![]() Blunt language and a sly appreciation of his life form the core of the program, which includes observations by and about the women in his life" - TV guide, 25 November 1973. ![]() Until 1969, Bukowski worked in the Post Office to support his writing, and the camera captures his reminiscences of those days as he walks around his Los Angeles neighborhood. At age 53, Bukowski is enjoying his first major success (a San Francisco poetry reading nets him 400 dollars). "A cinema-verite portrait of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski. Bukowski is shown betting at the track and explaining his betting strategy. Interviews follow with Liza and Linda about their relationship with Charles. One night the window of his room is broken during a fight between some guests and then a fight between Charles and Linda causes her to leave. The film then shows him flying with Linda King to San Francisco for the poetry reading followed by interactions with attendees after the show. The full 60-minute documentary begins with footage of Bukowski in his Los Angeles home and neighborhood as he discusses his history as a postal worker as well as his approach to and perspective on poetry. Plot īukowski follows Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski to San Francisco on 21 November 1973, for a poetry reading. Writing as an outsider, on the periphery of both society and the literary establishment, Bukowski knew that, for him, “the place to find the center is at the edge.Bukowski is a 1973 documentary film produced by Taylor Hackford and directed by Richard Davies. In addition, Linda Lee Bukowski is graciously lendng a number of iconic items, including Bukowski’s manual typewriter, an original oil portrait by John Register, and very scarce early books, including Flower, Fist & Bestial Wail (1960) and It Catches My Heart in Its Hand (1963).Ĭharles Bukowski continues to attract a huge following of readers who feel a deep connection to the writer who spoke for the downtrodden and disaffected. More famous (or infamous) magazines like Oui and High Times will show a more lucrative aspect of Bukowski’s craft. Scarce, important “little magazines,” which were the first to publish Bukowski’s works, will include such publications as Wormwood Review, The Outsider, The Limberlost Review, and Runcible Spoon. There will be original drawings by Bukowski, correspondence and fan mail, and large-format printings of his poems produced by the Black Sparrow Press and other fine printing houses. Corrected typescripts of poems and of the novels Pulp (1984) and Hollywood (1989) will also be on view. Initially publishing in small poetry magazines, he eventually became a cult writer with an enormous following of fans whose lives he touched.Īmong the rare items on view in the exhibition will be first editions of his works, including Ham on Rye (1982), the autobiographical novel about his brutal childhood and young adulthood Factotum (1975), the fictional account of his succession of low-end jobs and Barfly (1984), the screenplay he wrote for the 1987 film starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. All the while, he struggled to make it as a writer, drinking heavily, nearly starving when money ran out, but always capturing his life and the stories of the people around him in his writings. Wandering from one cheap rooming house to another, and working at an endless series of menial, dead-end jobs, he lived among those on the fringes of society. A perpetual outsider in school, he escaped the hardships of life with an abusive father and passive mother, dropping out and leaving home in his teens. 14, 2011.īorn in Andernach, Germany, Bukowski emigrated with his parents to the United States as a child, and the family settled in Los Angeles. 9 in the West Hall of the Library and continues through Feb. “Charles Bukowski: Poet on the Edge” opens Oct. This fall, The Huntington presents a much-anticipated exhibition on the life and works of Charles Bukowski, drawn from the archive of his papers donated to The Huntington by his wife, Linda Lee Bukowski, in 2006. He strove to keep his writing “raw, easy, and simple,” to grasp the “hard, clean line that says it.” In telling these stories, Bukowski wrote without artifice in simple, natural language, repudiating the formal conventions of the literary establishment. With unflinching honesty and strong language, his poems and tales speak of life on the streets of Los Angeles among the prostitutes, drunks, gamblers, and outcasts struggling to survive in an unforgiving world. One of the most original voices in 20th-century American literature, Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) lived and wrote at the edge of society. My genius stems from an interest in whores, working men, street-car drivers – lonely, beaten-down people.”Ĭharles Bukowski, from Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963–1993
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