Charles Bukowski Papers 0155
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8n39s24m No online items Inventory of the Charles Bukowski papers 0155 USC Libraries Special Collections Doheny Memorial Library 206 3550 Trousdale Parkway Los Angeles, California, 90089-0189 213-740-5900 [email protected] 2010 Inventory of the Charles 0155 1 Bukowski papers 0155 Title: Charles Bukowski papers Collection number: 0155 Contributing Institution: USC Libraries Special Collections Language of Material: English Physical Description: 15.0 Linear feet15 boxes Date: 1957-1994, undated Abstract: Drafts of Women, Factotum, Ham on Rye, Post Office, and Barfly; screenplays based on Bukowski's (1920-1994) fiction; periodical appearances; tape recordings; ephemera. creator: Bukowski, Charles Biographical note Charles Bukowski was born on August 16, 1920 in Andernach, Germany, the son of a US soldier and German woman. His family immigrated to the United States in 1922 and settled in Los Angeles, where Bukowski spent most of his life. His father was in and out of work during the Depression years and was a reputed tyrant, verbally and physically abusing his son throughout his childhood. It was perhaps to numb himself from his father's abuse that Bukowski began drinking at the age of 13, initiating his life-long affair with alcohol. After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1939 Bukowski studied for a time at Los Angeles City College, taking courses in journalism and literature. He left school and home in 1941 after his father, who had finally read some of Bukowski's stories, threw his son's possessions into the street. Bukowski continued to write stories and traveled across America, supporting himself with a string of odd jobs: gas station attendant, elevator operator, truck driver, and overseer in a dog biscuit factory, to name a few. In 1944 his story Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip was published in the magazine Story. He returned to Los Angeles and met Janet Cooney Baker, with whom he lived for the next ten years. In 1955, Bukowski was hospitalized with an alcohol-induced bleeding ulcer and came close to death. After a brief marriage to Barbara Frye, the rich publisher of a small poetry magazine, Bukowski took a job as a post office clerk in 1958, a job he held for the next twelve years. In 1955, Bukowski also began writing poetry, publishing volumes almost annually. His first collection, Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail, appeared in 1959. It was 30 pages long and the print run was only 200 copies. Bukowski's first volume of prose, All Assholes in the World and Mine, was published seven years later. By 1963, the year Bukowski published It Catches My Heart in Its Hands--a collection of poetry about alcoholics, prostitutes, losing gamblers, and other down-and-outs--he had developed a loyal following, and was famous for his use of violent images and graphic language in his work. His column Notes of a Dirty Old Man appeared regularly in Open City and Los Angles Free Press, and its run was later collected in book by the same title (1969). In 1970, Bukowski quit his job with the Postal Service when John Martin of the Black Sparrow Press offered him a $100 monthly stipend to continue his writing. Although prolific, Bukowski remained a literary outsider who published his works with small presses, primarily on the West Coast. His short stories are unsparingly realistic and usually comic. They often observe the thoughts and actions of Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski, a hard-drinking unskilled worker, a lover of classical music, and a racetrack gambler. This character was introduced in Bukowski's 1965 autobiographical Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with the Beasts. In 1973, Bukowski gained a wider audience when an award-winning television documentary by director Taylor Hackford was aired, and he also began an incidental career in the film industry. The 1983 film Tales of Ordinary Madness, directed by Marco Ferreri, was based on stories of the author. Its script drew material from Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and Tales of Ordinary Madness. The screenplay for the film Barfly (1987) was written by Bukowski himself and directed by Barbet Schroeder, and the experience of the filming became the subject of the 1989 novel Hollywood. Crazy Love/Love is a Dog from Hell (1989), directed by Dominique Deruddere, was based on The Copulating Mermaid of Venice and other stories by Bukowski. In 1985 Bukowski married Linda Lee Beighle, a health food proprietor twenty-five years his junior. He had one daughter, Marina Louise, who was born in 1965 to Bukowski and Francis Dean Smith. In his later years, success caught up with the author at last and he evolved from down-and-out to up-and-in: he lived in a house with a swimming pool, drove a black BMW, wrote on a computer, and enjoyed his favorite recordings of Sibelius, Mahler, and Rossini on a new stereo. Charles Bukowski died at age 73 on March 9, 1994, at a hospital in San Pedro, California, after an almost year-long bout with leukemia. Preferred Citation [Box/folder# or item name], Charles Bukowski papers, Collection no. 0155, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California Conditions Governing Use Inventory of the Charles 0155 2 Bukowski papers 0155 All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. Conditions Governing Access COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access. Arrangement The collection is generally arranged by type of material. Scope and Contents Charles Bukowski papers consists of drafts of Women, Factotum, Ham on Rye, Post Office, and Barfly; screenplays based on Bukowski's (1920-1994) fiction; periodical appearances; tape recordings; photographs; and ephemera. Subjects and Indexing Terms Bukowski, Charles -- Archives American literature--20th century--Archival resources American literature--California--Los Angeles--Archival resources Audiotapes Authors, American--Archival resources Correspondence Ephemera Manuscripts Photographs Original Works Art Work Box 1, Folder 1 Dear Mr. Bukowski 1979 Scope and Contents note illustrated fictional letter; copy 13 of 50 signed Box 7, Folder 2 Adventures of Clarence Sweetmeat Scope and Contents note ms. of cartoon Box 7, Folder 3 Dear Mr. Bukowski Scope and Contents note original ms. of cartoon Box 7, Folder 4 Misc. drawings Scope and Contents note 32 drawings and paintings in b/w and color Short stories Box 1, Folder 2 Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip Scope and Contents note Uncorrected galley proof Inventory of the Charles 0155 3 Bukowski papers 0155 Original Works Short stories Box 10, Folder 2 100 Dollar Stuff 1971 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 3 6 Inches Scope and Contents note typed draft with note from author Box 10, Folder 4 All the Pussy We Want Scope and Contents note typed draft with corrections Box 10, Folder 5 Animal Crackers in My Soup 1971 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 6 Beertalk under a Kerosene Lamp 1970 Dimensions note: typed draft with letter Box 10, Folder 7 Beginner Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 8 Big Dope Reading Scope and Contents note typed draft with corrections Box 10, Folder 9 Big Dope Reading 1976 Scope and Contents note typed draft with letter Box 10, Folder 10 Blanche Was New in the Big City Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 11 Bukowski Bitches Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 12 Christ With Barbecue Sauce Scope and Contents note typed draft with corrections Box 10, Folder 13 Hairy Fist Tales 1971 Scope and Contents note typed draft with sketches Box 10, Folder 14 Letters of John Steinbeck 1978 Scope and Contents note typed draft Inventory of the Charles 0155 4 Bukowski papers 0155 Original Works Short stories Box 10, Folder 15 Life in a Texas Whorehouse 1970 Scope and Contents note typed draft with letter by the author Box 10, Folder 16 Little Boy Blue Come Blow Your Horn 1970 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 17 Love It Or Leave It 1970 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 18 Notes of a Dirty Old Man Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 19 Notes of a Potential Suicide Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 20 Piece of Cheese 1971 Scope and Contents note typed draft with letter Box 10, Folder 21 Purple as an Iris Scope and Contents note typed draft with note from the author Box 10, Folder 22 Reading and Breeding for Kenneth 1971 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 23 Red Fire Red 1976 Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 24 Reunion Separated Materials note typed draft Box 10, Folder 25 Sandcastle by the Sea Scope and Contents note first chapter of novel draft Box 10, Folder 26 Sound and Passion 1970 Scope and Contents note typed draft with letter Box 10, Folder 27 Stink of Death 1975 Scope and Contents note typed draft Inventory of the Charles 0155 5 Bukowski papers 0155 Original Works Short stories Box 10, Folder 28 Swastika Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 29 Time I Knocked Out Ernest Hemingway Scope and Contents note typed draft Box 10, Folder 30 Time I Knocked Out Hemingway Scope and Contents note typed second draft Box 10, Folder 31 Twelve Flying Monkeys Who Won't Copulate 1970 Scope and Contents note typed draft