General Letters

There are commercially available recordings of Bukowski - perhaps you ought to list them, too. And there is, of course, the Schroeder film on him. Steven Stein

thanks, steve. i've got some audio up and have also found some clips from peer-to-peer software like kazaa. check them out. silva

it's nice to see that someone cares enough to put up a page to one of the greatest poets who ever lived. i was only 17 when i read FACTOTUM and i have not stopped reading hank since! glad you put up the page and good pic. thanks jino distasio (26)winnipeg, canada

just wanted to tell you thanks for the buk page. i d/l the wav file and it sounds great. i have a pretty extensive collection of his books and a couple of specialty items like a signed broadsheet (Ham on Rye) and a signed and numbered cloth bound 'Pulp. There's a terrific rare bookstore out here in L.A. that has a number of treasured 'Buk' items and I'll be damned if i can remember the name of it but I'll pass it along to you if you're interested. Oh and Black Sparrow has a Bukowski t-shirt thats pretty hip (you might already have one), got a picture of Hank done by Crumb and says 'Team Bukowski' on it. Anyway, let me know if you're in the L.A. area and I'll get the name of that bookstore for you. peace.......Ron.

As a fellow fan of Chas.(Hank), I appeal to you for assistance. What books of Bukowski's have Hank Chinaski as a character? I am trying to complete a collection of them, and have read POST OFFICE, WOMEN, and am about to read FACTOTUM. What other ones do you know of? Your help is greatly appreciated. P.S. - what is the general consensus on Mickey Rourke's performance as Hank Chinaski? Thanks. Dan Hanna

i responded to dan saying that i liked rourke's performance and thought it was probably the best of his now sold-out career. let dan know your thoughts and cc me if you have chinaski citings, i'll put up a page on it... silva

hey, hi. good page, much needed. i have no qualms about sales on the net, especially if it's buk! request: how bout some other buk links (url's)? surly there is more buk on the net(if not , should be!) by the way, i live a hop over the vincent-thomas bridge from pedro, and i used to always go to buk's house and sit in front , too scared to go to the door(i figured out where it was by my knowledge of pedro, the books, and a freind's mom who vaguely knew some cross streets. i was one house off, but the neighbors told me![i bet he'd be pissed at them!] )kinda sorry i never did, but then again , not. let him have his last few days in his on sort of peace. any way , ''nuff rambling (sorry, i feel like i never get to talk to anyone who appreciates bukowski, he's saved my life more than once...)(and i dont drink!) keep the page ,it's one of the most real on the net.to lose it would be a small death. regards, curt (in san pedro, ya'know...)

first, buk links are now on the page and if you have others for me, let me know. second, on the matter of meeting the man, hank probably gave a couple of his insights in his you get so alone.. poems, "close to greatness" and another one about a fighter that i'm too lazy to look up right now. the first citing should be self-explanitory, the second has an accomplished fighter leaving his pugilistic responsibilities unfinished as chinaski/buk shouts him on. "he's a bitch. you finish him" is the paraphrased response to which buk's "punchline" is about the tragedy of the masses who can but don't. my response isn't an indictment of your action, just another point of view. i probably would have had the same struggle and deferred to my desire to let the man have some peace. then again, i refuse to live with regrets, so i probably would have damned the torpedos and shared a 6-pack. one of these is a lie. it's moot anyway, so i'll let you decide which one. for another guy's take on it, check out michael mcneilly's poem.

I love Bukowski. He means a lot to me.He has influenced me a lot. Today my favorite poem is "Freedom" (TDRLWHOTH). Goodbye. P.S. I am E-mailing you from Mexico City. Sergio Luque Ancona.

When Buk died, the L.A. Times ran one of his poems I was unfamaliar with and I can only remember one line. Unfortunately, my wife threw out the stack of papers I was saving which contained the poem. The line was...

"He's just another fool to fool the fools..." or something close. And the poem was about the famous and seemed more visionary with each passing day. What with O.J. and the hundreds of other media made cretins.

The obituary in the L.A.Times was published on March 10, 1994. The poem with a full page article in the L.A. Times Book Review section dated April 10, 1994 was The Secret. The quote is "it's just another act to fool the fools..."

thanks to Archie Crawford for providing this response. silva

I remember this as the name of a Bukowski poem or story. Can you place it? Thanx. Robert Fiore

anyone? please cc me on your response to robert if you can help. thanks. silva

incredible! i'm new to the net and can't believe that someone else is into the buk. i have a copy of "hostage" recorded live in redondo beach, and other buk books. let me know if i can help contribute to the page. my fingers are bleedinding like ive been playing a piano drunk like a percussion instrument. vukson

One thing to fix. you missed a few books that black sparrow put out. You might know about them but decided to not put them on the list due to the fact that they were issued in limited and special editions, or, you might just not know about them. One that was missed was: Horsemeat: A book of some of hanks horseracing poems accompanied by beautiful full color, hand mounted photographs taken by michael montfort. this really is a great book to look at as well as to read as usual.
I think that there are a couple of others, but this is the only one that i could remember that you missed off the top of my head. There were also a couple of small, single sheet printings put out for friends and for New Year's of a few years during the 80's.
I will get back to you about the others. If you want to check the titles for yourself, i would suggest trying to get into the Cornell University Library Catalog, because i think they own everything he wrote. It is an amazing collection. thanks for the page and i too feel bad about his death. he was a great. Seth Abrams

I checked out some other Bukowski folders and what not and i found yours was my favorite....the others where a bit pretentious for my liking...I check back in a few weeks....my beers a little flat without Chuck around......tanya

flattering, but i'm not sure i can dismiss more of the body of buk studies as pretentious. it all adds to the discorse, understanding, education and proliferation of the art. so, ill add links to any pages i find on buk and will publish and support more scholarly work on my pages as well. silva

Hi, I just wanted to drop you a letter saying thanks, for devoting a page to Charles Bukowski, on a whim I decided to drop his name on the web crawler and to my surprise I found your home page.
The Buk has been on of the biggest inspirations in my life and I'm glad to find some one else who holds him in the same light. Well I'll talk to you later Stay strong, Ben

thru boozy eyes i found your "bukowski" page...i had spent three months in the writers forum and the literary forum purveying the works of celine, fante, and bukowski...all on deaf ears....fuck if i cared, i had my vodka and snapple, and took to the word piano my mental turds. while writing is not an occupation for me, i find that like buk, i have no choice. there has been no other human to which i have felt closer connected...at age 45, a single parent with a six-year old dtr., perhaps all that differentiates me from the old warthog, is i kept the kid...an additional wheelbarrow to add to my misery chest....anyhow, will return to peruse your pen craft...excuse, while i must go to work..."as the shiv turns"...by the way...excellent bio on buk called 'HANK" by neeli chervoski publ. by random house....it may have been on your list, but i was too lazy to backtrack...i hate this infohellway, but like buk...i am german...and we are curious and persistent...look forward to occasional correspond..sincerely, charles frank roethel.