Charles Bukowski Biography and List of Works

American author of the second wave Beat Generation, noted for his stories of survival and heavy drinking on the fringes of society. Before starting his career as a writer, Bukowski worked in menial jobs and as a journalist at Harlequin and Laugh Literature. He was described by Jean Genet and Jean-Paul Sartre as America's 'greatest poet'. However, the author refused to meet Sartre - he had his bottle to take care of.

"There are so many," she said, "who go by the name of poet. But they have no training, no feeling for their craft. The savages have taken over the castle. There's no workmanship, no care, simply a demand to be accepted. And these new poets all seem to admire one another. It worries me and I've talked about it to a lot of my poet friends. All a young poet seems to think he needs is a typewriter and a few pieces of paper. They aren't prepared, they have had no preparation at all."
(from Hot Water Music, 1995)

Bukowski was born in Andernach in Germany the son of a US soldier and German woman. His family immigrated to the United States in 1922, and settled in Los Angeles, where Bukowski spent most of his life. His father was in and out of work during the Depression years, regularly beating the boy. Later Bukowski depicted his childhood in HAM ON RYE (1982), seeing him as a cruel, shiny bastard with bad breath. To shield himself from his father, he began drinking at the age of 13, which started his life-long obsession with alcohol.

After graduating from Los Angeles High School, Bukowski studied at Los Angeles City Collegefor a year, taking courses in journalism and literature. He left home in 1941 - his father had read his stories and threw his possessions ono the lawn. During World War II Bukowski lived the life of a wondering hobo and skid row alcoholic. He travelled across America, working in odd jobs: petrol station attendant, lift operator, lorry driver, and an overman in a dog biscuit factory. At the age of thirty-five he began to write poetry.

"If you are going to write, you have to have something to write about. The gods were good. They kept me on the street."

In 1944 his story 'Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip' was published in Story. He returned to Los Angeles and met Janet Cooney Baker, with whom he lived for the next decade. In 1955 Bukowski was hospitalised with an alcohol-induced bleeding ulcer and came close to death. After a brief marriage to Barbara Frye, the rich publisher of a small poetry magazine, Bukowski began in 1958 his twelve years work as a Post Office clerk.

In 1955 Bukowski began writing poetry, publishing volumes almost annually. His first collection, FLOWER, FIST AND BESTIAL WAIL, appeared in 1959. It is 30 pages long and the print run was only 200. Bukowski's early poems have much in common with the work of Robinson Jeffers. He admires strength and endurance, and features violent and sexual confrontations between men and women. Bukowski's first volume of prose, ALL ASSHOLES IN THE WORLD AND MINE, was published seven years later. By the 1960s Bukowski had established a loyal following, and gradually became a world famous character and depicter of down-and-out people. In poetry Bukowski shifted from introspection to more expressionistic writing, as seen in AT TERROR STREET AND AGONY WAY (1968) and THE DAYS RUN AWAY LIKE WILD HORSES OVER THE HILL (1969). His columns, The Notes of a Dirty Old Man appeared in Open City and Los Angles Free Press. The texts were later collected in book (1969). In 1970 Bukowski left his job after the publisher John Martin of the Black Sparrow Press had offered him $100 a month to write full time.

As his social situation changed, Bukowski's poems no longer depicted the adventures of an outcast, but became meditative and sarcastic comments on his surroundings, trips to the race track, or his daily routines. Although prolific, Bukowski remained a literary outsider who published his works with small presses, primarily on the West Coast. In 1973 Bukowski gained a wider audience when an award-winning television documentary by Taylor Hackford was broadcast.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, has its literary roots in Dostoyevsky's underground man and Louis-Ferdinand Céline's protagonist. Chinaski is a tough, hard-drinking womaniser, who lives with the bums and criminals, sometimes also visiting high society. The character is introduced in the autobiographical CONFESSIONS OF A MAN INSANE ENOUGH TO LIVE WITH THE BEASTS (1965). Chinaski's adventures were further chronicled in the novels POST OFFICE (1971), in which he survives the tyrannical nature of paid labour, FACTOTUM (1975), WOMEN (1978), and HAM ON RYE (1982), in which Chinaski returns to his childhood and youth.

Bukowski had one daughter, Marina Louise. He was married in 1985 to Linda Lee Beighle, a health food proprietor twenty-five years his junior. This was a more balanced period of his life. Towards the end of his days, the author lived in a house with a swimming pool, drove a black BMW, wrote on a computer, and listened to records of his favourites Sibelius, Mahler, and Rossini. A longstanding friend of Raymond Carver, Bukowski is ranked among the original 'dirty realists'. THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS (1992) was the last book published in Bukowski's lifetime. It constitutes reflections of people who have passed from his life, and forward visions of his death. Bukowski died of leukaemia on March 9, 1994 in Los Angeles.

Film Tales of Ordinary Madness is based on stories by the author. It was directed in 1983 by Marco Ferreri, starring Ben Gazarra and Ornella Muti. The story depics a drunken poet who is obsessed by sex but can't find a happy relationship with women.The script drew upon material from EJACULATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, AND GENERAL TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS (1972). - Another film, Barfly, directed by Barbet Schroeder, written by Charles Bukowski, starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, concerns a writer, who meets a lush who takes him under her wings. Bukowski documented the making of the movie in his novel HOLLYWOOD (1989) - Crazy Love / Love is a Dog from Hell (1989) is based on 'The Copulating Mermaid of Venice and other Stories' by Bukowski, directed by Dominique Deruddere, starring Josse de Pauw, Geert Hunaerts, Michael Pas, Gene Bervoets.In the film, a frustrated boy, full of romantic longing, grows up to be a necrophiliac. - Lune Froinde (1991), dir. by Patrick Bouchitey, starring P. Bouchitey, Jean-Francois Stevenin, Laura Favali, based on Bukowski's stories 'Copulating Mermaid of Venice' and 'Trouble with the Battery'.

For further reading: Charles Bukowski: A Critical and Bibliographical Study by Hugh Fox (1969); A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski by Sanford Dorbin (1969); Bukowski: Friendship, Fame, and Bestial Myth by Jory Sherman (1982); A Charles Bukowski Checklist, ed. by Jeffrey Weinberg; Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski by Neeli Cherkovski (1991); Against the American Dream by R. Harrison (1994); A Sure Bet by G. Locklin (1995); Charles Bukowski by G. Brewer (1997)

FLOWER, FIST, AND BESTIAL WAIL, (1959)
LONGSHOT POEMS FOR BROKE PLAYERS, (1962)
POEMS AND DRAWINGS, (1962)
RUN WITH THE HUNTED, (1962)
IT CATCHES MY HEART IN ITS HANDS, (1963)
CONFESSIONS OF A MAN INSANE ENOUGH TO LIVE WITH BEASTS, (1965)
CRUSIFIX IN THE DEATHHAND, (1965)
ALL THE ASSHOLES IN THE WORLD AND MINE, (1966)
THE GENIUS OF THE CROWD, (1966)
AT TERROR STREET AND AGONY WAY, (1968)
POEMS WRITTEN BEFORE JUMPING OUT OF AN 8 STORY WINDOW, (1968)
NOTES OF A DIRTY OLD MAN, (1969)
THE DAYS RUN AWAY LIKE WILD HORSES OVER THE HILLS, (1969)
FIRE STATION, (1970)
POST OFFICE, (1971)
ME AND YOUR SIMETIMES LOVE POEMS, (1972)
MOCKINGBIRD WISH ME LUCK, (1972)
EJACULATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, AND GENERAL TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS, (1972)
LIFE AND DEATH IN THE CHARITY WARD, (1973)
SOUTH OF NORTH, (1973)
BURNING IN WATER, DROWNING IN FLAME: SELECTED POEMS, (1955)
LIFE AND DEATH IN THE CHARITY WARD, (1974)
BURNING IN WATER DROWNING IN FLAME, (1974)
FACTORUM, (1975)
LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL, (1977)
WOMEN, (1978)
SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID THIS, (1979)
DANGLING IN THE TOURNEFORTIA, (1981)
HAM ON RYE, (1982)
BRING ME YOUR LOVE, (1983)
HOT WATER MUSIC, (1983)
THE BUKOWSKI-PURDY LETTERS, (1983)
THERE'S NO BUSINESS, (1984)
UNDER THE INFLUENCE, (1984)
WAR ALL THE TIME, (1984)
THE MOVIE: BARLY, (1984)
ALONE IN THE TIME OF ARMIES, (1985)
THE DAY IT SNOWEN IN L.A., (1986)
YOU GET SO ALONE AT TIMES THAT IT JUST MAKES SENSE, (1986)
GOLD IN YOUR EYE, (1986)
LUCK, (1987)
THE ROOMINGHOUSE MADRIGALS: EARLY SELECTED POEMS, (1946)
THE MOVIE CRITICS, (1988)
HOLLYWOOD, (1989)
WE AIN'T GOT NO MONEY, HONEY, BUT WE GOT RAIN, (1990)
SEPTUAGENARIAN STEW: STORIES & POEMS, (1990)
IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROSE, (1991)
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS, (1992)
SUPPOSEDLY FAMOUS, (1992)
RUN WITH THE HUNTED: A CHARLES BUKOWSI READER, (1993)
SCREAMS FROM THE BALCONY: SELECTED LETTERS, (1960)
PULP, (1994)
LIVING ON LUCK: SELECTED LETTERS, (1960)
SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID THIS, (1995)
BETTING ON THE MUSE, (1996)
BONE PALACE BALLET, (1997)
THE CAPTAIN IS OUT TO LUNCH AND THE SAILORS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE SHIP, (1998)