Charles Bukowski: Sex, Alcohol and Underworlds

Charles Bukowski is, for many, the best writer in the history of mankind. And it is that, undoubtedly, if we grasp the concept of the writer as one who writes feelings taken from the true and pure soul, we will not be wrong. Bukowski He was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski and was an American writer and poet of the so-called 'underground'.

He is mistakenly associated with the writers of the Beat Generation, due to their similarities in philosophy. Bukowski's writing is strongly influenced by the atmosphere of the city where he spent most of his life, Los Angeles in the United States, hence the underground theme where it seems that there is only room for sex, alcohol and the underworld, in general. The writer was a prolific author, he wrote more than fifty books, countless short stories and a multitude of poems. He is often mentioned as being influenced by contemporary authors and his style is frequently imitated. He died of leukemia in 1994, at the age of 73. Today he is considered one of the great American writers and a symbol of "dirty realism" and independent literature.

With the collapse of the German economy after the World War I, the family would move to Baltimore in 1923. To make it sound more American, the parents started calling Bukowski Henry. Later they would move to a suburb of Los Angeles where the family of the father of Bukowski. During his childhood, his father, who was frequently unemployed, mistreated Charles (facts that he himself recounts in many poems and stories, and in the novel «The Path of the Loser«). In addition, he was not very well accepted in school as a child (he had marks on his face due to a disease that he suffered from when he was very young: acne, which increased the rejection suffered), along with his shyness, made him take refuge in the reading in the first stage of his life.

Once he graduated from high school in Los Angeles, Bukowski He studied art, journalism, and literature at Los Angeles City University for two years, but was unable to finish them. At 24, Bukowski's short story «Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip»Was published in Story Magazine. Two years later they would publish another story «20 Tanks From Kasseldown«, This time in another medium. It was when Bukowski became disillusioned with the publishing process that he stopped writing for a decade. During this time he was living in Los Angeles, although he also spent time wandering around the United States, dedicating himself to temporary jobs that he was leaving and staying in cheap pensions, as a mailman, deliveryman, etc.

In 1955 he was hospitalized with a very serious bleeding ulcer. When he got out of the hospital, he started writing poetry. In 1957, he married the writer and poet Barbara Frye, but they divorced later, in 1959. Frye often doubted the ability of Bukowski as a poet. Once divorced, Bukowski He continued to drink and write poetry.

Before the 60s began, he returned to the post office in Los Angeles, where he continued to work for a decade. In 1964, he had a daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, born from his relationship with his girlfriend Frances Smith. Later, Bukowski lived in Tucson for a short time, where he befriended Jon Webb and Gypsy Lou, who influenced him to publish and make a living from their literature.

Thanks to Webb he began to publish some poems in the literature magazine «The Outsider«. Under "Loujon press»Published«It Catches My Heart In Its Hand»In 1963, and«A Crucifix in a Deathhand" Two years later. It was when Bukowski met Franz Douskey, a friend of Jon Webb, whom he used to visit regularly in his little house on Elm Street that also served as a publishing center. Webb, Bukowski, and Douskey spent time together in New Orleans.

In 1969, after publisher John Martin of Black sparrow press promised a salary of 100 per month for life, Bukowski He stopped working at the post office, to write all the time. He was then 49 years old and had a life ahead of him. As he himself explained in a letter at the time, “I have two options, stay at the post office and go crazy… or stay out and play at being a writer and starve to death. I have decided to starve. " Less than a month passed after leaving work at the Post Office, when he finished his first novel, entitled Post Office (in Spanish, The postman).Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994 in San Pedro, California, at the age of 73, shortly after finishing his last novel «Pulp ». His funeral remains were carried by Buddhist monks. On his tombstone it reads: "Don't Try".

Bibliography

• It catches my heart in its hands, 1963. (Without translation into Spanish)
• Crucifix in a death hand, 1965. (Without translation into Spanish)
• Notes of a dirty old man, 1969. (Writings of an indecent old man, Anagrama)
• Days run away like wild horses over the hills, 1969. (Without translation into Spanish)
• Post office, 1971. (Postman, Anagram)
• Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, 1972.
• South of No North, 1973. (Wanted a woman, Anagrama)
• Erections, ejaculations, exhibitions and general tales of ordinary madness, 1972. (Erections, ejaculations, exhibitions, Anagram)
• Factotum, 1975. (Factotum, Anagram)
• Love is a dog from hell, 1977. (Love is a hellish dog and other poems, Etching productions, Lima, Peru, 2005)
• Women, 1978. (Women, Anagram)
• shakespeare never did this, 1979. (Shakespeare never did, Anagram)
• ham on rye, 1982. (The path of the loser, Anagrama)
• hot water music, 1983. (Pipe music, Anagram)
• The roominghouse madrigals, 1988. (Madrigales de la pension, Visor, 2001)
• Hollywood, 1989. (Hollywood, Anagram)
• The last night of the earth poems, 1992. (Poems from the last night on earth, DVD Editions, 2004)
• Pulp, 1994. (Pulp, Anagram)
• The captain is out to lunch and the sailors have taken over the ship, 1998. (The captain went out to eat and the sailors took the boat, Anagrama)

Other works in Spanish:

• 10 erotic tales, Random House Mondadori
• What I like the most is scratching my armpits Fernanda Pivano interviews Bukowski,
• Dancing with death (Ten years after his death, edited by hanz moth and drawings by Fernando Laguna Silva)

Poetry:

• I am the edge of a glass that cuts I am blood (UAM, Col. The bee in the hive, Mexico)
• The world seen from the window of a third floor (Ed. Hombre que Lee, Mexico)
• Love is a hellish dog (Editions of the millennium, Mexico)
• Poems of the indecent old man (Cultural Editions, Mexico)
• Love is a dog from hell and other poems (Etching productions, Peru, edited by hanz moth and drawings by Fernando Laguna Silva)
• He scrutinized madness in search of the word, the verse, the route (Visor, 2005)
• Poems of the last night on earth (DVD Editions, 2004)
• Go ahead! (Visor, 2007) -posthumous work-

Anagram

• Son of satan, Anagram
• Fighting against, Anagram
• The Fucking Machine, Anagram
• The most important thing is to know how to go through the fire, Poetry, Señor Hildago
• Burn in the water, drown in the fire, Poetry, Señor Hildago
• The captain went out to eat and the sailors took the boat, Anagram
• Postman, Anagram
• Women, Anagram
• The Path of the Loser, Anagram
• Hollywood, Anagram

Related:

• Hank: (the life of Charles Bukowski), by Neeli Cherkovski, Anagram.

• Ordinary Insanity, film about the life of Charles Bukowski, by Marco Ferreri.

• Barfly, a film scripted by Bukowski himself that later inspired his novel Hollywood, which recounts his experiences during filming.

• Factotum film adaptation of the homonymous novel.