:Charles Bukowski

{{more citations needed section|date=February 2025}}

File:Bukowski Geburtshaus.jpg]]

Charles Bukowski was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Andernach, Prussia, Weimar Germany. His father was Heinrich (Henry) Bukowski, an American of German descent who had served in the U.S. army of occupation after World War I and had remained in Germany after his army service. His mother was Katharina (née Fett). His paternal grandfather, Leonard Bukowski, had moved to the United States from Imperial Germany in the 1880s. In Cleveland, Ohio, Leonard met Emilie Krause, an ethnic German, who had emigrated from Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). They married and settled in Pasadena, California, where Leonard worked as a successful carpenter. The couple had four children, including Heinrich (Henry), Charles Bukowski's father.Charles Bukowski (2009) Barry Miles. Random House, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-7535-2159-5}}{{page needed|date=June 2013}}Neeli Cherkovski: Das Leben des Charles Bukowski. München 1993, p. 18-20. His mother, Katharina Bukowski, was the daughter of Wilhelm Fett and Nannette Israel.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jan-07-me-martinez7-story.html|title=Do we need to admire Charles Bukowski to honor his poetry?|date=January 7, 2008|work=Los Angeles Times|first=Al |last= Martinez| author-link= Al Martinez}} The name Israel is widespread among Catholics in the Eifel region.[https://www.eifelzeitung.de/redaktion/kinder-der-eifel/charles-bukowski-134540/ Charles Bukowski US-Schrifsteller aus Andernach] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220213700/https://www.eifelzeitung.de/redaktion/kinder-der-eifel/charles-bukowski-134540/ |date=December 20, 2021 }}, Eifel-Zeitung, August 16, 2016 (in German) 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.Elisa Leonelli, [https://www.culturalweekly.com/charles-bukowski-its-humanity-that-bothers-me "Charles Bukowski: "It's humanity that bothers me."], Cultural Weekly, August 4, 2015.

Bukowski's parents met in Andernach following World War I. His father was German-American and a sergeant in the United States Army serving in Germany after the empire's defeat in 1918. He had an affair with Katharina, a German friend's sister, and she subsequently became pregnant. Bukowski repeatedly claimed to be born out of wedlock, but Andernach marital records indicate that his parents married one month before his birth.Sounes, Howard. Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, p. 8 Afterwards, Bukowski's father 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, he was unable to make a living and decided to move the family to the U.S. On April 18, 1923, they sailed from Bremerhaven to Baltimore, Maryland, where they settled.

His family moved to Mid-City, Los Angeles,{{Cite web|url=https://la.curbed.com/2015/5/26/9956946/charles-bukowski-childhood-home|title=Charles Bukowski's Famous Childhood Home in Mid-City LA is For Sale|first=Adrian Glick|last=Kudler|date=May 26, 2015|website=Curbed LA}} in 1930. Bukowski's father was often unemployed. In the autobiographical Ham on Rye, 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.{{cite book|last=Bukowski|first=Charles|title=Ham on Rye|year=1982|publisher=Ecco|isbn=0-06-117758-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hamonryenovel0000buko}}{{cite web|last=Young |first=Molly |url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/charles-bukowski |title=Poetry Foundation of America. Bukowski Profile |publisher=Poetryfoundation.org |access-date=July 17, 2014}} He later told an interviewer 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.

Young Bukowski 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. He was shy and socially withdrawn, a condition exacerbated during his teen years by an extreme case of acne. Neighborhood children ridiculed his accent and the clothing his parents made him wear. The Great Depression bolstered his rage as he grew, and gave him much of his voice and material for his writings.{{cite web|title= Bukowski, Charles (1920–1994)|url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sharpec/bukowski_charles_1920_1994/0|publisher=Routledge}}

In his early teen years, Bukowski had an epiphany when he was introduced to alcohol by his 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. Bukowski attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School for one year before transferring to Los Angeles High School.{{Cite book |last=Calonne |first=David Stephen |title=Charles Bukowski |date=2012 |publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-78023-023-8 |series=Critical lives |location=London |pages=18}} After graduating from high school in 1939, 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 City to begin a career as a financially pinched blue-collar worker with hopes of becoming a writer.

On July 22, 1944, with the war ongoing, Bukowski was arrested by FBI agents in Philadelphia, where he lived at the time, on suspicion of draft evasion. At a time when the U.S. was at war with Nazi Germany, and many Germans and German-Americans on the home front were suspected of disloyalty, Bukowski's German birth troubled the authorities. He was held for seventeen 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).

When Bukowski was aged 23 (March-April 1944), 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. However, Bukowski never fully gave up writing and had occasional pieces published during this period. The “ten-year drunk” was part of the Chinaski Legend, similar to Jack Kerouac’s Duluoz Legend.

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 U.S., working sporadically and staying in cheap rooming houses. In the early 1950s, he 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 the spring of 1954, Bukowski was treated for a near-fatal bleeding ulcer. After leaving the hospital he began to write poetry. The next year 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.

Several of Bukowski's poems were published in the late 1950s in Gallows, a small poetry magazine published briefly (the magazine lasted for two issues) by Jon Griffith."Sheaf, Hearse, Coffin, Poetry NOW" by E.V. Griffith (Hearse Press, 1996), pp. 23 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.Debritto (2013), p.90.

By 1960, Bukowski had returned to the post office in Los Angeles and 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.Bukowski, Charles Run with the hunted: a Charles Bukowski reader, Edited by John Martin (Ecco, 2003), pp. 363–365

File:Bukowski Court, 5124 DeLongpre Avenue, Los Angeles.jpg

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. "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 forty-two broadsides and lithographs which was published in 1964. Hearse Press continued to publish poems by Bukowski through the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s."Sheaf, Hearse, Coffin, Poetry NOW" by E.V. Griffith (Hearse Press, 1996), pp. 30, 32

Jon and Louise Webb, publishers of the literary magazine The Outsider, 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.

In 1964 a daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, was born to Bukowski and his live-in girlfriend Frances Smith. She would be his only child.

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.

In 1969, Bukowski accepted an offer from 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."{{cite web|url=http://www.jaydougherty.com/bukowski/index.html |title=Introduction to Charles Bukowski by Jay Dougherty |publisher=Jaydougherty.com |date=August 16, 1920 |access-date=July 17, 2014}} 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. An avid supporter of small independent presses, Bukowski continued to submit poems and short stories to innumerable small publications throughout his career.

Bukowski embarked on a series of love affairs and one-night trysts. One of these relationships was with Linda King, a sculptor and poet. Critic Robert Peters reported seeing Bukowski as an actor in 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.{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/bukowski-charles-19201994/11/|title=Charles Bukowski – Criticism|work=BookRags}} Bukowski's 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 weekend 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".Sounes, Howard. Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life. Grove Press, 1998. 275.

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 he moved from the East Hollywood area, where he had lived for most of his life, to the harborside community of San Pedro,Ciotti, Paul. (March 22, 1987) Los Angeles Times [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-22-tm-14539-story.html 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 Dunaway are starring in a movie based on his life. At 66, poet Charles Bukowski is suddenly in vogue.] Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine; p12. the southernmost district 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 the 1980s, Bukowski collaborated with cartoonist Robert Crumb on a series of comic books, with Bukowski supplying the writing and Crumb providing the artwork. Through the 1990s Crumb also 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".Popova, Maria. [http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/10/08/r-crumb-illustrates-bukowski/ "R. Crumb Illustrates Bukowksi"] www.brainpickings.org. Retrieved September 25, 2014.

Bukowski was also published in Beloit Poetry Journal.

Bukowski's live readings were legendary, with the drunk raucous crowd fighting with the drunk angry poet. In 1972, Joe Wolberg, who was the manager of City Lights Books in San Francisco, rented a hall and paid Bukowski to read his poems. A vinyl album was released by City Lights, which was re-issued by Takoma Records in 1980.''Record Collector Magazine" May – June 2021 Page 35

In May 1978, Bukowski traveled to West 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, Canada, and was released on DVD as There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here. The reading was produced by fan/friend Dennis Del Torre, who rented a venue, Viking Hall, paid Bukowski and his wife Linda to fly up, hired a video crew, promoted the event, and sold tickets. The crowd and Bukowski were very drunk for the event. A heckler was near the stage and can be heard clearly. Del Torre later went to Bukowski's widow, Linda Bukowski, for permission to license it. He thought it was the last reading Bukowski gave, but Linda told him there was another reading after that in Redondo Beach, CA, in early 1980.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/work/charles-bukowski-theres-gonna-be-a-god-damn-riot-in-here-live-in-vancouver-perf-474008 |title=Charles Bukowski: There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here! Live in Vancouver (1979) – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast |publisher=AllMovie |access-date=July 17, 2014}}

In March 1980 he gave his very last reading at the Sweetwater music venue in Redondo Beach, California, which was released as Hostage on vinyl and audio CD, and The Last Straw on DVD, filmed and produced by Jon Monday for mondayMEDIA.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/work/charles-bukowski-the-last-straw-474007 |title=Charles Bukowski: The Last Straw (1980) – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast |publisher=AllMovie |access-date=July 17, 2014}} In 2010 the unedited versions of both The Last Straw and Riot were released as One Tough Mother on DVD.

{{Main|There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here }}

{{Main|The Last Straw (2008 film)}}

File:2014-05-13 Henry Charles Bukowski Jr. gravestone, Green Hills, Los Angeles - USA.jpg

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's work was subject to controversy throughout his career. Hugh Fox claimed that his sexism in his 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 his 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."{{Cite journal|last=Fox|first=Hugh|title=Hugh Fox: The Living Underground: Charles Bukowski|jstor=25117001|journal=The North American Review|volume=254|issue=3|pages=57–58|year=1969}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/006057707X/ |title=The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems |website=Amazon |date=March 9, 1994 |access-date=July 17, 2014}}

Writers including John Fante,{{cite book|last=Hemmingson|first=Michael|title=The Dirty Realism Duo: Charles Bukowski & Raymond Carver|date=October 9, 2008|publisher=Borgo Press|isbn=978-1-4344-0257-8|pages=70, 71}} Knut Hamsun, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Ernest Hemingway,{{cite book|last=Charlson|first=David|title=Charles Bukowski: Autobiographer, Gender Critic, Iconoclast|date=July 6, 2006|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=1-4120-5966-6|page=30}} Robinson Jeffers, Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Du Fu Li Bai, and James Thurber 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."

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.{{cite web |url=http://bukowskilive.com/riot_pur.htm |title=Excerpt from letter from Bukowski to Carl Weissner – included in ""Living on Luck Selected Letters 1960s – 1970s Volume 2"", page 276 |publisher=Bukowskilive.com |access-date=July 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707070304/http://bukowskilive.com/riot_pur.htm |archive-date=July 7, 2012 |url-status=usurped }} Bukowski could also be generous; for example, after a sold-out show at Amazingrace Coffeehouse in Evanston, Illinois, on November 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.{{Cite web|url=https://bostonreview.net/BR19.3/fiction.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212194348/http://bostonreview.net/BR19.3/fiction.html|url-status=dead|title=Boston Review|archive-date=February 12, 2012}}

A few critics and commentators"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/

"He came by his nihilism and cynicism"

http://brianoverland.com/2014/03/16/writing-in-california-bukowski-vs-moody/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407193512/http://brianoverland.com/2014/03/16/writing-in-california-bukowski-vs-moody/ |date=April 7, 2019 }}

"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/caradorercl1314/2014/03/26/this-bukowski/comment-page-1/

"His work is abrasive, honest and cynical"

https://www.spectatornews.com/scene/2008/04/17/in-review-ham-on-rye/

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."{{Cite web |title=Charles Bukowski article - Tough Guys Write Poetry by Sean Penn |url=https://bukowski.net/poems/int2.php |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=bukowski.net}}

Over half of Bukowski's collections have been published posthumously. Posthumous collections have been remarked as 'John Martinized' {{cite web |title=Bukowski's poems were mangled by editors after his death. Now you can read his originals |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/bukowksis-poems-were-mangled-by-editors-after-his-death-now-you-can-read-his-originals |website=PBS |date=November 6, 2017 }}{{cite web |title=Charles Bukowski's Posthumous Poetry: As the Spirit Wanes, Shit Happens |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/charles-bukowskis-posthumous-poetry-as-the-spirit-wanes-shit-happens/ |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=March 2, 2018 |access-date=12 December 2024}}{{fv|date=December 2024|reason=Term 'John Martinized' not found in the sources.}}, with the poems having been highly edited, at a level which was not present during Bukowski's lifetime.{{Cite web|url=https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-senseless-tragic-rape-of-charles-bukowskis-ghost-by-john-martins-black-sparrow-press/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230411173619/https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-senseless-tragic-rape-of-charles-bukowskis-ghost-by-john-martins-black-sparrow-press/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=2023-04-11|title=The Senseless, Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski's Ghost by John Martin's Black Sparrow Press|date=June 18, 2013|website=mjp Books Blog via archive.is}} 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 hell and alcoholism are removed. The creative editing present includes changing lines from "against total rejection and the highest of odds" {{Cite web|url=https://bukowski.net/manuscripts/displaymanuscript.php?show=poem1991-00-00-roll-the-dice.jpg&w=2597|title=Charles Bukowski poem manuscript: Roll The Dice|website=bukowski.net}} {{dead link|date=December 2024}} to "despite rejection and the worst odds".{{Cite web|url=https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/what-about-roll-the-dice.6699/|title=What about 'Roll the Dice'?|website=Charles Bukowski – American author|date=August 23, 2011 }}{{bcn|date=December 2024}}

{{in popular culture|date=October 2018}}

• American Band Modest Mouse have a song titled Bukowski from their album Good News for People who Love Bad News.
• American 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.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-16 |title=The six best songs inspired by Charles Bukowski |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-six-best-songs-inspired-by-charles-bukowski/ |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}
• Harry Styles stopped One Direction concerts to read Bukowski in 2014.{{Cite web|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2014/08/72593/harry-styles-reads-book-on-stage|title=Harry Styles Reads Bukowski – One Direction Boston|first=Vanessa|last=Golembewski|website=Refinery29}} He later quoted "Old Man, Dead in a Room" in his song "Woman,"Harry Styles (Media notes). Harry Styles. Columbia Records / Erskine Records. 2017. and opened his 2021 Love on Tour shows with a quote from "Style".{{Cite web |last=McCarty |first=India |date=2022-05-13 |title=Harry Styles Became a Book Nerd Thanks to Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood' |url=https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/harry-styles-book-nerd-thanks-to-haruki-murakamis-norwegian-wood.html/ |access-date=2023-04-07 |website=Showbiz Cheat Sheet |language=en-US}}
• The Volcano Choir song "Alaskans" features a recording of Bukowski reading a poem on French television.{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9202-volcano-choir/|title=Volcano Choir|website=Pitchfork|date=August 28, 2013 }}
• "Bluebird" by Miranda Lambert is claimed to be the first country song inspired by Charles Bukowski to reach Number 1.{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2020/music/news/miranda-lambert-bluebird-number-one-interview-1234717192/|title=Miranda Lambert on Finally Reclaiming the No. 1 Spot With 'Bluebird': 'I Knew I Was Delivering Great Music'|first1=Chris|last1=Willman|date=July 27, 2020}}
• A 2006 musical comedy, Bukowsical!, by Spencer Green and Gary Stockdale, pokes fun at Bukowski's life and hipster image.{{Cite news|last=Morgan|first=Terry|date=March 19, 2006|title=Bukowsical!|work=Variety|url=https://variety.com/2006/legit/markets-festivals/bukowsical-1200517590/}}

• 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,{{Cite web|date=November 3, 1987|title=Big-Screen Time for Bukowski : 'Love Is a Dog' and 'Barfly' Put Hard-Living Poet in the Limelight|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-03-ca-18371-story.html|access-date=July 17, 2019|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}} 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, and appears as a bar patron in a brief cameo.
• The 1991 French film Lune Froide, directed by Patrick Bouchitey, was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, and is based on the short stories "The Copulating Mermaid of Venice" and "Trouble with the Battery".
• The 2005 film Factotum, adapted from Bukowski's 1975 novel of the same name, was released to mixed reviews.{{cite web |title=Factotum (2005) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/factotum |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=February 28, 2021}}
• In 2013, actor James Franco directed a film simply titled Bukowski, with Josh Peck playing the writer. Franco wrote the script with his brother Dave. The adaptation began shooting in Los Angeles on January 22, 2013, and was partially shot in Oxford Square, a historic neighborhood of Los Angeles.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-xpm-2013-feb-13-la-fi-ct-onlocation-bukowski20130213-story.html|title='Bukowski' plays role in modest rise for local film production|author=Richard Verrier|date=February 13, 2013|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=July 17, 2014}} In April 2014, producer Cyril Humphris sued Franco, claiming that the film was an unauthorized adaptation of Bukowski's Ham on Rye, to which Humphris had the film rights.{{cite web|website=The Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/james-franco-sued-violating-film-699013/|title=James Franco Sued for Violating Film Rights to Charles Bukowski Novel|first=Eriq|last=Gardner|date=April 25, 2014|access-date=December 14, 2023}} The lawsuit was eventually settled in October 2014, but the film has not been released since.{{cite web|website=The Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/james-franco-settles-lawsuit-charles-745235/|title=James Franco Settles Lawsuit Over Charles Bukowski Biopic|first=Eriq|last=Gardner|date=October 30, 2014|access-date=September 3, 2023}}
• Bukowski appeared with a cameo in the 1977 movie Supervan, as the "Wet T-Shirt Contest Water Boy".{{Citation |title=Super Van (1977) – Lamar Gard, Lamar Card {{!}} Cast and Crew {{!}} AllMovie |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/super-van-v112316/cast-crew |language=en |access-date=2022-04-04}}
• Tales of Ordinary Madness (Italian: Storie di ordinaria follia, French: Contes de la folie ordinaire), starring Ben Gazara and Ornella Muti, is a 1981 film by Italian director Marco Ferreri, based on the 1972 collection Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness.

• 1971 – Post Office
• 1975 – Factotum
• 1978 – Women
• 1982 – Ham on Rye
• 1989 – Hollywood
• 1994 – Pulp

{{div col}}

• 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)
• Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955–1973 (1974)
• Maybe Tomorrow (1977)
• Love Is a Dog from Hell (1977)
• Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)
• Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
• War All the Time: Poems 1981–1984 (1984)
• You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)
• The Roominghouse Madrigals (1988)
• Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems (1990)
• People Poems (1991)
• The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
• Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories (1996)
• What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire. (1999)
• Open All Night (2000)
• The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps (2001)
• Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)
• The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951–1993 (2007)
• The Continual Condition (2009)
• On Cats (2015)
• On Love (2016)
• Storm for the Living and the Dead (2017)

{{div col end}}

{{div col}}

• Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts (1965)
• Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
• Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
• South of No North (1973)
• Hot Water Music (1983)
• Bring Me Your Love (1983)
• Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983)
• The Most Beautiful Woman in Town (1983)
• Portions from a Wine-stained Notebook: Short Stories and Essays (2008)
• 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)

{{div col end}}

{{div col}}

• Shakespeare Never Did This (1979); expanded (1995)
• The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)
• On Writing; Edited by Abel Debritto (2015)
• The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writing; Edited by David Stephen Calonne (City Lights, 2018)

{{div col end}}

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

{{reflist}}

• Glenn Esterly/Abe Frajndlich (2020). Bukowski. The shooting. By Abe Frajndlich. Hirmer Publishers. {{ISBN|978-3-7774-3667-8}}.
• 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}}.
• Calonne, David Stephen (2012). Charles Bukowski. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-780230238.
• 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|0-87685-959-7}}.
• 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}}.

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb name|0001977}}
• [https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ABukowski%2C+Charles&dblist=638&fq=yr%3A1934..2015+%3E+%3E+ln%3Aeng+%3E+ap%3A%22bukowski%2C+charles%22+%3E+ln%3Aeng&qt=facet_ln%3A#%2528x0%253Abook%2Bx4%253Aprintbook%2529%2Cx0%253Aartchap-%2Cx0%253Asnd-%2Cx0%253Aaudiobook-%2C%2528x0%253Aaudiobook%2Bx4%253Acd%2529%2C%2528x0%253Aaudiobook%2Bx4%253Acassette%2529%2C%2528x0%253Aaudiobook%2Bx4%253Adigital%2529%2C%2528x0%253Aaudiobook%2Bx4%253Alp%2529%2Cx0%253Avideo-%2C%2528x0%253Avideo%2Bx4%253Advd%2529%2C%2528x0%253Avideo%2Bx4%253Avhs%2529%2C%2528x0%253Avideo%2Bx4%253Afilm%2529%2C%2528x0%253Avideo%2Bx4%253Abluray%2529%2Cx0%253Aarchv-%2C%2528x0%253Aarchv%2Bx4%253Adigital%2529%2Cx0%253Amusic-%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Acassette%2529%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Acd%2529%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Alp%2529%2Cx0%253Ajrnl-%2Cx0%253Acompfile-%2Cx0%253Akit-format Works by Charles Bukowski, cataloged by WorldCat]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20200429131558/https://bukowski.net/timeline/ Timeline of Bukowski's life and publications] at "the world's premiere Charles Bukowski website and discussion forum"
• [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=924 Profile, Bibliography, and poems] at Poetry Foundation
• [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/394 Profile and poems at Poets.org]
• [http://www.bu.edu/today/campus-life/2009/03/25/hanging-with-bukowski-gotlieb-center "Hanging with Bukowski at the Gotlieb Center"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329110521/http://www.bu.edu/today/campus-life/2009/03/25/hanging-with-bukowski-gotlieb-center |date=March 29, 2010 }}. BU Today. Boston University March 26, 2009
• [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9489q6mx Guide to the Charles Bukowski Manuscript.] Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
• [http://www.wormwoodreview.com/bukowski.html "Bukowski Comes to Wormwood"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421014423/http://wormwoodreview.com/bukowski.html |date=April 21, 2014 }}, The Wormwood Review 1985
• [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19870210/PEOPLE/812229998 "Mickey Rourke plays a tough barfly"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213001937/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19870210%2FPEOPLE%2F812229998 |date=February 13, 2013 }}. Interview with Bukowski February 10, 1987. Chicago Sun Times
• [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1080660 13 August 2000 Bukowski profile (audio, 11 mins)] NPR.
• [https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/03/14/050314crbo_books "Smashed:The pulp poetry of Charles Bukowski"] by Adam Kirsch at The New Yorker March 14, 2005
• [http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=1297 HarperCollins profile, timeline and resources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210012018/http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=1297 |date=February 10, 2013 }}
• [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=224543 Bukowski Court Historical Marker]

{{Charles Bukowski}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bukowski, Charles}}

Category:1920 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:20th-century American Buddhists

Category:20th-century American essayists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American poets

Category:20th-century American screenwriters

Category:20th-century American short story writers

Category:American agnostics

Category:American erotica writers

Category:American male essayists

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American male novelists

Category:American male poets

Category:American male short story writers

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:Beat Generation writers

Category:Biographical films about writers

Category:Counterculture of the 1960s

Category:Counterculture of the 1970s

Category:Counterculture of the 1980s

Category:Counterculture of the 1990s

Category:Critics of capitalism

Category:Deaths from leukemia in California

Category:German agnostics

Category:German Buddhists

Category:German emigrants to the United States

Category:Obscenity controversies in literature

Category:Outlaw poets

Category:People from Andernach

Category:People from the Weimar Republic

Category:Susan Miller Dorsey High School alumni

Category:Writers about activism and social change

Category:Writers from Los Angeles

Category:Writers from the Rhine Province

Category:Takoma Records artists