Interview // Serious Books: A Conversation with John Martin

Looking back on it, it seems like an incredible risk in 1965. At the time, Los Angeles-native John Martin, a manager of a large office supply store, decided he would dedicate one-quarter of his monthly income in perpetuity to a relatively obscure writer with a penchant for drinking. But Martin, as it would turn out, bet on the right horse. His deal with L.A. poet, novelist and short story writer, Charles Bukowski, would end up making history—and the both of them hundreds of thousands of dollars, too. Bukowski, known as the poet of skid row, wrote poetry books like Love is a Dog From Hell and novels like Ham On Rye and Women. Together, he and Martin helped to change modern American writing, bringing poetry and prose to a street level where they could be read and enjoyed by the “common reader.”  

Martin, born in 1930, is now retired from the publishing house he founded, Black Sparrow. He has sold the rights to Bukowski’s work and the work of a few other authors to ECCO, a subsidiary of Harper Collins. Black Sparrow, in its modern form, continues to exist, publishing work, though it’s stewarded by new publishers and editors. We caught up with Martin to talk with him about his early love of literature, his $100 deal with Bukowski, “insiders” versus “outsiders,” his other favorite authors and much more.