Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over 60 books. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column "Notes of a Dirty Old  Man" in the LA underground newspaper "Open City". Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s. As noted by one reviewer, "Bukowski continued to be, thanks to his antics and deliberate clownish performances, the king of the underground and the epitome of the littles in the ensuing decades, stressing his loyalty to those small press editors who had first championed his work and consolidating his presence in new ventures such as the "New York Quarterly", "Chiron Review", or "Slipstream"." Some of these works include his  Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window, published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and better known works such as "Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame". These poems and stories were later republished by John Martin's Black Sparrow Press (now HarperCollins/Ecco Press) as collected volumes of his work. In 1986 "Time" called Bukowski a "laureate of American lowlife". Regarding Bukowski's enduring popular appeal, Adam Kirsch of "The New Yorker" wrote, "the secret of Bukowski's appeal ... [is that] he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life  aplomb of a pulp-fiction hero." Since his death in March 1994, Bukowski has been the subject of a number of critical articles and books about both his life and writings, despite his work having received relatively little attention from academic critics in the United States during his lifetime. In contrast, Bukowski enjoyed extraordinary fame in Europe, particularly in Germany, the place of his birth. Biography. Family and early years. Bukowski was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Andernach, Rhine Province, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) to Heinrich (Henry) Bukowski, an American of German and  Polish descent who had served in the U.S. army of occupation after World War I and had remained in Germany after his army service, and Katharina (née Fett). His paternal grandfather Leonard Bukowski had moved to the United States from the German Empire in the 1880s. In Cleveland, Leonard met Emilie Krause, an ethnic German, who had emigrated from Danzig, Prussia (today Gdańsk, Poland). They married and settled in Pasadena. He worked as a successful carpenter. The couple had four children, including Heinrich (Henry), Charles Bukowski's father. His mother, Katharina Bukowski, was the daughter of Wilhelm Fett and Nannette  Israel. A Jewish origin of Nannette Israel is sometimes assumed; the name "Israel" is, however, widespread among Catholics in the Eifel region. 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. Bukowski's parents met in Andernach, Germany, following World War I. The poet's father was German-American and a sergeant in the United States Army serving in Germany after Germany's defeat in 1918. He had an affair with Katharina, a German friend's sister , and she subsequently became pregnant. Charles Bukowski repeatedly claimed to be born out of wedlock, but Andernach marital records indicate that his parents married one month before his birth. Afterwards, Henry Bukowski 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, Henry Bukowski was unable to make a living, so he decided to move the family to the United  States. On April 23, 1923, they sailed from Bremerhaven to Baltimore, Maryland, where they settled. The family moved to Mid-City, Los Angeles, USA in 1930, the city where Charles Bukowski's father and grandfather had previously worked and lived. Young Charles 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. In the 1930s, the poet's father was often unemployed. In the autobiographical "Ham on Rye", Charles 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. During his youth, Bukowski was shy and socially withdrawn, a condition exacerbated during his teen years by an extreme case of acne. Neighborhood children ridiculed his German accent and the clothing his parents made him wear. In "Bukowski: Born Into This", a 2003 film, Bukowski states 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. The Depression bolstered his rage as he grew, and  gave him much of his voice and material for his writings. In his early teen years, Bukowski had an epiphany when he was introduced to alcohol by his loyal 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. After graduating from Los Angeles High School, 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 dreams of becoming a writer. On July 22, 1944, with World War II ongoing, Bukowski was arrested by F.B.I. agents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived at the time, on suspicion of draft evasion. At a time when the United States was at war with Germany and many Germans and German-Americans in the United States were suspected of disloyalty, his German birth troubled the US authorities. He was held for  17 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). Early writing. When Bukowski was 24, 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 "", 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. 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 United States, working sporadically and staying in cheap rooming houses. In the early 1950s, Bukowski 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 1955 he was treated for a near-fatal bleeding ulcer. After leaving the hospital he began to write poetry. In 1955 he agreed to marry small-town Texas poet Barbara Frye, but they subsequently divorced in 1958. According to Howard Sounes's "", she later died under mysterious circumstances in India. Following his divorce, Bukowski resumed drinking and continued writing poetry. Several of his poems were published in the late 1950s in "Gallows", a  small poetry magazine published briefly (the magazine lasted for two issues) by Jon Griffith. 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". 1960s. By 1960, Bukowski had returned to the post office in Los Angeles where he 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. In 1964 a daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, was born to Bukowski and his live-in girlfriend Frances Smith, whom he referred to as a "white-haired hippie", "shack-job", and "old snaggle-tooth". 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 42 broadsides and lithographs which was published in 1964. Hearse Press continued to publish poems by Bukowski through the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. Jon and Louise Webb, publishers of "The Outsider" literary magazine, 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. 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. Black Sparrow years. In 1969 Bukowski accepted an offer from legendary 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." 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 owing to Martin's business acumen and editorial skills. 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 poet and sculptress. Critic Robert Peters reported seeing the poet as actor in Linda 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. His 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 week-end 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". 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 Bukowski moved from the East Hollywood area, where he had lived for most of his life, to the harborside community of San Pedro, the southernmost district of the City 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 May 1978, he returned to 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. It was released  on DVD as "There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here". In March 1980 he gave his last reading at the Sweetwater club in Redondo Beach, which was released as "Hostage" on audio CD and "The Last Straw" on DVD. In 2010 the unedited versions of both "The Last Straw" and "Riot" were released as "One Tough Mother" on DVD. 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." Bukowski has been published in Beloit Poetry Journal. Death and legacy. 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 was an agnostic. Bukowski's work was subject to controversy throughout his career, and he readily admitted to admiring strong leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hugh Fox claimed that his sexism in 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 Bukowski's 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." 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. Writing. Writers including John Fante, Knut Hamsun, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Ernest Hemingway, 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. 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. A few critics and commentators 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." Poetry editorial controversy. Over half of Bukowski's collections have  been published posthumously. Posthumous collections have been known to have been 'John Martinized', with the poems having been highly edited, at a level which was not present during Bukowski's lifetime. 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" to "despite rejection and the worst odds". In popular culture. In literature. Charles Bukowski was the inspiration behind the  first chapter of Mark Manson's bestselling self-help book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck". His problems with drugs, women and alcohol despite being a bestselling writer were discussed in the chapter titled "Don't Try" – a reference to the epitaph on the author's gravestone.