Story from the New York Times: Neeli Cherkovski, Poet Who Chronicled the Beat Generation, Dies at 78.

Cherkovski was well-liked by many people, unless one included many mainstream press book reviewers. (I write that last comment more as a reflection of my memories some 25-30 years ago than of Neeli’s more recent reputation which had perhaps soared upward on a more national level — as I thought it should have — and reducing any regional bias or with increased emphasis on the quality of his other work too.) I recall some, probably the Times and others, occasionally insinuating he was a lightweight because he was more famous (that would be “successful”) for the bios he wrote, notably a big one on Bukowski and another on Ferlinghetti, than for his own very good creative work. (He and Buk co-edited an infamous publication in the early 1970s.) Fair? No. Typical, yes. It’s always after you die when the mainstreamers started pissing all over themselves to publish you or write good things about you after they ignored or trashed you your whole career. (Ironically, the Times article referenced above admits to and discusses many of the points I’m making.) Anyway, I have the perfect example of this.

Most people know of Charles Bukowski, possibly the most “successful” and popular American poet around the globe, a #1 seller for decades in many other countries, and a huge draw in the US — unless you were a standard mainstream, academic snob who thinks 150 people reading your 25th poem about a leaf and a lake is the best thing ever. It usually seemed like the various “academies” didn’t want to recognize or even list him — try any of them now. Think the New Yorker, Poetry magazine, Academy of American Poets, etc. Not a chance. I wasn’t surprised, just disgusted. I remember getting so ticked off in the early 1990s that I ended up having a little chat with the longtime former Poetry editor, Joe Parisi — whom I felt I knew well enough to address — and I asked him WTH wasn’t he publishing ME — I was pretty prolific then and appearing in some good magazines — but more importantly, WTH wasn’t he publishing BUKOWSKI? I’ve never forgotten his reply, which went something like this: “I like your stuff [Holstad] but consider, if I ever published Bukowski, they’d likely fire me asap. Apply that to yourself.” I responded by joking about wait til Buk’s dead, right?

I was right and it pissed me off even more. After he died in 1994, it took anywhere from days to weeks to months to a couple years for nearly ALL Bukowski-hating orgs to proudly publish the shit out of the “populist genius,” to publish pieces on the “working man’s poet,” and so on, etc. The various academic orgs embraced him even though he repulsed them while alive. Tons of places published tributes — dozens of pages of his work they probably threw away upon sight when he’d submitted them in years past. I actually wasn’t too ticked at some of these places specifically. The apparent hypocrisy they seemed to display while jumping on the bandwagon now that it was essentially “safe” to do so was disappointing yet predictable. My example…

The point is not that Neeli is or was Buk, or even at his level. It’s more like he was viewed by some as an expert on these people and yet so what of it? Unless you were a mainstreamer and then you turned up your nose and sniffed. As though many of them could, or were sufficiently qualified, to write on said subjects! The point is that Neeli wasn’t perfect but he was a great writer, good guy, loyal and talented, excelled at networking and getting published and again, I wouldn’t be surprised to see his reputation only grow as times goes on, much like his friend Bukowski.

Enough preaching. I just wanted to mention this and say goodbye. I started keeping track two years ago of my writer friends/colleagues who’d died over the past 15-20 years, from the little known to the worldwide famous. It was depressing as shit. All of them were writers I’d been published with, so I didn’t know all of them in person, but through the art we shared. I stopped taking note and keeping count shortly after I lost several of my best friends and influences within a two year time period (circa 2019-2022). Off the top of my head, these included my mentor and best writing friend, Gerry Locklin, as well as Simon Perchik, Anne Rice, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Clifton Snyder, Lyn Lifshin, Diane di Prima and others (last year Michael Estabrook), as well as personal friends in other fields. THAT was fucking brutal! I stopped counting at 58 people!!! I guess I can add Neeli to the list now. Though I didn’t personally know him like most of the others, we’d appeared in some of the same places, which is how I count it. In any event, those of you who don’t know him might want to look him up – a personal recommendation.

RIP Neeli.

— Scott Holstad