Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920 and brought to Los Angeles at age three. Using the city as a backdrop for his work, Bukowski wrote prolifically, publishing over fifty volumes of poetry and prose. He died in San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994. His books are widely translated and posthumous volumes continue to appear. David Calonne is the editor of a previous book of uncollected Bukowski, Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook, as well as a volume of interviews, Charles Bukowski: Sunshine Here I Am. He presently teaches at East Michigan University.
Date of Birth:
August 16, 1920
Date of Death:
March 9, 1994
Place of Birth:
Andernach, Germany
Place of Death:
San Pedro, California
Education:
Los Angeles City College, 2 years
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments IX Introduction XI Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip 1 20 Tanks from Kasseldown 11 Hard Without Music 15 Jiace: Editors Write 19 Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook 20 A Rambling Essay on Poetics and the Bleeding Life Written While Drinking a Six-Pack (Tall) 33 In Defense of a Certain Type of Poetry, a Certain Type of Life, a Certain Type of Blood-Filled Creature who Will Someday Die 41 Artaud Anthology 49 An Old Drunk who Ran Out of Luck 54 Notes of a Dirty Old Man 57 Untitled Essay in A Tribute to Jim Lowell 61 Notes of a Dirty Old Man 63 The Night Nobody Believed I was Allen Ginsberg 70 Should We Burn Uncle Sam's Ass? 78 The Silver Christ of Santa Fe 82 Dirty Old Man Confesses 87 Reading and Breeding for Kenneth 105 The L.A. Scene 111 Notes on the Life of an Aged Poet 121 Upon the Mathematics of the Breath and the Way 128 Notes of a Dirty Old Man 135 Notes of a Dirty Old Man 141 Notes of a Dirty Old Man 148 Unpublished Foreword to William Wantling's 7 on Style 151 Jaggernaut 156 Picking the Horses 162 Workout 169 The Way it Happened 181 Just Passing Time 188 Distractions in the Literary Life 197 I Meet the Master 205 Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles for Li Po 230 Looking Back at a Big One 231 Another Portfolio 234 The Other 236 Basic Training 249 Sources 253 About the Author and Editor 255
Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook is as vivid, bad-ass, screamingly funny, and gutter-angelic as the man himself. (Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight, Perv, Plainclothes Naked, and I, Fatty.)
John Martin
Finally...David Calonne has unearthed Portions...the previously missing link in Bukowski's oeuvre that suddenly makes everything come clear. (John Martin, Black Sparrow Press)
Eileen Myles
He [Bukowski] wrote American. When it meant something good. Fucked up, male, but incredibly true. In a distinct rhythm. (Eileen Myles, author of Sorry, Tree and Cool for You)
