Henry Charles Bukowski

8/7/2019 Henry Charles Bukowski

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Biographical Presentation by David Paul


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Born Heinrich Karl Bukowskiin Andernach, Germany

Father was German-American

soldier Due to German economic

collapse post-WWI, familyemigrates to Baltimore in 1923

Family settles in Los Angelessoon after emigration to theUnited States.


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Awkward kid; was ridiculed byneighborhood childrenbecause of his German accent.

Graduated Los Angeles High,then attended Los AngelesCity College

Took courses in art, journalismand literature


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Had a strained relationship with his father, who wasoften violent and abusive Did not support his writing, see Ham and Rye 1982

1940, Throws his possessions out on the front lawn

after reading his short stories Moves out of the house same year

Leaves Los Angeles City College without graduating


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1942, goes out on his own to see thecountry

Settled primarily in Philadelphia aftervisiting many cities around the UnitedStates

Lost virginity at age 23 to a woman hedescribes as a 300 pound whore. 1944, was taken into custody by FBI

agents for suspected draft evasion,spends 17 days at Moyamensing Prison

Failed psychological evaluation and isexempted from WWII military service The same year he published short story

Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slipin Story Magazine at age 24.


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Returned permanently to LosAngeles in 1947

Started writing and drinking moreand more

Met Jane Cooney Baker, live togetheron and off until 1955

Treated with a near-fatal bleedingulcer in 1955, then began to writepoetry

Married Texas poet Barbara Frye,divorces two years later and has arocky, unstable relationship with

women throughout his life


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Began full-time work as a filing clerkat the post office

Devastated by the loss of Jane

Cooney Baker in 1962 Turned his inner devastation into a

series of poems and storieslamenting her passing

Chronicled his own lowly life inpoetry and other writing

Never gained significant notorietyin the United States


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I even hear the mountains

the way they laugh

up and down their blue sides

and fish down in the water

the fish cry

and the water

is their tears

I listen to the water

on nights I drink away

and the sadness becomes so great

I hear it in my clock

it becomes knobs upon my dresser

it becomes paper on the floor

it becomes a shoehorn

a laundry ticket

it becomes

cigarette smoke

climbing a chapel of dark vines

it matters little

very little love is not so bad

or very little life

what counts

is waiting on the walls

I was born for this

I was born to hustle roses down the avenues of the

dead.


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Rebellious, non conformist,more so than any other white

American writer other thanplaywright Eugene ONeill

Late 60s began writing acolumn in an undergroundnewspaper entitled Notes of aDirty Old man.

Was the subject ofinvestigation by the FBI andother government branches in1968.


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Bukowski became subsidized by thepatronage of John Martin, bookcollector and publisher

Quit post office and began writing

full time. Gained more notoriety in Germany

and France than he ever did in theUnited States

Became good friends with LeonardoDiCaprios father, who was a pornshop manager in the sleaziest part ofHollywood, California


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Writes his novels based around hisautobiographical alter ego, HenryChinaski, who is a hard-drinking

womanizer and bar fighter

Chinaskis life chronicled inBukowskis novels: Post Office(1971), Factotum (1975),Women (1978) and Ham onRye (1982)

Factotum made into a movie in2005 starring Matt Dillon as HankChinaski, directed by Norwegianfilmmaker Bent Hamer


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Finally gaining some bit ofnotoriety, Bukowski became amiddle-class homeowner in SanPedro

Aided by a personal computer in

the 1980s, he generated so muchmaterial that originals were stillbeing published as late as 2004

Drove a black BMW and palledaround with Sean Penn

Finished last novel Pulp (1994)

and his last poetry volume LastNight of the Earth Poems

Died of leukemia on March 9,1994, in Los Angeles


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You know; Im drunk once againhere

listening to Tchaikovsky

on the radio.

Jesus, I heard him 47 years

ago

when I was a starving writer

and here he is

again

and now I am a minor success as

a writer

and death is walkingup and down

this room

smoking my cigars

Taking hits of my

wine

as Tchaik is working awayat the Pathetique,

its been some journey

and any luck Ive had was

because I rolled the dice

right:I starved for my art, I starved to

gain 5 god-damn minutes, 5 hours,

5 days-

I just wanted to get the word

down;fame, money, didnt matter:

Iwanted the word down

and they wanted me at a punch press,

a factory assembly line

they wanted me to be a stock boy ina department store.

well, death says, as he walks by,

Im going to get you anyhow

no matter what youve been:

writer, cab-driver, pimp, butcher,skydiver, Im going to get

you . . .

o.k. baby, I tell him.

we drink together now

as one a.m. slides to 2a.m. and

only he knows the moment,

but I worked a con on him;

I got my 5 god-damn minutes

and much more.


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Questions?


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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/bio

http://bukowski.net/poems/aftermath.php

http://www.usagold.com/germannightmare.html

http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780876858639
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/biohttp://bukowski.net/poems/aftermath.phphttp://www.usagold.com/germannightmare.htmlhttp://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780876858639http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780876858639http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780876858639http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780876858639http://www.usagold.com/germannightmare.htmlhttp://bukowski.net/poems/aftermath.phphttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/bio

Henry Charles Bukowski

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