Charles Bukowski was born in Germany in 1920 and moved to Los Angeles as a child. He worked manual labor jobs and wrote about his experiences, eventually becoming a full-time writer at age 50. Bukowski’s writing was influenced by his difficult relationships with women and his struggles with alcoholism. He wrote over 45 books and several films were made about his life. Bukowski died at age 74 and his gravestone reads “Don’t try.”
Writer Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was three years old. His father was an overbearing parent who violently punished his son for trivial mistakes. He had his first story published at age 24 and began publishing for profit in his 50s.
Charles Bukowski lived a life that some would describe as bleak. For two years of his life, he wandered America doing manual labor. Most jobs gave him enough money to rent a room, drink, and write. The experiences he gained on the road were used in his poetry and prose. He writes from the heart of street people, traffickers and a life of women, drinking and gambling.
Plagued with extreme acne, Bukowski was terribly shy. The novel Ham on Rye describes his early childhood, his loneliness and awkwardness with women. After his travels in America, he took a regular job as a postal worker. His boring mind work provided him with four-day weekends in which he could drink, gamble and write.
At age 50, Charles Bukowski left the post office and became a full-time paid writer. His first novel, Post Office, describes his experiences while working there. He was a very prolific writer. He is the author of more than forty-five books of prose and poetry. His offbeat, very honest and painfully funny writing has won him fans all over the world.
Another major influence on Charles Bukowski was the women in his life. Often matching him drink for drink, they often had him evicted from his apartments due to fights and bad behavior. He was known to be jealous of him and get angry at women or just act like he didn’t care. These women often ended up being portrayed in his novels and poems. One of his most famous novels by him, titled Women, chronicles his experiences with some of the women he knew.
As his popularity grew, Hollywood came knocking on Bukowski’s door. A film called Barfly was made about the middle years of his life. Mickey Rourke played his alter ego, Henry Chinaski. To date, four films based on the life or stories of Charles Bukowski have been made.
In his 20s, Bukowski was told to stop drinking or he would die. He never gave up drinking and lived to be 74 years old. His gravestone bears the simple inscription “Don’t try” – perhaps as a warning to the many writers who try, but fail, to imitate his writing.
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