Birthday: August 16, 1920
Birthplace: Andernach, Germany
Real Name: Henry Charles Bukowski
Parents: Henry Charles and Katharina [Fett] Bukowski
Description of Father: "[A] cruel shiny bastard with bad breath . . ."
Education: Attended Los Angeles City College, 1939-41
Work History: Manual worker in a dog biscuit factory, slaughterhouse, potato chip warehouse and various other dead-end jobs; Postal Carrier; Postal Clerk; Drunk
Medical History: Suffered from Acne Vulgaris, Hemorrhoids, Acute Alcoholism
Literary Influences: Conrad Aiken, Louis Ferdinand Celine (Journey to the End of the Night), Catullus, Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from the Underground), John Fante, Knut Hamsun (Hunger), Ernest Hemingway (early writings), Robinson Jeffers (long poems), James Thurber
Nonliterary Influence: Red Strange (aka Kid Red), a mentally ill tramp and derelict friend of Bukowski who wandered the highways and byways of America. Bukowski often plied Red with beer and encouraged him to relate his wildest stories, many of which ended up in Bukowski's own poems and short stories.
Interests: Horse playing, classical music, fat whores
Alter Ego: Henry "Hank" Chinaski
Drug of Choice: Alcohol
Long-time Publisher: Black Sparrow Press (defunct)
On Solitude: "I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me." [Factotum, 1975]
On Work: "It was true that I didn't have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?" [Factotum, 1975]
On Skid Row: "Those guys down there [in skid row] had no problems with women, income tax, landlords, burial expenses, dentists, time payments, car repairs, or with climbing into a voting booth and pulling the curtain closed." [Factotum, 1975]
On Rejection Slips: "And rejections are no hazard; they are better than gold. Just think what type of miserable cancer you would be today if all your works had been accepted." [Letter to Jory Sherman, April 1, 1960, included in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
First Published Short Story: "Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip," March-April issue of Story magazine, 1944
On Short Stories: "I do not believe in writing a short story unless it crawls out of the walls. I watch the walls daily but very little happens." [Letter to Ann Bauman, May 21, 1962, in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
On Hemingway: "Hem had style and genius that went with it, for a little while, then he tottered, rotted, but was man enough, finally, and had style enough, finally." [Letter to Neeli Cherry, 1962, in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
On The Beat Generation: "Now, the original Beats, as much as they were knocked, had the Idea. But they were flanked and overwhelmed by fakes, guys with nicely clipped beards, lonely-hearts looking for free ass, limelighters, rhyming poets, homosexuals, bums, sightseers - the same thing that killed the Village. Art can't operate in Crowds. Art does not belong at parties, nor does it belong at Inauguration Speeches." [Letter to Jon Webb, 1962, in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
First Book of Poetry: Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail, 1960 (shortly after the publication of this chapbook, Bukowski attempted suicide by gassing himself in his room, but quickly changed his mind . . .)
Major Works:
Post Office (1971)
Erections, Ejaculations and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (1974)
Factotum (1975)
Love is a Dog from Hell (1977)
Women (1978)
Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
Ham on Rye (1982)
War All the Time (1984)
Hollywood (1989)
On Drinking: "Frankly, I was horrified by life, at what a man had to do simply in order to eat, sleep, and keep himself clothed. So I stayed in bed and drank. When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat." [Factotum, 1975]
On Personal Hygiene: "Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit, then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass." [Factotum, 1975]
Films Based on Work:
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983 - Italian) - Director: Marco Ferreri. Starring: Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrell, Tanya Lopert, Roy Brocksmith. Gazzara is severely miscast in this debacle based loosely on "The Most Beautiful Woman in Town."
Barfly (1987) - Director: Barbet Schroeder. Starring: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige, Jack "Eraserhead" Nance, J.C. Quinn, Frank Stallone. Bukowski wrote the screenplay for this cult classic based on his early experiences in skid row. He even appears in a cameo as one of the barflies.
Love is a Dog from Hell (1987 - Belgium) - Director: Dominique Deruddere. Starring: Geert Hunaerts, Josse De Pauw. Adapted from Bukowski short stories, mainly "The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California." Bukowski considered it the most faithful adaptation of his work.
Walls in the City (1995) - Director: Jim Sikora. Starring: David Yow, Michael James, Tony Fitzpatrick, Paula Killen, Bill Cusack. Three short films based on Bukowski short stories about assorted barflies.
On Movies: "Want me to name [my favorite films]? 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' 'Elephant Man,' 'Eraserhead,' 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' - that's a classic. [Akira] Kurosawa and those great battle scenes. And all those great samurai films where guys are chopping heads off." (Film Comment interview, 1987)
On Barfly: "Mickey Rourke is a real human guy, on and off the set. And in 'Barfly' he really came through with the acting. I felt his enjoyment and inventiveness. Faye Dunaway just can't match his talent or his humanness but she filled her role." [Film Threat interview, 1987]
On Television: "We got cable TV here, and the first thing we switched on happened to be 'Eraserhead.' I said, 'Oh, this cable TV has opened up a whole new world. We're gonna be sitting in front of this thing for centuries. What next?' So starting with Eraserhead we sit here, click, click, click - nothing." (Film Comment interview, 1987)
On Politics: "I used to lean slightly toward the liberal left but the crew that's involved, in spite of the ideas, are a thin & grafted-like type of human, blank-eyed and throwing words like vomit." [Letter to Tom McNamara, July 14, 1965, in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
On Luck: "I'm one of those who doesn't think there is much difference/between an atomic scientist and a man who cleans the crappers/except for the luck of the draw - /parents with enough money to point you toward a more/generous death./of course, some come through brilliantly, but/there are thousands, millions of others, bottled up, kept/from even the most minute chance to realize their potential." ["Horsemeat" in War All the Time, 1984]
On Death: "I want to die with my head down on this/machine/3 lines from the bottom of the/page/burnt-out cigarette in my/fingers, radio still/playing/I just want to write/just well enough to/end like/that." ["suggestion for an arrangement" in War All the Time, 1984]
Cause of Death: Leukemia
Date of Death: March 9, 1994
Final Resting Place: Green Hills Memorial Park, Palos Verdes, California
Epitaph: "Don't Try"
Toltec 58 - 2007-10-07 13:56:49
Surfed on in after reading a link from deja from one Chinaski. I played around in the small press too. Mostly too drunk to be a real writer. Enjoyed kicking the poets asses. heh
Ginger Killian Eades - 2007-11-11 19:53:03
Here's a Poem I wrote on my interpretation of Bukowski's poetry upon the first few readings I managed to swallow. I later developed an affection for him, developing a taste for the "ROW" by default.
"Plight of a Poet"
Bukowski used to make me sick-
a wretched beat
in a flop house-
crouching over,
straining, taking a shit,
smoking a filterless square,
with greasy hair falling
from mixed-up head
down ripped, white V-neck;
passing up whores for booze,
drunken debauchery:
his prerogative;
yet his words
came like nightmares,
frightening, illuminating,
igniting the night-
like the burning bush
in some sacred land
where only natural loners are sages.
by Ginger Eades
Eric Wilson! - 2008-04-21 22:37:24
You two are stupid.
Brownstar - 2008-05-16 00:24:38
Read HIS and keep YOUR fucking day job.
Oana - 2008-05-22 03:51:45
You two are too stupid to read and understand his poems.
Gamecup - 2008-06-22 09:36:44
Ginger and Toltec are fools. If you assholes are really too stupid to appreciate Bukowski's "tell it like you see it" writing style that he brought to American literature then you two should go "eat shit and die." Too drunk? His novels and poetry are some of the most levelheaded and straightforward works that I've ever read! Do you need the words spelled out for you? Ginger, you suck, your poem sucks, and your probably an ugly freckled red-head who resents the fact that Bukowski's acne affected face looks better than your own.
Ginger Killian Eades - 2008-07-03 01:42:26
I apologize that you thought I was stupid for saying that I thought he was a good writer.
I was 10 when I heard of Bukowski and had an image of him which was put before me as being some drunk guy but then I read his work when I turned 12 which I didn't wanna do because he was an idol amongst others but they could offer nothing more than, "he's cool. he drinks a lot. poet" when I inquired.
I read his work, but did so with little interest til I was blown away by his writing and then became most interested and read more of his works.
The poem I wrote that same year at age 12 is what I posted above and it says, that I USED TO THINK he was so forth and so on. Yet it ends with the fact before age 13 I'd realized he was NOT just some guy- he was a helluva writer. Funny thing is- my saying Buk had words inside him that came out as wise, very wise (like a sage)(as in sagacious)that would lend one to think I was stupid.
Since I think his work illuminates the night (sheds light on darkness) that seems to make you think I am stupid. Now, I know I am stupid, but I feel I earned that for many other things, not for the fact I like Buk's writing, which I have liked going on 30 years, as I indicate in the poem laid out before you, which I wrote in the sixth grade. For some, having the quality of being stupid is more easily ascribed than to acquire.
Again, I apologize that you thought I was stupid for liking him since I thought he was a good writer.
No. Goodbye. - 2008-07-19 13:37:40
I don't think the problem is that Ginger is stupid. You just try too hard. That's visible in your writing, the fact that you felt the need to post a poem you wrote when you were 13 and doesn't reflect your current opinion, and your attempt with your response comment to prove that you are intelligent.
I am not really interested in attacking someone along with other people who don't know the target, but I felt there is a big difference between someone who is truly stupid and someone who is trying too hard. I don't know you well enough to determine if you are stupid. However, that is still entirely possible.
Mike J. Gister - 2008-07-28 08:17:14
You kids are getting younger with each post and I am getting older. I like this site; especially needed the humor of reading youngsters rant and rave with each comment. A tribute to Bukowski? I am 100% certain he needed some human decency given to him while alive so assuredly having a tribute to the Working Man's Poet now would be apropos. I like the video on here, after the third view I remembered Buk's whole life was a struggle...much like many people's lives. As a poet, I think he had everything in his life that was mentioned in Ginger's comment about his "plight."I remember Buk....yes. I am old and grey and fat now but when I was younger Buk would have joined me in a good hearty laugh at the disscection of stupidity you guys have started. Maybe I, too, am stupid, by your estimation, but I thought it said above, that "after swallowing the first of his poems" she "later developed an affection for him and a taste for the row." That seemed clear to me that she liked his writing, regardless of all the shit he was, he was yet an amazing man, but, hell, I don't know, maybe she liked his baked bean casserole. I don't know. Where did the comma splice, Bubba? The first guy attacked on here was simply dropping by and left a comment yet some of you attacked the fellow for what, exactly? Oh, he was stupid, is that what it was? He's not stupid. Well, not for what he posted anyway. And Lord have mercy, that girl flat out said she was stupid, herself. A self-claimed stupid one. Not many of those around. I do know she wasted manners by being polite & apologizing that you all had thought she had insulted Buk. Pfft! Why she seemed to give a damn whether or not she offended you titty-babies is where she reveals her stupidity. She should have given you the Outlaw Poetry Bible-and I don't care if she was 12 or 27 or 63 when she wrote that blurb; it sums up a whole lifetime of Buk being misunderstood. And that girl was on to something there. Some intuition or sense or something.That a child or an adult for the matter- can understand a man and then put it down in words so few- is more impressive than her manners. As for Buk being the guy who told it like it was, plain and truthful, honest, open, and straightforward, he was indeed that. This a tribute for Bukowski and I think it has been met with the fact that the first two comments were the only ones made so far in the ole Buk fashion he would have appreciated.Wonderful job of putting together the site here and had there not been so much glory given to Buk by others elsewhere on the REEL, I would say his tribute had been hijacked by high school boys caught in a quagmire of hand soap. Figure that one out, Chief.Praise to the reel and Bukowski and Ginger and the guy in post #1 for making this tribute a tribute. It is better to be understood than admired. Buk would have told you once if he told you twenty times that he wanted to be accepted and understood and to stash his defense mechanisms away with the rest of stale society.
Ginger Killian Eades - 2008-07-29 01:41:04
For the Mr. No person's comment, I DO STILL FEEL THE SAME WAY TODAY!!! Yup, Bukowski USED to make me sick YET his words were wise. Nuff said.
But, what on earth in my other comment would lend you to think there was an attempt at anything intelligent in that? It was such a generic yet sincere comment clarifying I had an appreciation for Bukowski. Where is my alleged attempt at trying hard to be intelligent there? I had to chuckle over that! Nothing intelligent expressed there, just feelings. You may read my SSRN research papers about Criminal Defense Law if you wanna see me "trying hard to be intelligent." There is a fee pursuant to downloading most published social science journals so I suggest checking your library's access for a free ride. Writing that apology comment to this blog was a no-brainer.
For the Mr. Gister comment, I appreciate the free psychoanalysis but this is so totally not my area, not my page, not my gig. I dunno what to say other than I felt what I feel and feel what I felt and feel what I feel and whether anyone can relate to that is of little importance if that is the proximate cause of perpetuating an on-going examination of me on a website that has nothing to do with me.
As for the others: I DO like a good baked bean casserole. Please send me your recipe.
Charles Plymell - 2008-07-29 10:12:39
You all need a spanking, and I'm the guy who can do it!
HayleyI - 2008-10-15 15:07:15
good job at tainting this website, idiots.
booty danceeer 69 - 2008-11-20 16:37:38
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