Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 ? March 9, 1994), was a Los Angeles poet and novelist. Bukowski is sometimes associated with the Beat Generation writers because of his informal style and non-conformist literary attitude, though he did not identify himself as a Beat. Bukowski closely associated his works with his home city of Los Angeles and wrote over fifty books before his death on March 9, 1994.

Bukowski's writings

Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the late 1950s and continuing on through the early 1990s, with the poems and stories being republished by Black Sparrow Press (and now HarperCollins/ECCO) as collected volumes of his work. A prolific author, Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually having more than fifty books in print. http://smog.net/writers/bukowski/database/searchBOOKdate.php

Related Topics:
1950s - 1990s - Black Sparrow Press - HarperCollins - ECCO

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bukowski acknowledged Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, John Fante, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and others as influences on his writing. Though he is sometimes associated with the beat generation of writers because of his writing style, Bukowski didn't consider himself a beat writer (like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg).

Related Topics:
Anton Chekhov - Ernest Hemingway - John Fante - Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Beat generation - Jack Kerouac - Allen Ginsberg

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Instead, Bukowski strongly associated with his home city of Los Angeles. In a 1974 interview, he said, "You live in a town all your life, and you get to know every street corner. 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." http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jayd/buktro.htm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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." http://bostonreview.net/BR19.3/fiction.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since his death in 1994, Bukowski has been the subject of a number of critical articles and books about both his life and writings. ECCO continues to release new collections of his poetry, culled from the thousands of works published in small literary magazines. A documentary movie about his life, Bukowski: Born Into This, was released in 2004.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~