Charles Bukowski
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 - March 9, 1994), American poet and novelist, was born in Andernach, Germany and moved to Los Angeles, California three years later. He lived there much of his life.
He acknowledged Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, John Fante, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and others as influences on his writing, and was also knowledgeable about classical music. He was extremely prolific, publishing over 40 books of poetry and prose between 1960 and the early 1990s.
One critic described Bukowski's fiction as a "detailed depiction of a certain taboo male fantasy: the uninhibited bachelor, slobby, anti-social, and utterly free." [1]
Bukowski spent much of his life among the denizens of Hollywood's underbelly, and he was a long-term functional alcoholic. One of his poems describes his enjoyment of having a medical checkup at which he found that his drinking had had no perceptible effect on his health.
The film Barfly, starring Mickey Rourke, 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.
A documentary called Bukowski: Born Into This was released in American theaters on July 9, 2004, generally to good reviews. Actor Sean Penn and singer Bono, friends and fans of Bukowski, appear in the film.
An adaptation of Bukowski's second novel, Factotum, will be filmed starting in April 2004 in Minnesota.
Books by Charles Bukowski
- Flower, Fist and Bestial Wall (1960)
- Longshot Pomes for Broke Players (1962)
- Run with the Hunted (1962)
- It Catches My Heart in Its Hand (1963)
- Crucifix in a Deathhand (1965)
- Cold Dogs in the Courtyard (1965)
- Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts (1965)
- All the Assholes in the World and Mine (1966)
- The Curtains Are Waving... (1967)
- Poems Written Before Jumping out of an 8 Story Window (1968)
- At Terror Street and Agony Way (1968)
- A Bukowski Sampler (1969)
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
- Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969)
- Fire Station (1970)
- Post Office (1971)
- Another Academy (1970)
- Anthology of LA Poets (1972)
- Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck (1972)
- Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
- South of No North (1973)
- Burning in Water Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955-1973 (1974)
- Factotum (1975)
- Scarlet (1976)
- Love is a Dog from Hell (1977)
- Women (1978)
- You Kissed Lilly (1978)
- Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)
- Shakespeare Never Did This (1979)
- Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
- Post Office (1981) ISBN 0876850875
- Ham on Rye (1982)
- Hot Water Music (1983)
- Bring Me Your Love (illustrated by Robert Crumb)(paperback, 1985) ISBN 0876856067
- There's No Business (1984)
- War All the Time: Poems 1981-1984 (1984)
- You Get So Alone at Times It Just Makes Sense (1986)
- The Movie "Barfly" (1987)
- A Visitor Complains of My Disenfranchise (1987)
- Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems 1946-1966 (1988)
- Hollywood (1989)
- Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems (1990)
- People Poems (1991)
- Bluebird (1991)
- In the Shadow of the Rose(1991)
- Three Poems (1992)
- Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
- Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader (1993)
- Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960-1970 (1993)
- Pulp (1994)
- Shakespeare Never Did This (augmented edition) (1995)
- The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain: New Poems (2003) ISBN 0060577010
- Sifting Through The Madness for the Word, The Line, The Way: New Poems (2003) ISBN 00600568232
Books About Charles Bukowski
- Neeli Cherkowski - Bukowski - A Life
- Howard Sounes - Charles Bukowski. Locked in the arms of a crazy life
See also
de:Charles Bukowski
eo:Charles BUKOWSKI
fi:Charles Bukowski
fr:Charles Bukowski
