Poet's Page Forums
Poet's Page Home
The Dark Workings of the Mind
The Dionoil Legends
The Deafening Hush
Escape the Widowed Flame
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), began writing at a young age and was first
published in the 1940s. Then Bukowksi gave up writing for the world of work
and bars, not publishing, not writing, so the myth goes, for nearly twenty
years. Ten of those years were spent roaming from odd job to odd
roominghouse from the East coast to the West.
The other ten years, Bukowski
worked for the United States Postal Service in Los Angeles, a job that took no
effort except for the strength to show up and the patience to perform mindless
operations. During that time, his life bordered on insanity and death, two
prevalent themes in his writing.
According to his own myth making, Bukowski
returned to writing the day that he quit the Postal Service, but his bibliography
shows that indeed, he had been publishing several years before that.
Bukowksi's first generally recognized publication date is in the 1960s, yet
citations from the early 60s exist in Sanford Dorbin's early bibliography, and
The Roominghouse Madrigals prints poems from the late 40s.
The fact is that Bukowski has published extensively in various small literary
publications for over thirty years. These publications exist in small numbers
and are difficult if not impossible to find. Fortunately, John Martin of Black
Sparrow Press has managed to cull together these poems and stories over
several collections, until catching up with his contemporary writings in the 80s.
In total, there are over forty books in print written by Bukowski. Since his
death on March 9, 1994, a growing number of books deal with Bukowski as a
critical source and literary legend.