Profile of Charles Bukowski on Famous Like Me

Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994), was a Los Angeles poet and novelist.

Life

Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920 after his mother, a native German, met his father, an American serviceman, during the occupation of Germany at the end of World War I. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was two years old. During the Great Depression, Bukowski's father was often unemployed, and according to Bukowski, verbally and physically abusive. This possibly contributed to Bukowski's isolation and alcoholism. After graduating from Los Angeles High School, Bukowski attended Los Angeles City College for one year, taking courses in art, journalism, and literature.

At 24, Bukowski's 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 in Portfolio III's broadside collection. Bukowski grew disillusioned with the publication process and quit writing for almost a decade. He spent this period in Los Angeles, and roaming across the United States, working odd jobs and staying in inexpensive rooming houses. In the early 1950's Bukowski took a temporary job as a letter carrier with the United States Postal Service in Los Angeles, but quit after less than two years. In 1955 he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer that was nearly fatal. When he left the hospital, he began to write poetry. He resumed drinking.

He returned to the post office in Los Angeles, where he worked as a clerk for over a decade. In 1965 a daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, was born to Bukowski and Frances Smith. Smith and Bukowski lived together but were never married. In 1969 Bukowski quit his job at the post office to make writing his full time career, after being promised a monthly stipend of $100 "for life" from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin. He was 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." Less than one month after leaving the postal service he finished his first novel, titled Post Office. In 1976 Bukowski met Linda Lee Beighle, a health food store owner. Two years later the couple moved from the East Los Angeles area, where Bukowski lived for most of his life, to the port town of San Pedro, at the Southern tip of Los Angeles. Bukowski and Beighle were married in 1985.

Work

Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the late 1950s and continuing on through the early 1990s, with the poems and stories being republished by Black Sparrow Press (now HarperCollins/ECCO) as collected volumes of his work. A prolific author, Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually having more than fifty books in print.

Bukowski acknowledged Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, John Fante, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and others as influences on his writing. Though he is sometimes associated with the Beat Generation of writers because of his writing style, Bukowski didn't consider himself a Beat writer (like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg). Bukowski associated with Los Angeles. In a 1974 interview, he said, "You live in a town all your life, and you get to know every street corner. 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."

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." Since his death in 1994, Bukowski has been the subject of a number of critical articles and books about both his life and writings. While becomiing an icon to the disaffected and those with problems stemming from alcoholism, academic critics have not accorded his work seriously. Ecco continues to release new collections of his poetry, culled from the thousands of works published in small literary magazines. A documentary movie about his life, Bukowski: Born Into This, was released in 2004.

Trivia

Music

• The band Hot Water Music has taken its name from the book of the same name which Bukowski wrote in 1983.
• The band Thursday named one of its albums War All The Time.
• The band Modest Mouse has used both Bukowski's name and alleged personality on the 8th track of their newest album, Good News For People Who Love Bad News.
• English rock band The Dogs D'Amour recorded a track entitled Bullet Proof Poet (for Charles Bukowski) on their 1991 acoustic mini-album A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles.
• The grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed used two spoken word samples by Bukowski in the song "Hungry Homeless Handjob"
• The funk rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers refer to Charles Bukowski, "pick up my book, I read Bukowski," in the song Mellowship Slinky in B-Major from the album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
• Omaha based songwriter Tim Kasher, who fronts the bands Cursive and The Good Life, wrote of Bukowski on The Good Life's newest album. "I was reading Fante at the time, I had Bukowski on the mind" refers to the link between Fante's and Bukowski's work.

Film

• Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) - Ben Gazzara plays Charles Serking, a character loosely based on Bukowski's autobiographical character Henry Chinaski. The slow and stiffly acted film never found an audience, and Bukowski - though friendly with Gazzara - panned the actor's performance.
• The film Barfly (1987) starring Mickey Rourke and written by Bukowski himself, was based on his life, the main character being his alter-ego, Henry Chinaski. His novel Hollywood was based on the tribulations of making this film.
• The same year Barfly debuted (1987), the Belgian film Crazy Love directed by Dominique Deruddere, was released. Based on the Bukowski story The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California, and portions of Ham on Rye, the film tells the story of a man's life by spotlighting three different nights spread over 20 years. Crazy Love was cited by Bukowski as his favorite film adaptation of his work.
• A documentary entitled Bukowski: Born Into This was released in American theaters on July 9, 2004, generally to good reviews. Actor Sean Penn as well as musicians Tom Waits and Bono, friends and fans of Bukowski, appear in the film.
• An adaptation of Bukowski's second novel, Factotum, was shot in Minnesota in 2004 and premiered 2005-04-12 at the Kosmorama film festival in Trondheim, Norway . It was directed by Bent Hamer, and Matt Dillon plays the role of Henry Chinaski.

References

• An Introduction to Charles Bukowski
• The Hunchback of East Hollywood : A Biography of Charles Bukowski by Aubrey Malone (Critical Vision, 2003)
• Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life by Howard Sounes (Grove Press, 1999)
• Aaron Krumhansl - A Descriptive Bibliography of the Primary Publications of Charles Bukowski (Black Sparrow Press, 1999)
• Sanford Dorbin - A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski (Black Sparrow Press, 1969)
• University of Southern California Department of Special Collections

Bibliography

• 55 beds in the same direction (1974)
• A Bukowski Sampler (1969)
• A Love Poem (1979)
• A New War (1997)
• All the Assholes in the World and Mine (1966)
• Alone In A Time Of Armies (1985)
• Another Academy (1970)
• Art (1977)
• At Terror Street and Agony Way (1968)
• Beauti-Ful (1988)
• Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli 1960-1967 (2001)
• Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories (1996)
• Between The Earthquake (1993)
• Bone Palace Ballet (1997)
• Bring Me Your Love (illustrated by Robert Crumb) (1983) ISBN 0876856067
• Burning in Water Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955-1973 (1974)
• Cold Dogs in the Courtyard (1965)
• Confession Of A Coward (1995)
• Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts (1965)
• Crucifix in a Deathhand (1965)
• Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
• Darkness & Ice (1990)
• Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969)
• Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
• Factotum (1975)
• Fire Station (1970)
• Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail (1960)
• Going Modern (1984)
• Gold In Your Eye (1986)
• Grip the walls (1964)
• Ham On Rye (1982)
• Heat Wave (1995)
• Hollywood (1989)
• Horsemeat (1982)
• Horses Don't Bet on People and Neither Do I (1984)
• Hot Water Music (1983)
• If we take (1969)
• If You Let Them Kill You They Will (1989)
• In The Morning And At Night (1991)
• In The Shadow Of The Rose (1991)
• It Catches My Heart in Its Hand (1963)
• Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
• Legs, Hips and Behind (1978)
• Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s-1970s, Volume 2 (1995)
• Longshot Pomes for Broke Players (1962)
• Love is a Dog from Hell (1977)
• Luck (1987)
• Me and your sometimes love poems (1972)
• Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck (1972)
• Night's work (1966)
• Not Quite Bernadette (1990)
• Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
• Now (1992)
• One For The Old Boy (1984)
• Open All Night (2000)
• People Poems (1991)
• Pink Silks (2001)
• Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)
• Poems Written Before Jumping out of an 8 Story Window (1968)
• Popcorn In The Dark (2000)
• Post Office (1971) ISBN 0876850875
• Pulp (1994)
• Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters 1978-1994, Volume 3 (1999)
• Red (1989)
• Relentless As The Tarantula (1986)
• Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems 1946-1966 (1988)
• Run with the Hunted (1962)
• Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader (1993)
• Scarlet (1976)
• Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960-1970 (1993)
• Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems (1990)
• Shakespeare Never Did This (1979)
• Shakespeare Never Did This (augmented edition) (1995)
• Sifting Through The Madness for the Word, The Line, The Way: New Poems (2003) ISBN 00600568232
• Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)
• South of No North (1973)
• Sparks (1983)
• The Bukowski/Purdy Letters (1983)
• The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)
• The Day it Snowed in L.A. (1986)
• The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain: New Poems (2004) ISBN 0060577010
• The Genius of the Crowd (1966)
• The Last Generation (1982)
• The Last Poem & Tough Company (1976)
• The Laughing Heart (1996)
• The Movie "Barfly" (1987)
• The Movie Critics (1988)
• The night torn mad with footsteps (2001)
• The Simple Truth (2002)
• The Singer (1999)
• The Wedding (1986)
• There's No Business (illustrated by Robert Crumb) (1984)
• This (1990)
• Those Marvelous Lunches (1993)
• Three Poems (1992)
• To Lean Back Into It (1998)
• War All the Time: Poems 1981-1984 (1984)
• We Ain't Got No Money Honey (1989)
• What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (1999)
• Women (1978)
• You Get So Alone at Times It Just Makes Sense (1986)
• You Kissed Lilly (1978)

Criticism and Biographies

• Hugh Fox - Charles Bukowski A Critical and Bibliographical Study - 1969
• Jory Sherman - Bukowski: Friendship, Fame & Bestial Myth - 1981
• Neeli Cherkowski - Bukowski - A Life - 1991
• Russell Harrison - Against The American Dream - 1994
• Amber O'Neil - Blowing My Hero - 1995
• Gerald Locklin - Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet - 1996
• Steve Richmond - Spinning Off Bukowski - 1996
• A.D. Winans - The Charles Bukowski/Second Coming Years - 1996
• Gay Brewer - Charles Bukowski, Twayne's United States Authors Series - 1997
• Jim Christy - The Buk Book - 1997
• John Thomas - Bukowski In The Bathtub - 1997
• Ann Menebroker - Surviving Bukowski - 1998
• Carlos Polimeni - Bukowski For Beginners - 1998
• Howard Sounes - Charles Bukowski. Locked in the arms of a crazy life - 1998
• Jean-Francois Duval - Bukowski and The Beats - 2000
• Gundolf S. Freyermuth - That's it. - 2000
• Daniel Weizmann (editor) - Drinking with Bukowski - Recollections of the Poet Laureate of Skid Row - 2000
• Aubrey Malone - the hunchback of east hollywood - 2003
• Jon Edgar Webb Jr. - Jon, Lou, Bukowski and Me - 2003
• Ben Pleasants - Visceral Bukowski - 2004
• Enrico Francheschini - I'm Bukowski, and then? - 2005
• Barry Miles - Charles Bukowski - 2005
• Tom Russell - Tough Company - 2005
• Linda King - Loving and Hating Charles Bukowski - 2006

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