Post by altreelhttp://altreel.blogspot.com
you can stop posting that link now
Drowning in a Sea of Booze: 100 Things You Didn't Know About Bukowski
Dedicated to Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf [1962-2001]
Henry Charles Bukowski Jr. was born on August 16, 1920, in Andernach,
Germany.
Charles Bukowski claimed a great affinity with the hobos who rode the
rails during the 30s and 40s, but he never rode a boxcar nor
hitchhiked in his life.
Shortly after his first chapbook, Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail, was
published in 1960, Bukowski attempted suicide by gassing himself in
his room, but quickly changed his mind.
According to friends, Bukowski suffered from one of the worlds worst
cases of hemorrhoids, evident by the tubes of Preparation-H always
visible in his waste basket.
Bukowski refused to admit he was an alcoholic since, on occasion, he
could refrain from drinking for up to a day.
The first word Bukowskis daughter, Marina, learned to read was
"liquor" since Hank spent so much of his leisure time in a drunken
stupor.
Bukowski often denounced the 60s drug culture, but friends remember
him smoking marijuana, taking uppers and downers, and on one occasion,
dropping acid.
In his weekly column in the periodical Open City, "Notes from a Dirty
Old Man," Bukowski often spread untruths about acquaintances that he
felt had betrayed him, in the process trashing a number of close
friendships.
After a young poet Bukowski had befriended drank himself to death,
Hank tried to seduce his grieving widow.
Bukowski was known as the poet laureate of the gutter, but he never
lived a day in Los Angeles' skid-row district.
Although Bukowski wrote about being down and out, he actually held a
job with the U.S. Postal Service for about 12 years.
Stories of Bukowski's drinking bouts are legendary, but some of his
closest friends claim to have caught him nursing beers.
The great love of Bukowski's life, Jane Cooney Baker, was a widowed
alcoholic 11 years his senior with an immense beer belly. She served
as the model for Wanda in the 1987 Bukowski-scripted film Barfly.
Although Bukowski often boasted of his sexual prowess, there were long
stretches of his life when he couldn't get laid in a morgue.
The self-proclaimed barfly lived out his later years in a
ranch-style house in San Pedro, California, with an attractive young
wife 24 years his junior, expensive German wines on the rack and a BMW
in the driveway.
Before devoting himself entirely to writing, Bukowski worked various
dead-end jobs, including as a laborer in a dog biscuit factory, a
parking lot attendant, stock boy, warehouseman, red cross orderly,
elevator operator, poster hanger in New York City subways, shipping
clerk, postal clerk and postal carrier.
Bukowski had a beer with Neal Cassady, the hero of Jack Kerouacs
novel On the Road, just weeks before Cassady died in Mexico of a drug
overdose.
During one of their almost daily fights, Bukowski accused his
girlfriend, Linda King, of having sex with a blind priest.
Bukowski once confronted Allen Ginsberg at a poetry reading and told
him [E]verybody knows that after Howl you never wrote anything
worth a shit.
At the age of 23, Bukowski finally lost his virginity to an overweight
whore in Philadelphia.
The screenplay for Barfly [1987] was originally called The Rats of
Thirst.
Other films based on Bukowskis work include Tales of Ordinary Madness
(1983 - Italian), Love is a Dog from Hell (1987 - Belgium) and Walls
in the City (1995).
Bukowski once described his father as [A] cruel shiny bastard with
bad breath . . .
Love is a Dog from Hell (1987), was adapted from several Bukowski
short stories, mainly "The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California."
Bukowski listed the following movies as his favorites: Eraserhead, One
Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Elephant Man, Whos Afraid of Virgnia
Woolf? and All Quiet on the Western Front.
Some of Bukowskis most original poem titles include the night I
fucked my alarm clock, i have shit stains in my underwear too, a
340 dollar horse and a hundred dollar whore, note to a lady who
expected rupert brooke, the history of a tough motherfucker, ass
but no class, ants crawl my drunken arms, to the whore who took my
poems, eating my senior citizens dinner at the Sizzler and i
taste the ashes of your death.
Bukowski often plied a derelict friend of his known as Red Strange
or Kid Red with beer and encouraged him to relate his wildest
stories, many of which ended up in Bukowskis own poems and short
stories.
On Personal Hygiene: Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit,
then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the
most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass.
--Factotum, Black Sparrow Press, 1975
Bukowskis first wife, Barbara Frye, suffered a physical deformity -
two vertebrae were missing from her neck, giving the impression that
she was permanently hunching her shoulders. After a little over two
years of marriage in the late 1950s, she filed for divorce, accusing
him of mental cruelty.
In his novel, Hollywood, Bukowski refers to the movie Barfly as The
Dance of Jim Beam.
On Little Magazines: Little magazines are useless perpetuators of
useless talent. Back in the 20s and 30s there was not an abundance
of littles. A little magazine was an event, not a calamity. --Small
Press Review, May 1973
Bukowskis first published short story, "Aftermath of a Lengthy
Rejection Slip," appeared in the March-April issue of Story magazine,
1944.
On Work: It was true that I didnt have much ambition, but there
ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place
than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being
awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress,
force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get
to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else
and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?
--Factotum, Black Sparrow Press, 1975
Bukowski made a habit of compulsively taking four or five baths every
day.
The school idiot always gravitated to me. Ya know, the fucked up guy
who was cross-eyed and wore the wrong kind of clothes and was always
going around stepping in dog shit. If there was a pile of dog shit
within ten miles, this guy would manage to step in it. So I sort of
disdained him but somehow hed wind up being my buddy. Wed sit around
eating our pitiful peanut-butter sandwiches and watching the other
kids play their games. --quoted in Rolling Stone, June 17, 1976
Bukowski smoked Indian cigarettes called Mangalore Ganeesh Beedies.
In its obituary of the poet laureate of skid row, the Los Angeles
Times ( or was it The New York Post?) used a photo of Mickey Rourke as
Henry Chinaski in Barfly instead of a photo of Bukowski.
Bukowskis literary influences included Conrad Aiken, Sherwood
Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio), Louis Ferdinand Celine, Catullus, Fyodor
Dostoevsky (Notes from the Underground), John Fante (Ask the Dust),
Knut Hamsun (Hunger), Ernest Hemingway (early writings), Robinson
Jeffers (long poems), Ezra Pound and James Thurber.
On The Beat Generation: Now, the original Beats, as much as they were
knocked, had the Idea. But they were flanked and overwhelmed by fakes,
guys with nicely clipped beards, lonely-hearts looking for free ass,
limelighters, rhyming poets, homosexuals, bums, sightseers - the same
thing that killed the Village. Art cant operate in Crowds. Art does
not belong at parties, nor does it belong at Inauguration Speeches.
--letter to Jon Webb, 1962, in Screams from the Balcony, Black Sparrow
Press, 1993
Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin was best man at Bukowskis
wedding to Linda Lee Beighle.
On Henry Miller: He's okay when he's writing about fucking, but when
he gets philosophical, I fall asleep. --interview by Fernanda Pivano,
Charles Bukowski: Laughing With the Gods, Sun Dog Press, 2000
One of Bukowskis favorite cars was a blue 67 Volkswagen.
On Skid Row: Those guys down there [in skid row] had no problems with
women, income tax, landlords, burial expenses, dentists, time
payments, car repairs, or with climbing into a voting booth and
pulling the curtain closed. [Factotum, 1975]
Barbet Schroeder first read Bukowski while directing Koko the Talking
Gorilla.
Bukowski once called Celines Journey to the End of the Night the
greatest book ever written.
On Rejection Slips: And rejections are no hazard; they are better
than gold. Just think what type of miserable cancer you would be today
if all your works had been accepted. [Letter to Jory Sherman, April
1, 1960, included in Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
Bukowskis second wife, Linda Lee Beighle, once owned a health food
restaurant called the Dewdrop Inn.
Paul Pedittos play, Buk: The Life and Times of Charles Bukowski,
premiered in the fall of 1991 at the Live Bait Theater in Chicago.
On Short Stories: I do not believe in writing a short story unless it
crawls out of the walls. I watch the walls daily but very little
happens. [Letter to Ann Bauman, May 21, 1962, in Screams from the
Balcony, 1993]
The first movie that had an impact on me, that made me cry, was All
Quiet on the Western Front. The scene with the butterfly got me.
--Film Comment interview, 1987
On Hemingway: Hem had style and genius that went with it, for a
little while, then he tottered, rotted, but was man enough, finally,
and had style enough, finally. [Letter to Neeli Cherry, 1962, in
Screams from the Balcony, 1993]
Bukowski once published an extremely short-lived little magazine
called Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns.
On Drinking: Frankly, I was horrified by life, at what a man had to
do simply in order to eat, sleep, and keep himself clothed. So I
stayed in bed and drank. When you drank the world was still out there,
but for the moment it didnt have you by the throat. [Factotum, 1975]
Director Barbet Schroeder taped a 4-hour compilation of interviews
with Bukowski in preparation for the filming of Barfly. In The
Bukowski Tapes (1987), Bukowski pontificates on such topics as growing
up with his tyrannical father, Philadelphia bars, East Hollywood,
drugs vs. alcohol, talk shows, Elizabeth Taylor, zoot suiters, Red
Strange, racetracks, Henry Miller and menial factory jobs.
On Movies: Want me to name [my favorite films]? One Flew Over the
Cuckoos Nest, Elephant Man, Eraserhead, Whos Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? - thats a classic. [Akira] Kurosawa and those great battle
scenes. And all those great samurai films where guys are chopping
heads off. (Film Comment interview, 1987)
Bukowskis only child, Marina Louise, was raised by her mother,
Frances Dean Smith, who went by the pretentious pen name of
FrancEye.
On Barfly: Mickey Rourke is a real human guy, on and off the set. And
in Barfly he really came through with the acting. I felt his enjoyment
and inventiveness. Faye Dunaway just cant match his talent or his
humanness but she filled her role. [Film Threat interview, 1987]
The ideal conditions [for writing] are between 10 PM and 2 AM. Bottle
of wine, smokes, radio on to classical music. I write 2 or 3 nights a
week. Its the best show in town. --Transit interview, 1994
As a teenager, Bukowski suffered from one of the worst cases of acne
vulgaris that his doctors had ever seen.
On Television: We got cable TV here, and the first thing we switched
on happened to be Eraserhead. I said, Oh, this cable TV has opened up
a whole new world. Were gonna be sitting in front of this thing for
centuries. What next? So starting with Eraserhead we sit here, click,
click, click - nothing. (Film Comment interview, 1987)
In a 1987 Los Angeles Times Magazine article, writer Paul Ciotti
described Bukowski as having a sandblasted face, warts on his eyelids
and a dominating nose that looks like it was assembled in a junkyard
from Studebaker hoods and Buick fenders.
Bukowskis collection of poetry, Dangling in the Tournefortia, is
dedicated to John Fante.
On Solitude: I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was
like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude
weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on
it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. [Factotum,
1975]
Its estimated that nearly 2 million of Bukowskis books have been
sold worldwide.
Bukowskis first novel, Post Office, is dedicated to nobody.
On The Bukowski Tapes: I liked them the first time I saw them. Second
time, it was just an old drunk talking away. Its very hard to see
them all at once. Its like reading a book of poetry straight through.
Its jarring.
I guess a twisted childhood has fucked me up. --Film Comment
interview, 1987
On Ben Gazzaras Performance as Charles Serking in Tales of Ordinary
Madness: He had appealing eyes like a constipated man sitting on the
pot straining to crap. I liked the eyes. But take that away and he was
too comfortable. Nice macho guy, but self-pleased, not insane at all.
Probably a great variety of ass had cooled him out.
Bukowski called Neeli Cherkovskis biography, Hank, virtually
unreadable, dull and inept.
Theres too much bad poetry being written today. People just dont
know how to write down a simple easy line. Its difficult for them:
its like trying to keep a hard-on while drowning - not many can do
it. Bad poetry is caused by people who sit down and think, Now I am
going to write a Poem. And it comes out the way they think a poem
should be. --New York Quarterly interview, 1985
John Martin, Black Sparrow Press publisher, on Jim Christys The Buk
Book, which includes some vintage footage of Bukowski fondling a
stripper: It is all just so stupid and crass. Bottom of the barrel
stuff. Scum and shit . . . So far as Im concerned, you are the dregs
of the earth.
Mickey Rourke (as Henry Chinaski) quotes a portion of the poem 2 p.m.
beer in the bathroom of Wandas apartment in Barfly: nothing but the
dripping sink,/the empty bottle,/euphoria . . .
Bukowskis favorite composers included Bach, Beethoven, Brahms,
Mahler, Mozart, Shostakovich and Wagner.
Mickey Rourke on Bukowski: Im not a Bukowski devotee, through
theres a lot of people that live and die by what the guy says. I
respect him enough to hang his picture in my office, but it isnt like
somebody mentions Bukowski and I flip out.
The private detective who tracks Chinaski down in Barfly is none other
than Jack (Eraserhead) Nance!
Sean Penn offered to play the Chinaski role in Barfly for $1 only if
Dennis Hopper directed the film.
Bukowski once published an article in Ole (March 1965) called A
Rambling Essay on Poetics and the Bleeding Life Written While Drinking
a Six-pack (Tall).
On Taking a Beer Shit: There was nothing really as glorious as a good
beer shit - I mean after drinking twenty or twenty-five beers the
night before. The odor of a beer shit like that spread all around and
stayed for a good hour-and-a-half. It made you realize that you were
really alive. --Ham on Rye
In 1990, Bukowski narrated an HBO documentary called The Best Hotel on
Skid Row.
Alternative Reels favorite tribute to Bukowskis life and work can be
found at Anti-Hero Arts website - www.anti-heroart.com/buk.html.
On ONeills The Iceman Cometh: Yeah, I read that. Now theres a
philosophical bar. But its grim and dank and near the edges of hell.
These old farts, man, theyre awful people. Its grimy, dull.
Bukowski quit his job at the post office after Black Sparrow Press
publisher John Martin offered him $100 a month for the rest of his
life to write fulltime.
After a decade-long drinking binge, Bukowski ended up at the Los
Angeles County Hospital Charity Ward with a bleeding ulcer that almost
killed him.
The video Bukowski at Bellevue documents Bukowskis poetry reading at
Bellevue College in Seattle, Washington, in the spring of 1970 to an
audience of what mostly appears to be bored, drug-addled and rather
unreceptive college students.
Bukowski had a habit of puking in the parking lot before each and
every poetry reading.
Barbet Schroeder on Mickey Rourkes career since Barfly: I think hes
a genius actor. I have no idea why he has made the choices he has made
- one bad one after another. But I predict he will do a comeback that
will astonish everybody.
Only one known photograph of Bukowskis first love, Jane Cooney Baker,
exists (from her high school yearbook) and it can be found in Howard
Sounes biography, Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life.
Baker spent the last days of her life working as a maid in a cheap
hotel before dying of a massive hemorrhage in 1962.
Bukowskis novel Hollywood describes his sordid experience with Tinsel
Town, complete with thinly disguised characterizations, during the
production of Barfly.
The title of Bukowskis poetry collection, It Catches Its Heart in My
Hands, came from a line in a poem from one of Bukowskis early
inspirations, Robinson Jeffers.
The opening lines of the tragedy of the leaves are as powerful as
T.S. Eliots The Wasteland without the bullshit and footnotes: I
awakened to dryness and the ferns were dead,/The potted plants yellow
as corn;/my woman was gone/and the empty bottles like bled
corpses/surrounded me with their uselessness . . .
Bukowski studied journalism at LA City College from 1939-41.
Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting
drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from
the obvious often enough, you wouldnt become obvious yourself. --Ham
on Rye
On Cats: Having a bunch of cats around is good. If youre feeling
bad, you just look at the cats, youll feel better, because they know
that everything is, just as it is. Theres nothing to get excited
about. They just know. Theyre saviors. The more cats you have, the
longer you live.
After giving a rambling, incoherent tribute to Frank Sinatra, Bono of
U2 admitted the speech was influenced by none other than Charles
Bukowski: There was a similar substance involved - alcohol, said
Bono.
Some of the chapters from Women [Black Sparrow Press, 1978] originally
appeared in Hustler magazine.
Ill tell the women that the face is my experience and the hands are
my soul - anything to get those panties down. --Rolling Stone, June
17, 1976
Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994, at the age of 73 and is
buried in Green Hills Memorial Park, Palos Verdes, California. His
epitaph? Dont Try.
Buddhist monks performed Bukowskis funeral rites.
And as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they
will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the
treasure of my escape . . .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES:
The Buk Book: Musings On Charles Bukowski, By Jim Christy, Ecw Press,
1997
Bukowski For Beginners, By Carlos Polimeni, Writers & Readers
Publishing, Inc., 2000
Bukowski In The Bathtub: Recollections Of Charles Bukowski With John
Thomas, By Philomene Long, Water Row Press, 1997
Bukowski In Pictures, Edited By Howard Sounes, Rebel Inc., 2000
Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet, By Gerald Locklin, Water Row Press, 1996
Charles Bukowski: Laughing With The Gods, Interview By Fernanda
Pivano, Sun Dog Press, 2000
Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, by Howard
Sounes, 1998, Grove Press
Drinking With Bukowski: Recollections of the Poet Laureate of Skid
Row, edited by Daniel Weizmann, 2000, Thunder's Mouth Press
Factotum, by Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press, 1975 Film Comment
interview, July/August 1987
Hank, by Neeli Cherkovski, 1991, Random House Rolling Stone interview,
June 17, 1976
Screams from the Balcony, Black Sparrow Press, 1993
Spinning Off Bukowski, By Steve Richmond, Sun Dog Press, 1996
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Dont go to bed, with no price on your head No, no, dont do it.
Dont do the crime, if you cant do the time, Yeah, dont do it. And
keep your eye on the sparrow . . . --Theme song for Baretta
©2002 Shelf-Life Productions
from
http://www.altreel.com/cult-fiction/100_facts_about_Bukowski.html