Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich

Karl Bukowski; August 16, 1920 – March
9, 1994) was a German-American poet,
novelist, and short story writer.
 Charles Bukowski

Born Heinrich Karl

Bukowski
August 16, 1920
Andernach, Rhine
Province, Prussia,
Germany

Died March 9, 1994

(aged 73)
San Pedro, Los
Angeles, California,
U.S.

Nationality German-American
Occupation Poet, novelist, short
story writer, and
columnist
Height 183 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Movement Dirty realism,[1][2]

transgressive
fiction[3]

Spouse(s) Barbara Frye

(m. 1957; div. 1959)
Linda Lee Beighle (m. 1985)

Children 1

His writing was influenced by the social,

cultural, and economic ambiance of his
home city of Los Angeles.[4] His work
addresses the ordinary lives of poor
Americans, the act of writing, alcohol,
relationships with women, and the
drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote
thousands of poems, hundreds of short
stories and six novels, eventually
publishing over 60 books. The FBI kept a
file on him as a result of his column
Notes of a Dirty Old Man in the LA
underground newspaper Open City.[5][6]

Bukowski published extensively in small

literary magazines and with small
presses beginning in the early 1940s and
continuing on through the early 1990s.
As noted by one reviewer, "Bukowski
continued to be, thanks to his antics and
deliberate clownish performances, the
king of the underground and the epitome
of the littles in the ensuing decades,
stressing his loyalty to those small press
editors who had first championed his
work and consolidating his presence in
new ventures such as the New York
Quarterly, Chiron Review, or Slipstream."[7]
Some of these works include his Poems
Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story
Window, published by his friend and
fellow poet Charles Potts, and better
known works such as Burning in Water,
Drowning in Flame. These poems and
stories were later republished by John
Martin's Black Sparrow Press (now
HarperCollins/Ecco Press) as collected
volumes of his work.
In 1986 Time called Bukowski a "laureate
of American lowlife".[8] Regarding
Bukowski's enduring popular appeal,
Adam Kirsch of The New Yorker wrote,
"the secret of Bukowski's appeal ... [is
that] he combines the confessional
poet's promise of intimacy with the
larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-fiction
hero."[9]

Since his death in 1994, Bukowski has

been the subject of a number of critical
articles and books about both his life and
writings, despite his work having
received relatively little attention from
academic critics in the United States
during his lifetime. In contrast, Bukowski
enjoyed extraordinary fame in Europe,
especially in Germany, the place of his
birth.

Biography

Family and early years …

Bukowski's birthplace at Aktienstrasse, Andernach

Bukowski was born Heinrich Karl

Bukowski (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈkaɐ̯l bu
ˈkɔfski]) in Andernach, Rhine Province,
The Free State of Prussia, Weimar
Republic (present-day Rhineland-
Palatinate, Germany) to Heinrich (Henry)
Bukowski, a German-American in the U.S.
army of occupation after World War I
who remained in Germany after his army
service, and Katharina (née Fett). His
paternal grandfather Leonard Bukowski
had moved to the United States from the
German Empire in the 1880s. In
Cleveland, Leonard met Emilie Krause, an
ethnic German, who had emigrated from
Danzig, Prussia (today Gdańsk, Poland).
They married and settled in Pasadena.
He worked as a successful carpenter.
The couple had four children, including
Heinrich (Henry), Charles Bukowski's
father.[10][11] His mother, Katharina
Bukowski, was the daughter of Wilhelm
Fett and Nannette Israel. A Jewish origin
of Nannette Israel is sometimes
assumed[12]. Bukowski assumed his
paternal ancestor had moved from
Poland to Germany around 1780, as
"Bukowski" is a Polish last name. As far
back as Bukowski could trace, his whole
family was German.[13]

Bukowski's parents met in Andernach,

Germany, following World War I. The
poet's father was German-American and
a sergeant in the United States Army
serving in Germany after Germany's
defeat in 1918.[10] He had an affair with
Katharina, a German friend's sister, and
she became pregnant. Charles Bukowski
repeatedly claimed to be born out of
wedlock, but Andernach marital records
indicate that his parents married one
month before his birth.[10][14] Afterwards,
Henry Bukowski became a building
contractor, set to make great financial
gains in the aftermath of the war, and
after two years moved the family to
Pfaffendorf (today part of Koblenz).
However, given the crippling postwar
reparations being required of Germany,
which led to a stagnant economy and
high levels of inflation, Henry Bukowski
was unable to make a living, so he
decided to move the family to the United
States. On April 23, 1923, they sailed
from Bremerhaven to Baltimore,
Maryland, where they settled.

The family moved to Mid-City, Los

Angeles, US [15] in 1930, the city where
Charles Bukowski's father and
grandfather had previously worked and
lived.[10][14] Young Charles spoke English
with a strong German accent and was
taunted by his childhood playmates with
the epithet "Heini," German diminutive of
Heinrich, in his early youth. In the 1930s,
the poet's father was often unemployed.
In the autobiographical Ham on Rye,
Charles Bukowski says that, with his
mother's acquiescence, his father was
frequently abusive, both physically and
mentally, beating his son for the smallest
imagined offense.[16][17] During his youth,
Bukowski was shy and socially
withdrawn, a condition exacerbated
during his teen years by an extreme case
of acne.[17] Neighborhood children
ridiculed his German accent and the
clothing his parents made him wear. In
Bukowski: Born Into This, a 2003 film,
Bukowski states that his father beat him
with a razor strop three times a week
from the ages of six to 11 years. He says
that it helped his writing, as he came to
understand undeserved pain. The
depression bolstered his rage as he grew,
and gave him much of his voice and
material for his writings.[18]
In his early teen years, Bukowski had an
epiphany when he was introduced to
alcohol by his loyal friend William "Baldy"
Mullinax, depicted as "Eli LaCrosse" in
Ham on Rye, son of an alcoholic surgeon.
"This [alcohol] is going to help me for a
very long time," he later wrote, describing
a method (drinking) he could use to
come to more amicable terms with his
own life.[16] After graduating from Los
Angeles High School, Bukowski attended
Los Angeles City College for two years,
taking courses in art, journalism, and
literature, before quitting at the start of
World War II. He then moved to New York
to begin a career as a financially pinched
blue-collar worker with dreams of
becoming a writer.[17]

On July 22, 1944, with World War II

ongoing, Bukowski was arrested by F.B.I.
agents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
where he lived at the time, on suspicion
of draft evasion. At a time when the
United States was at war with Germany
and many Germans and German-
Americans in the United States were
suspected of disloyalty, his German birth
troubled the US authorities. He was held
for 17 days in Philadelphia's
Moyamensing Prison. Sixteen days later,
he failed a psychological examination
that was part of his mandatory military
entrance physical test and was given a
Selective Service Classification of 4-F
(unfit for military service).

Early writing …

When Bukowski was 24, his short story

"Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip"
was published in Story magazine. Two
years later, another short story, "20 Tanks
from Kasseldown", was published by the
Black Sun Press in Issue III of Portfolio:
An Intercontinental Quarterly, a limited-
run, loose-leaf broadside collection
printed in 1946 and edited by Caresse
Crosby. Failing to break into the literary
world, Bukowski grew disillusioned with
the publication process and quit writing
for almost a decade, a time that he
referred to as a "ten-year drunk". These
"lost years" formed the basis for his later
semiautobiographical chronicles, and
there are fictionalized versions of
Bukowski's life through his highly stylized
alter-ego, Henry Chinaski.[4]

During part of this period he continued

living in Los Angeles, working at a pickle
factory for a short time but also spending
some time roaming about the United
States, working sporadically and staying
in cheap rooming houses.[10]

In the early 1950s, Bukowski took a job

as a fill-in letter carrier with the United
States Post Office Department in Los
Angeles, but resigned just before he
reached three years' service.

In 1955 he was treated for a near-fatal

bleeding ulcer. After leaving the hospital
he began to write poetry.[10] In 1955 he
agreed to marry small-town Texas poet
Barbara Frye, but they divorced in 1958.
According to Howard Sounes's Charles
Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy
Life, she later died under mysterious
circumstances in India. Following his
divorce, Bukowski resumed drinking and
continued writing poetry.[10]

Several of his poems were published in

the late 1950s in Gallows, a small poetry
magazine published briefly (the
magazine lasted for two issues) by Jon
Griffith.[19]

The small avant-garde literary magazine

Nomad, published by Anthony Linick and
Donald Factor (the son of Max Factor
Jr.), offered a home to Bukowski's early
work. Nomad's inaugural issue in 1959
featured two of his poems. A year later,
Nomad published one of Bukowski's best
known essays, Manifesto: A Call for Our
Own Critics.[20]

1960s …
By 1960, Bukowski had returned to the
post office in Los Angeles where he
began work as a letter filing clerk, a
position he held for more than a decade.
In 1962, he was distraught over the death
of Jane Cooney Baker, his first serious
girlfriend. Bukowski turned his inner
devastation into a series of poems and
stories lamenting her death. In 1964 a
daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, was
born to Bukowski and his live-in girlfriend
Frances Smith, whom he referred to as a
"white-haired hippie", "shack-job", and "old
snaggle-tooth".[21]

E.V. Griffith, editor of Hearse Press,

published Bukowski's first separately
printed publication, a broadside titled
“His Wife, the Painter,” in June 1960. This
event was followed by Hearse Press's
publication of “Flower, Fist and Bestial
Wail,” Bukowski's first chapbook of
poems, in October, 1960.

5124 DeLongpre Avenue, Los Angeles, now

Bukowski Court, where Bukowski resided from 1963
to 1972

“His Wife, the Painter” and three other

broadsides (“The Paper on the Floor”,
“The Old Man on the Corner” and “Waste
Basket”) formed the centerpiece of
Hearse Press's “Coffin 1,” an innovative
small-poetry publication consisting of a
pocketed folder containing 42
broadsides and lithographs which was
published in 1964. Hearse Press
continued to publish poems by Bukowski
through the 1960s, 1970s, and early
1980s.[22]

Jon and Louise Webb, publishers of The

Outsider literary magazine, featured
some of Bukowski's poetry in its pages.
Under the Loujon Press imprint, the
Webbs published Bukowski's It Catches
My Heart in Its Hands in 1963 and
Crucifix in a Deathhand in 1965.
Beginning in 1967, Bukowski wrote the
column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" for
Los Angeles' Open City, an underground
newspaper. When Open City was shut
down in 1969, the column was picked up
by the Los Angeles Free Press as well as
the hippie underground paper NOLA
Express in New Orleans. In 1969
Bukowski and Neeli Cherkovski launched
their own short-lived mimeographed
literary magazine, Laugh Literary and Man
the Humping Guns. They produced three
issues over the next two years.

Black Sparrow years …

In 1969 Bukowski accepted an offer from
legendary Black Sparrow Press publisher
John Martin and quit his post office job
to dedicate himself to full-time writing.
He was then 49 years old. As he
explained in a letter at the time, "I have
one of two choices – stay in the post
office and go crazy ... or stay out here
and play at writer and starve. I have
decided to starve."[23] Less than one
month after leaving the postal service he
finished his first novel, Post Office. As a
measure of respect for Martin's financial
support and faith in a relatively unknown
writer, Bukowski published almost all of
his subsequent major works with Black
Sparrow Press, which became a highly
successful enterprise owing to Martin's
business acumen and editorial skills. An
avid supporter of small independent
presses, Bukowski continued to submit
poems and short stories to innumerable
small publications throughout his
career.[17]

Bukowski embarked on a series of love

affairs and one-night trysts. One of these
relationships was with Linda King, a poet
and sculptress. Critic Robert Peters
reported seeing the poet as actor in
Linda King's play Only a Tenant, in which
she and Bukowski stage-read the first act
at the Pasadena Museum of the Artist.
This was a one-off performance of what
was a shambolic work.[24] His other
affairs were with a recording executive
and a twenty-three-year-old redhead; he
wrote a book of poetry as a tribute to his
love for the latter, titled, "Scarlet" (Black
Sparrow Press, 1976). His various affairs
and relationships provided material for
his stories and poems. Another
important relationship was with "Tanya",
pseudonym of "Amber O'Neil" (also a
pseudonym), described in Bukowski's
"Women" as a pen-pal that evolved into a
week-end tryst at Bukowski's residence
in Los Angeles in the 1970s. "Amber
O'Neil" later self-published a chapbook
about the affair entitled "Blowing My
Hero".[25]
In 1976, Bukowski met Linda Lee Beighle,
a health food restaurant owner, rock-and-
roll groupie, aspiring actress, heiress to a
small Philadelphia "Main Line" fortune
and devotee of Meher Baba. Two years
later Bukowski moved from the East
Hollywood area, where he had lived for
most of his life, to the harborside
community of San Pedro,[26] the
southernmost district of the City of Los
Angeles. Beighle followed him and they
lived together intermittently over the next
two years. They were eventually married
by Manly Palmer Hall, a Canadian-born
author, mystic, and spiritual teacher in
1985. Beighle is referred to as "Sara" in
Bukowski's novels Women and
Hollywood.

In May, 1978, he returned to Germany

and gave a live poetry reading of his work
before an audience in Hamburg. This
was released as a double 12" L.P. stereo
record titled "CHARLES BUKOWSKI
'Hello. It's good to be back.'" His last
international performance was in
October 1979 in Vancouver, British
Columbia. It was released on DVD as
There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in
Here.[27] In March 1980 he gave his last
reading at the Sweetwater club in
Redondo Beach, which was released as
Hostage on audio CD and The Last Straw
on DVD.[28] In 2010 the unedited versions
of both The Last Straw and Riot were
released as One Tough Mother on DVD.

In the 1980s and 1990s, cartoonist

Robert Crumb illustrated a number of
Bukowski's stories, including the
collection The Captain Is Out to Lunch
and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
and the story "Bring Me Your Love."[29]

In the 1980s, he collaborated with

illustrator Robert Crumb on a series of
comic books, with Bukowski supplying
the writing and Crumb providing the
artwork.
Bukowski has been published in Beloit
Poetry Journal.

Death and legacy …

Henry Charles Bukowski Jr.'s grave in Green Hills

Memorial Park

Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9,

1994, in San Pedro, aged 73, shortly after
completing his last novel, Pulp. The
funeral rites, orchestrated by his widow,
were conducted by Buddhist monks. He
is interred at Green Hills Memorial Park
in Rancho Palos Verdes. An account of
the proceedings can be found in Gerald
Locklin's book Charles Bukowski: A Sure
Bet. His gravestone reads: "Don't Try", a
phrase which Bukowski uses in one of
his poems, advising aspiring writers and
poets about inspiration and creativity.
Bukowski explained the phrase in a 1963
letter to John William Corrington:
"Somebody at one of these places [...]
asked me: 'What do you do? How do you
write, create?' You don't, I told them. You
don't try. That's very important: not to try,
either for Cadillacs, creation or
immortality. You wait, and if nothing
happens, you wait some more. It's like a
bug high on the wall. You wait for it to
come to you. When it gets close enough
you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or, if
you like its looks, you make a pet out of
it."

Bukowski was an atheist.[30]

Bukowski's work was subject to

controversy throughout his career, and
Hugh Fox claimed that his sexism in
poetry, at least in part, translated into his
life. In 1969, Fox published the first
critical study of Bukowski in The North
American Review, and mentioned
Bukowski's attitude toward women:
"When women are around, he has to play
Man. In a way it's the same kind of 'pose'
he plays at in his poetry—Bogart, Eric Von
Stroheim. Whenever my wife Lucia would
come with me to visit him he'd play the
Man role, but one night she couldn't
come I got to Buk's place and found a
whole different guy—easy to get along
with, relaxed, accessible."[31]

In June 2006, Bukowski's literary archive

was donated by his widow to the
Huntington Library in San Marino,
California. Copies of all editions of his
work published by the Black Sparrow
Press are held at Western Michigan
University, which purchased the archive
of the publishing house after its closure
in 2003.
Ecco Press continues to release new
collections of his poetry, culled from the
thousands of works published in small
literary magazines. According to Ecco
Press, the 2007 release The People Look
Like Flowers at Last will be his final
posthumous release, as now all his once-
unpublished work has been made
available.[32]

Writing
Writers including John Fante,[33] Knut
Hamsun,[33] Louis-Ferdinand Céline,[33]
Ernest Hemingway,[34] Robinson
Jeffers,[34] Henry Miller,[33] D. H.
Lawrence,[34] Fyodor Dostoevsky,[34] Du
Fu[34] and Li Bai[34] are noted as
influences on Bukowski's writing.

Bukowski often spoke of Los Angeles as

his favorite subject. In a 1974 interview
he said, "You live in a town all your life,
and you get to know every bitch on the
street corner and half of them you have
already messed around with. You've got
the layout of the whole land. You have a
picture of where you are.... Since I was
raised in L.A., I've always had the
geographical and spiritual feeling of
being here. I've had time to learn this city.
I can't see any other place than L.A."[23]

Bukowski also performed live readings of

his works, beginning in 1962 on radio
station KPFK in Los Angeles and
increasing in frequency through the
1970s. Drinking was often a featured part
of the readings, along with a combative
banter with the audience.[35] Bukowski
could also be generous, for example,
after a sold-out show at Amazingrace
Coffeehouse in Evanston, Illinois on Nov.
18, 1975, he signed and illustrated over
100 copies of his poem "Winter,"
published by No Mountains Poetry
Project. By the late 1970s, Bukowski's
income was sufficient to give up live
readings.

One critic has described Bukowski's

fiction as a "detailed depiction of a
certain taboo male fantasy: the
uninhibited bachelor, slobby, anti-social,
and utterly free", an image he tried to live
up to with sometimes riotous public
poetry readings and boorish party
behavior.[36] A few critics and
commentators[37] also supported the
idea that Bukowski was a cynic, as a man
and a writer. Bukowski denied being a
cynic, stating: "I've always been accused
of being a cynic. I think cynicism is sour
grapes. I think cynicism is a
weakness."[38]

Poetry editorial controversy …

Over half of Bukowski's collections have
been published posthumously.
Posthumous collections have been
known to have been 'John Martinized',
with the poems having been highly
tampered and edited, at a level which
was not present during Bukowski's
lifetime.[39] [40]

One example of a popular poem, "Roll the

Dice" (when comparing the original
manuscript to "What Matters Most is
How Well You Walk Through the Fire"),
themes such as alcoholism are removed,
and lines are changed from "against total
rejection and the highest of odds" to
"despite rejection and the worst odds".
[41]

In popular culture
This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or
unrelated references to popular culture.
Learn more

Barfly …

Barfly, released in 1987, is a semi-

autobiographical film written by
Bukowski and starring Mickey Rourke as
Henry Chinaski, who represents
Bukowski, and Faye Dunaway as his lover
Wanda Wilcox. Sean Penn offered to play
Chinaski for one dollar as long as his
friend Dennis Hopper would direct,[42] but
the European director Barbet Schroeder
had invested many years and thousands
of dollars in the project and Bukowski felt
Schroeder deserved to make it. Bukowski
wrote the screenplay, was given script
approval,[42] and appears as a bar patron
in a brief cameo.

Musicians …

US band Red Hot Chili Peppers reference

Bukowski and his works in several songs;
singer Anthony Kiedis has stated that
Bukowski is a big influence on his
writing. Fall Out Boy referenced
Bukowski's novel Post Office in their
unreleased song "Guilty as Charged (Tell
Hip-Hop I'm Literate)". Arctic Monkeys
lead singer Alex Turner mentions
Bukowski in the song "She Looks Like
Fun", from the album Tranquility Base
Hotel & Casino.

MF DOOM has referred to Bukowski as

inspiration for his songs, featuring a
Bukowski poem in one of his songs,
"Cellz". Modest Mouse included a song
titled "Bukowski" on their 2004 album
Good News For People Who Love Bad
News. Harry Styles has stopped One
Direction concerts to read Bukowski in
2014 [43]. Killer Mike mentions Bukowski
in the song "Walking in the Snow" on the
2020 album RTJ4, saying he reads Noam
Chomsky and Bukowski.
The Volcano Choir song "Alaskans"
features a recording of Bukowski reading
a poem on French television.[44]

Other references …

Crazy Love is a 1987 film directed by

Belgian director Dominique Deruddere.
The film is based on various writings by
Bukowski, in particular "The Copulating
Mermaid of Venice, California".

In 2013, the actor James Franco began

shooting a film adaptation of Bukowski's
novel Ham on Rye.[45] He wrote the script
with his brother Dave. The adaptation
began shooting in Los Angeles on
January 22, 2013, with Franco directing.
The film was partially shot in Oxford
Square, a historic neighborhood of Los
Angeles.[46] Following a lawsuit, the film
was released as Bukowski .

French cineaste Jean-Luc Godard praised

Bukowski for his work creating the
English subtitles for his 1980 film, Sauve
qui peut (la vie), Every Man for Himself in
English language.[47]

In 1981, the Italian director Marco Ferreri

made a film, Storie di ordinaria follia (aka
Tales of Ordinary Madness), loosely
based on the short stories of Bukowski;
Ben Gazzara played the role of
Bukowski's character.
Bukowski's poem "Let It Enfold You"[1] ,
published in Betting on the Muse: Poems
and Stories (1996)[48], influenced the
emotional 2004 Senses Fail song (and
album) of the same name[49] and was
read by Timothée Chalamet in the 2018
film Beautiful Boy.[2]

The 2005 film Factotum, starring Matt

Dillon as Henry Chinaski, was released to
critical acclaim.[3]

Major works

Novels …

Post Office (1971), ISBN 978-

0061177576
 Factotum (1975), ISBN 978-
0061131271
Women (1978), ISBN 978-0876853917
Ham on Rye (1982), ISBN 978-
0876855591
Hollywood (1989), ISBN 978-
0876857656
Pulp (1994), ISBN 978-0876859261

Poetry collections …

Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail (1960)

It Catches My Heart in Its Hands (1963)
(title taken from Robinson Jeffers
poem, "Hellenistics")
Crucifix in a Deathhand (1965)
At Terror Street and Agony Way (1968)
Poems Written Before Jumping Out of
an 8 story Window (1968)
A Bukowski Sampler (1969)
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses
Over the Hills (1969)
Fire Station (1970)
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972),
ISBN 978-0876851395
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame:
Selected Poems 1955–1973 (1974)
Maybe Tomorrow (1977)
Love Is a Dog from Hell (1977),
ISBN 978-0876853634
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion
Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to
Bleed a Bit (1979), ISBN 978-
0876854389
Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981),
ISBN 978-0876855263
War All the Time: Poems 1981–1984
(1984)
You Get So Alone at Times That It Just
Makes Sense (1986)
The Roominghouse Madrigals (1988),
978-0876857335
Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems
(1990)
People Poems (1991)
The Last Night of the Earth Poems
(1992), ISBN 978-0876858653
Betting on the Muse: Poems and
Stories (1996), ISBN 978-1574230024
Bone Palace Ballet (1998)
What Matters Most Is How Well You
Walk Through the Fire. (1999)
Open All Night (2000)
The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps
(2001)
Sifting Through the Madness for the
Word, the Line, the Way (2003),
ISBN 978-0060527358
The Flash of the Lightning Behind the
Mountain (2004)
Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)
Come on In! (2006)
 The People Look Like Flowers at Last
(2007)
The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected
Poems 1951–1993 (2007), ISBN 978-
0061228438
The Continual Condition (2009)
On Writing (2015)
On Cats (2015)
On Love (2016)
Storm for the Living and the Dead
(2017), ISBN 978-0062656520

Short story chapbooks and

collections
…

Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to

Live with Beasts (1965)
All the Assholes in the World and Mine
(1966)
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and
General Tales of Ordinary Madness
(1972) ISBN 978-0-87286-061-2
South of No North (1973), ISBN 978-
0876851906
Hot Water Music (1983)
Bring Me Your Love (1983)
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983)
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town
(1983)
Prying (with Jack Micheline and
Catfish McDaris) (1997) ASIN:
 B000I92IS0
Portions from a Wine-stained
Notebook: Short Stories and Essays
(2008) ISBN 978-0-87286-492-4.
Absence of the Hero (2010)
More Notes of a Dirty Old Man (2011)
The Bell Tolls For No One (CityLights,
2015 edition)
On Drinking (2019)

Nonfiction books …

Shakespeare Never Did This (1979);

expanded (1995)
The Bukowski/Purdy Letters (1983)
Screams from the Balcony: Selected
Letters (1993)
Living on Luck: Selected Letters, vol. 2
(1995)
The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the
Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
(1998), ISBN 978-1574230598
Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters, vol.
3 (1999)
Beerspit Night and Cursing: The
Correspondense of Charles Bukowski
and Sheri Martinelli (2001)
Sunlight here I am: Interviews and
encounters, 1963–1993 (2003)
On Writing Edited by Abel Debritto
(2015), ISBN 978-0062417404
The Mathematics of the Breath and the
Way: On Writers and Writing Edited by
 David Stephen Calonne (City Lights,
2018) ISBN 978-0872867598

Recordings …

At Terror Street and Agony Way, Open

reel tape, 1968
Poetry – Charles Bukowski, Steven
Richmond, LP, 1968
A Cold Turkey Press Special, LP, 1972
Totally Corrupt, The Dial-A-Poem Poets,
LP, 1976
90 Minutes in Hell, LP, 1977
Hello. It's good to be back., LP, 1978
Bukowski Reads His Poetry, LP, 1980
Voices of the Angels, LP, 1982
English As A Second Language, LP,
1983
Neighborhood Rhythms, LP, 1984
Cassette Gazette, Cassette, 1985
Hostage, LP 1985
Movable Feast #3, Cassette, 1986
The Charles Bukowski Tapes, VHS,
1987
Bukowski at Bellevue, VHS, 1988
Beat Scene Magazine #12, Flexi-disc,
1991
Hostage, CD, 1994
King of Poets, CD, 1995
70 Minutes in Hell, CD, 1997
At Terror Street and Agony Way, CD,
1998
Run with the Hunted, Cassette, 1998
Charles Bukowski: Uncensored, CD,
2000
Born Into This, DVD, 2003
Bukowski at Bellevue, DVD, 2004
Bukowski Reads His Poetry, CD, 2004
Bukowski Reads His Poetry, CD, 2004
Poems and Insults, CD, 2004
Solid Citizen, CD, 2004
12 Great Americans, CD, 2006
The Charles Bukowski Tapes, DVD,
2006
Bukowski at Baudelaire's, mp3, 2007
(not commercially released)
Underwater Poetry Festival, CD, 2007
Hello. It's good to be back., CD, 2008
Poetry of Charles Bukowski, CDR, 2008
There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in
Here, DVD, 2008
The Last Straw, DVD, 2008
One Tough Mother, DVD, 2010
Bukowski at the San Francisco Museum
of Art, Cassette, 2010
Bukowski at the San Francisco Museum
of Art, VHS tape 2010
Thomas Schmitt film, 1978 Hamburg
reading, mp4, 2015 (not commercially
 released)[50]

Film and screenplays …

Bukowski at Bellevue 1970 (1995)  –

Poetry Reading[51]
Bukowski 1973 – Californian KCET TV
Documentary
Supervan 1977 – Feature Film (Not
based on Bukowski's work but
Bukowski had cameo appearance as
Wet T-shirt Contest Water Boy)
There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in
Here – Filmed: 1979; DVD Release:
2008 – Poetry Reading
The Last Straw – Filmed: 1980; DVD
Release: 2008 – Poetry Reading
Tales of Ordinary Madness – Feature
Film
Poetry in Motion (film), a documentary
film (1982)
Barfly 1987 – Feature Film
Crazy Love 1987 – Feature Film
(Belgium)
The Ordinary Madness of Charles
Bukowski (1995), (BBC
documentary).[52][53]
Bukowski: Born Into This 2002 –
Biographical Documentary
Factotum 2005 – Feature Film
 The Suicide 2006 – Short film
One Tough Mother 2010 Released on
DVD – Poetry Reading
Mermaid of Venice 2011 – Short film
Charles Bukowski's Nirvana 2013 –
Short film[54]
Sitting on a Fire Escape Eating Eggs
2015 – Short film[55][56]

See also
Charles Bukowski's influence on
popular culture
Bukowski (1973 film)

References
1. Dobozy, Tamas (2001). "In the
 Country of Contradiction the
Hypocrite is King: Defining Dirty
Realism in Charles Bukowski's
Factotum". Modern Fiction Studies.
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2. "Charles Bukowski (criticism)" .
Enotes.com. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
3. Donnelly, Ben. "The Review of
Contemporary Fiction: Charles
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Crazy Life by Howard Sounces" .
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University of Illinois. Archived from
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4. "Bukowski, Charles". Columbia
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5. "Charles Bukowski FBI files" .
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6. Keeler, Emily (September 9, 2013).
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old man' Charles Bukowski" . Los
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7. "Charles Bukowski, King of the
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8. Iyer, Pico (June 16, 1986).
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 9. Kirsch, Adam (14 March 2005).
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Martinez" .
13. Elisa Leonelli, "Charles Bukowski:
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14. Sounes, Howard. Charles Bukowski:
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8
15. https://la.curbed.com/2015/5/26/99
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19. "Sheaf, Hearse, Coffin, Poetry NOW"
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26. Ciotti, Paul. (March 22, 1987) Los
Angeles Times Bukowski: He's
written more than 40 books, and in
Europe he's treated like a rock star.
He has dined with Norman Mailer
and goes to the race track with Sean
Penn. Mickey Rourke and Faye
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Bukowski is suddenly in vogue.
Section: Los Angeles Times
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27. "Charles Bukowski: There's Gonna Be
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Vancouver (1979) – Trailers,
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30. "For those who believe in God, most
of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can't readily
accept the God formula, the big
answers don't remain stone-written.
We adjust to new conditions and
discoveries. We are pliable. Love
need not be a command or faith a
dictum. I am my own God. We are
here to unlearn the teachings of the
church, state and our education
system. We are here to drink beer.
We are here to kill war. We are here
to laugh at the odds and live our
lives so well that Death will tremble
to take us."--Charles Bukowski, Life
(magazine), December 1988, quoted
 from James A. Haught, ed, 2000
Years of Disbelief.
31. Fox, Hugh (1969). "Hugh Fox: The
Living Underground: Charles
Bukowski". The North American
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JSTOR 25117001 .
32. "The People Look Like Flowers At
Last: New Poems" . 1994-03-09.
Retrieved 2014-07-17.
33. Hemmingson, Michael (October 9,
2008). The Dirty Realism Duo:
Charles Bukowski & Raymond
Carver. Borgo Press. pp. 70, 71.
ISBN 978-1-4344-0257-8.
34. Charlson, David (July 6, 2006).
Charles Bukowski: Autobiographer,
Gender Critic, Iconoclast. Trafford
Publishing. p. 30. ISBN 1-4120-5966-
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35. "Excerpt from letter from Bukowski
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""Living on Luck Selected Letters
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276" . Bukowskilive.com. Archived
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36. "Boston Review" . Archived from the
original on February 12, 2012.
37. “a view of humanity that is cynical”
https://www.theguardian.com/books
/booksblog/2007/sep/05/bukowski
“is well known for his cynicism”
https://theculturetrip.com/north-
america/usa/california/articles/an-
introduction-to-charles-bukowski-in-
8-poems/ “raw, cynical, pockmarked
poet”
http://www.prrb.ca/articles/issue02-
bukowski.htm “cynical, sharp-
minded and grounded”
https://charles-
bukowski.quillsliteracy.org/charles-
bukowski-love-poems/ “Ι am quite
the cynic I would fall in love with
Bukowski as he has the same dark,
twisted view on life”
http://renemullen.com/book-review-
ham-on-rye-by-charles-bukowski/ «a
lecherous, violence-prone cynic”
http://airshipdaily.com/blog/081520
14-charles-bukowski-la «He came
by his nihilism and cynicism»
http://brianoverland.com/2014/03/1
6/writing-in-california-bukowski-vs-
moody/ “cynic, sarcastic,
pessimistic and disillusioned”
http://www.merchantsofair.com/a-
small-neat-journal/charles-bukowski-
the-dirty-old-man “is one of the
most cynical authors”
https://sites.psu.edu/caradorercl131
4/2014/03/26/this-
bukowski/comment-page-1/ “his
poetry is fairly cynical”
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/th
ecynicsmessageboard/i-believe-
philosopher-john-paul-sartre-
definitely--t921.html “25 brilliantly
cynical quotes from the genius
Charles Bukowski”
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/44071
9513514580733/?lp=true “His work
is abrasive, honest and cynical”
https://www.spectatornews.com/sc
ene/2008/04/17/in-review-ham-on-
rye/ “a cynical critic”
https://www.123helpme.com/charle
s-bukowski-cynical-critic-
preview.asp?id=216091 “he is a
cynic with a sense of humor”
https://books.google.fr/books?
id=AKKOBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=
PA74&dq=Bukowski+was+a+cynic&s
ource=bl&ots=w03AkITUMN&sig=AC
fU3U17-
Bl0LFqOBP6CUmJZogGk5L9HQg&hl
=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlrrHausPh
AhXmAWMBHZJfCX84ChDoATAOeg
QIBhAB#v=onepage&q=Bukowski%2
0was%20a%20cynic&f=false “he
was a cynic only in a sense that
cynics are often deflated idealists”
https://books.google.fr/books?
id=xlsckDjWh24C&pg=PA166&lpg=P
A166&dq=Bukowski+was+a+cynic&s
ource=bl&ots=JkkNywZ16E&sig=ACf
 U3U0iOGPk8uYC2qL_YipoaRONC2IY
jw&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUvPS
ru8PhAhUODxQKHUMQAU04FBDoA
TADegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=Buko
wski%20was%20a%20cynic&f=false
38. ON
CYNICISM:https://bukowski.net/poe
ms/int2.php
39. https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-
senseless-tragic-rape-of-charles-
bukowskis-ghost-by-john-martins-
black-sparrow-press/
40. https://bukowski.net/
41. https://bukowskiforum.com/threads
/what-about-roll-the-dice.6699/
42. "Big-Screen Time for Bukowski :
'Love Is a Dog' and 'Barfly' Put Hard-
Living Poet in the Limelight" . Los
Angeles Times. 1987-11-03.
Retrieved 2019-07-17.
43. https://www.refinery29.com/en-
us/2014/08/72593/harry-styles-
reads-book-on-stage
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(PDF). Archived from the original
(PDF) on 2012-09-30. Retrieved
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46. Richard Verrier (2013-02-13).
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for local film production" . Los
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47. Jean-Luc Godard pt. 1 on YouTube
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ayContents.php?
book=13&Title=betting-on-the-muse
49. Then & Now (DVD). Vagrant. 2004.
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51. TheExpatriate700 (5 November
2010). "Bukowski at Bellevue
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52. The ordinary madness of Charles
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OCLC 69162412 .
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55. Sitting on a Fire Escape Eating Eggs
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56. "Sitting on a Fire Escape Eating Eggs
(2015)" . IMDb. 10 May 2015.

Further reading
Miles, Barry (2005). Charles Bukowski.
Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-85227-271-5.
Brewer, Gay (1997). Charles Bukowski:
Twayne's United States Authors Series.
ISBN 0-8057-4558-0.
Charlson, David (2005). Charles
Bukowski: Autobiographer, Gender
Critic, Iconoclast. Trafford Press.
ISBN 978-1-41205-966-4.
Cherkovski, Neeli (1991). Hank: The
Life of Charles Bukowski. ISBN 3-
87512-235-6.
Dorbin, Sanford (1969). A Bibliography
of Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow
Press.
Duval Jean-François (2002). Bukowski
and the Beats followed by An Evening
At Buk's Place: an Interview with
Charles Bukowski. Sun Dog Press.
ISBN 0-941543-30-7.
Fogel, Al (2000). Charles Bukowski: A
Comprehensive Price Guide & Checklist,
1944–1999.
Fox, Hugh (1969). Charles Bukowski: A
Critical and Bibliographical Study.
Harrison, Russell (1994). Against The
American Dream: Essays on Charles
Bukowski. ISBN 0876859597.
Krumhansl, Aaron (1999). A Descriptive
Bibliography of the Primary
Publications of Charles Bukowski.
Black Sparrow Press. ISBN 1-57423-
104-9.
Pleasants, Ben (2004). Visceral
Bukowski.
Sounes, Howard (1998). Charles
Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a
Crazy Life. ISBN 0-8021-1645-0.
Wood, Pamela (2010). Charles
Bukowski's Scarlet. Sun Dog Press.
ISBN 978-0-941543-58-3.
Roni (2020). Charles Bukowski
Timeline. A special publication of the
Charles-Bukowski-Society in
cooperation with bukowski.net &
Michael J. Phillips. MaroVerlag.
ISBN 978-3-87512-323-4.
External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Charles Bukowski

CharlesBukowski.org - All of his

poems, from the original manuscripts
Works by or about Charles Bukowski
in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Charles Bukowski on IMDb
Works by Charles Bukowski, cataloged
by WorldCat
Timeline of Bukowski's life and
publications at "the world's premiere
Charles Bukowski website and
discussion forum"
Profile, Bibliography, and poems at
Poetry Foundation
Profile and poems at Poets.org
"Hanging with Bukowski at the Gotlieb
Center" . BU Today. Boston University
26 March 2009
Guide to the Charles Bukowski
Manuscript. Special Collections and
Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine,
California.
"Bukowski Comes to Wormwood" , The
Wormwood Review 1985
"Mickey Rourke plays a tough barfly" .
Interview with Bukowski 10 February
1987. Chicago Sun Times
 13 August 2000 Bukowski profile
(audio, 11 mins) NPR.
"Smashed:The pulp poetry of Charles
Bukowski" by Adam Kirsch at The New
Yorker 14-03-2005
HarperCollins profile, timeline and
resources

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