Charles Bukowski

Born

in Andernach, Germany

August 16, 1920

Died

March 09, 1994

Website

http://bukowski.net

Genre

Fiction, Contemporary, Poetry

Influences

John Fante, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Knut Hamsun, Ernest Hemingway

edit data

Henry Charles Bukowski (born as Heinrich Karl Bukowski) was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.It is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books

Charles Bukowski was the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to ...more

Combine Editions
Charles Bukowski’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 502,086 ratings · 21,847 reviews · 434 distinct works • Similar authors

	Post Office 3.99 avg rating — 79,763 ratings — published 1971 — 146 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ham on Rye 4.16 avg rating — 71,322 ratings — published 1982 — 104 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Women 3.88 avg rating — 54,160 ratings — published 1978 — 131 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Factotum 3.96 avg rating — 47,317 ratings — published 1975 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love Is a Dog from Hell 4.14 avg rating — 23,235 ratings — published 1977 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pulp 3.69 avg rating — 25,391 ratings — published 1994 — 80 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Notes of a Dirty Old Man 3.98 avg rating — 18,277 ratings — published 1969 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tales of Ordinary Madness 3.97 avg rating — 18,923 ratings — published 1978 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hollywood 3.78 avg rating — 17,111 ratings — published 1989 — 84 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense 4.24 avg rating — 12,058 ratings — published 1986 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Charles Bukowski…

Quotes by Charles Bukowski

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
― Charles Bukowski

tags: humor

20539 likes

“Do you hate people?”

“I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.”
― Charles Bukowski, Barfly

tags: humour, misanthropy, paraphrased

12369 likes

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
― Charles Bukowski

tags: atheism, religion

8063 likes

See all Charles Bukowski's quotes »

Polls

Who is your favorite poet? (add to this list if needed)

Charles Bukowski

39 votes, 15.0%

E. E. Cummings

22 votes, 8.5%

Edgar Allan Poe (write-in)

19 votes, 7.3%

Emily Dickinson

15 votes, 5.8%

Robert Frost (write-in)

15 votes, 5.8%

Sylvia Plath (write-in)

13 votes, 5.0%

Pablo Neruda (write-in)

10 votes, 3.8%

Mary Oliver

7 votes, 2.7%

Langston Hughes

7 votes, 2.7%

Allen Ginsberg

7 votes, 2.7%

Walt Whitman (write-in)

6 votes, 2.3%

william shakespear (write-in)

6 votes, 2.3%

Rumi (write-in)

6 votes, 2.3%

Rainer Maria Rilke (write-in)

5 votes, 1.9%

T.S. Elliot (write-in)

5 votes, 1.9%

William Blake (write-in)

4 votes, 1.5%

Fernando Pessoa (write-in)

4 votes, 1.5%

Lord Alfred Tennyson (write-in)

4 votes, 1.5%

D. H. Lawrence (write-in)

4 votes, 1.5%

Dorothy Parker (write-in)

4 votes, 1.5%

Nikki Giovanni

3 votes, 1.2%

John Keats (write-in)

3 votes, 1.2%

Federico García Lorca (write-in)

3 votes, 1.2%

Charles Baudelaire (write-in)

3 votes, 1.2%

Wallace Stevens (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Seamus Heaney (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

anne sexton (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Andrea Gibson (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Hart Crane (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Dylan Thomas (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Dante (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

John Donne (write-in)

2 votes, 0.8%

Sherman Alexie

2 votes, 0.8%

Adrienne Rich

2 votes, 0.8%

Ted Hughes (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Naomi Shihab Nye

1 vote, 0.4%

Jack Kerouac (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Stephen Crane (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Lewis Carroll (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Ellen Hopkins (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence

1 vote, 0.4%

Li Young Lee

1 vote, 0.4%

Geoffrey Chaucer (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Al Berto (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Audre Lorde

1 vote, 0.4%

Dmitry Prigov (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Arthur Rimbaud (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Gwendolyn Brooks (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Mario Benedetti (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Marge Piercy (Author)

1 vote, 0.4%

Alexander Pope (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Suheir Hammad (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

E.E. Cummings (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

cesar vallejo (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Mark Doty (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Philip Levine (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Rafał Wojaczek (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Gérard de Nerval (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

A. Kamalei (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Percy Shelley (write-in)

1 vote, 0.4%

Hiroyuki Nishigaki

0 votes, 0.0%

Wisława Szymborska

0 votes, 0.0%

Stephen Dunn

0 votes, 0.0%

Martin Espada

0 votes, 0.0%

260 total votes

17 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Glens Falls (NY) ...: Memorable Characters in Books	40	203	Jan 07, 2009 05:24PM
The Critical Beat...: Top Ten Books Read in 2008?	5	782	Feb 19, 2009 12:14AM
Challenge: 50 Books: Aube's 50 of 2010	1	137	Jan 18, 2010 06:35PM
The Seasonal Read...: YOUR TOP 10 OF 2009	42	294	Feb 16, 2010 07:16PM
The Next Best Boo...: December Group Read's are......	47	243	Nov 24, 2010 11:09AM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2791	1124	Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Az's Book Count [From 19th May]	33	205	Dec 20, 2010 08:47PM