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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