is closer to how Crumb's own comics work than to how Black Sparrow usually published fiction.
Themes and analysis
The card across the garden table
The motel card appears to make Harry available, but it also reduces Gloria’s demand for love to instructions for reaching him. He answers with offers of things to bring; she insists on the relationship those things cannot replace. Folding the card into her shoe preserves the proposed connection without accepting his reassuring account of it. The garden’s durable iron table and dead flowers sharpen that mismatch between lasting arrangements and failed care. These details make the visit more than a quarrel: its ordinary objects expose promises that the dialogue cannot secure.
The telephone on the floor
The telephone makes the two locations a single scene of competing claims. Gloria’s first call exposes the gap between Harry’s explanations and what the reader has just witnessed; his accusation that she is imagining things therefore cannot settle the story’s truth. When Nan threatens to speak to Gloria, control of the receiver becomes control of what can be disclosed. Their final scramble turns the earlier offer of easy contact into physical farce. The ceiling mirror, anticipated in Gloria’s accusation, completes the irony without making Harry’s judgments about her reliable.
Why we recommend it
Two underground reputations in one book
The best-known artist of American underground comics illustrating the best-known writer of the small-press underground.
A single story given a whole book
The form is unusual for Bukowski and suits the story, which is short and does not resolve.
A relationship exposed through one visit
The hospital visit and the girlfriend waiting elsewhere give the brief story a concentrated conflict of loyalties.
What this book explores
Timeline
1983
Black Sparrow publishes the first Bukowski–Crumb collaboration.
1984
There's No Business follows.
1997
The Captain Is Out to Lunch, their last collaboration, appears three years after Bukowski's death.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1983
- 9780876855928
Reader reviews
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Bring Me Your Love: frequently asked questions
What is Bring Me Your Love?
A single Charles Bukowski short story published as a book by Black Sparrow Press in 1983, illustrated throughout by Robert Crumb.
How many Bukowski–Crumb books are there?
Three: this one, There's No Business in 1984, and The Captain Is Out to Lunch, the journals published in 1997 after Bukowski's death.
Is it signed?
The hardcover edition ran to 376 hand-numbered copies signed by both Bukowski and Crumb.
What is the story about?
A man visiting his wife in a mental hospital while his new girlfriend waits back at the hotel.
Who is Robert Crumb?
The best-known artist of American underground comics, whose work defined the look of the 1960s counterculture press.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Bring Me Your Love, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Bring Me Your Love
NovelCharles Bukowski, 1983Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication details and the Crumb collaborations.
3Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forEdition size and the signed issue.
4Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forThe early-1980s period in the career narrative.
5Charles Bukowski (Poetry Foundation)
WebsiteUsed forCareer context for the Black Sparrow years.
6Bring Me Your Love — August 1983 story, republished from the archives
PeriodicalHigh Times, 2024Used forContemporary reporting or criticism used to document the historical reception and context of Bring Me Your Love.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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