Charles Bukowski - (1920-1994)

Los Angeles

By Stevie Bell
San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California

Read another essay on Charles Bukowski written by California student James Morner.

I.  Biography
Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920.  In 1923, at the age of three, his parents took him to the United States where he lived fully until he died.  For 50 years, he lived in and around the areas of Los Angeles, California.  His "home" was San Pedro, California, known for its world famous Port of Los Angeles and the surrounding pubs and personalities that became the true inspiration for his writings and poetry.

Bukowski, better known as "Hank," had his first work published in 1944.  Mysteriously, he quit writing for 20 years after that.  For the first 10 years of his "sabbatical," he wandered aimlessly from odd job to odd job.  The next 10, he worked for the U.S. Post Office.  At the age of 35, he started writing poetry and, by age 50, he was discovered by publisher John Martin of Black Sparrow Press.

Spending a large part of his life as a member of the bar scene, particularly on the San Pedro waterfront, Bukowski became well known for his womanizing and hard drinking.  His honest, and often graphic, portrayal of the seedier side of life has prompted many critics and enthusiasts to consider Bukowski one of our greatest American poets.

Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994 in his final hometown of San Pedro, California at the age of 73.  During his career, he published six novels, 45 poems, four nonfiction books, and a screenplay.  

II.  Literary Works (partial listing)
Post Office (1970)
Factotum (1975)
Women (1978)
Ham on Rye (1982)
Hollywood:  A Novel (1989)
Pulp (1994)
Horses Don't Bet on People & Neither Do I (1984)
Longshot Poems for Broke Players (1962)
Shakespeare Never Did This (1995)
"Bring Me Your Love" (1983)
Gold in Your Eye (1986)
You Get So Alone This Time That It Just Makes Sense (1986)
Septuagenarian Stew (1990)

This essay was submitted by a student of Denise Marovich-Sampson, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.