Charles Bukowski

Dirty Old Man

Bukowski’s Biography

• Born August 16,1920 in Andernach, West Germany

• Brought to Los Angeles at age 2

• Received beatings from father

• Developed disfiguring skin disease

Buk’s Biography Cont.

• Started writing in 1940

• Published first book in 1960

• Collection of Poems “Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail”

• Published 40+ books and 1 movie while living

• Died March 9, 1994

• 10+ books published since his death

Bukowski’s Themes and Topics

• Beer

• Sex and Prostitutes

• Gambling

• Drugs

• Insanity

• Failure

• Death

The Incomplete Buk-ography• Flower, Fist and Beastial Wail (1960)• Run with the Hunted (1962)• Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)• Post Office (1971)• Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972)• South of No North (1973)• Women (1978)• Love is a Dog from Hell (1977)• Play the Piano Drunk / Like a Percussion Instrument / Until the Fingers

Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)• Hot Water Music (1983)• The Movie: “Barfly” (1987)• Hollywood (1989)• Shakespeare Never Did This (1995)• What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (1999)

Brown and Solemnthe dog jumps up on the bedcrawls over me.“are you the Word?” I ask him.he doesn’t answer.“are you the Word? I’m looking for the word.”he has brown and solemn eyes.“I’m waiting for the Word,” I tell him, “I’m walking around like a man in a large hot frying pan.”he wags his tail and tries to lick my face.

“listen,” she says from the bathroom,“why don’t you get out of bedAnd stop talking to that dog?”

my parents didn’t understand meeither.

Bukowski Related Links

• The Essential Bukowski

• “Barfly” at the Internet Movie Database