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Charles Bukowski Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Post Office (1971)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Factotum (1975)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Women (1978)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Ham on Rye (1982)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Barfly (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Hollywood (1989)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Pulp (1994)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Collections

Run With the Hunted (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Crucifix in a Deathhand (1965)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Cold Dogs In The Courtyard (1965)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
At Terror Street And Agony Way (1968)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
South of No North (1973)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Poems written before jumping out of an 8 story window (1974)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (1974)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Love Is a Dog from Hell (1977)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Hot Water Music (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
War All the Time (1984)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense (1986)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Roominghouse Madrigals (1988)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
A Bukowski Sampler (1988)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Septuagenarian Stew (1990)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
In the Shadow of the Rose (1991)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Betting on the Muse (1996)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Bone Palace Ballet (1997)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (1999)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Open All Night (2000)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps (2001)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems Book 1 (2002)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems Book 2 (2002)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
New Poems Book One (2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
New Poems Book Two (2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
New Poems Book Three (2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
New Poems Book Four (2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain (2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Come On In! (2006)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The People Look Like Flowers At Last (2007)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook (2008)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Continual Condition (2009)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Absence of the Hero (2010)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town (2013)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Bell Tolls for No One (2015)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Storm for the Living and the Dead (2017)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of ChapBooks

Fire Station (1970)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Bring Me Your Love (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
There's No Business (1984)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

All the Assholes in the World and Mine (1966)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Shakespeare Never Did This (1979)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Bukowski/Purdy Letters (1984)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Screams from the Balcony (1993)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Living On Luck (1995)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Reach for the Sun (1999)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Beerspit Night and Cursing (2001)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Selected Letters Volume 1: 1958-1965 (2004)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Selected Letters Volume 2: 1965-1970 (2004)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Selected Letters Volume 3: 1971-1986 (2004)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Selected Letters Volume 4: 1987-1994 (2005)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
More Notes of a Dirty Old Man (2011)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
On Writing (2015)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
On Cats (2015)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
On Love (2016)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writing (2018)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
On Drinking (2019)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Mondo Books

Mondo Barbie (By: John Varley,Lynne Barrett,Julia Alvarez,Philip Levine,A.M. Homes,David Trinidad,Sandra Cisneros,Marge Piercy,Gary Soto,Roberta Allen,Alice McDermott,Hilary Tham,Lyn Lifshin,Rebecca Brown,Denise Duhamel,Lucinda Ebersole,Richard Peabody,Jeanne Beaumont,Lynne McMahon,Kathryn Harrison,Patricia Storace,Richard Grayson,Leslie Shiel,Laura Costas,Sharon Henry,Cookie Lupton,Lisa B. Herskovits,Belinda Subraman,Ellie Schoenfeld,Sparrow .,Gregg Shapiro,Cathryn Hankla,Wayne E. Kline,Jose Padua,Jeff Weddle) (1993)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Mondo Elvis (By: Howard Waldrop,Cornelius Eady,Mark Childress,Susie Mee,Nick Cave,Mark Winegardner,Rafael Alvarez,Greil Marcus,Pagan Kennedy,Lucinda Ebersole,Richard Peabody,Lynne McMahon,Cathryn Hankla,Samuel Charters,Rachel Salazar,Eleanor Earle Crockett,Diane Wakoski,Judy Vernon,David Wojahn,William McCranor Henderson,Janice Eidus,Elizabeth Ash Vélez,Laura Kalpakian,Eri Makino,Ai,Michael Wilkerson,Brian Gilmore) (1994)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Mondo Marilyn (With: J.G. Ballard,Michael Hemmingson,Clive Barker,Doris Grumbach,Beth Meacham,Lynne Tillman,David Trinidad,Tom Whalen,Sharon Olds,Leslie Pietrzyk,Lyn Lifshin,Nanci Griffith,Robert Peters,Lucinda Ebersole,Richard Peabody,Jeanne Beaumont,Gregg Shapiro,Judy Grahn,Sam Toperoff,Julia P. Dubner,Bill Morris,John Rechy,L.A. Lantz,Phyllis Burke,Hillary Johnson,Rita Valencia,Michael Lally,Eleanor E. Crocket,Taylor Mead,Susan Compo,Rosanne Daryl Thomas) (1995)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Mondo James Dean (By: Lewis Shiner,Jack C. Haldeman II,Bentley Little,Michael Hemmingson,Chuck Taylor,Michael Martone,Louisa Ermelino,Terence Winch,Lucinda Ebersole,Richard Peabody,Sparrow .,Janice Eidus,Ai,Tino Villanueva,Edwin Corley,Robert Ready,Reuben Jackson,Stephanie Hart,D.E. Steward,David Plumb,Ed Graczyk,Hilary Howard,James Finney Boylan,Miranda Schwartz) (1996)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Anthologies

First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers(1994)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Mondo Marilyn(1995)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Letters to America: Contemporary American Poetry on Race(1995)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Writing Los Angeles(2002)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Portable Sixties Reader(2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Charles Bukowski was an American author who passed away in 1994. By then, he had distinguished himself as one of the most intriguing poets of his generation. The author’s works always reflected his poor upbringing.

+Biography

Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920. His father took him to the United States when he was two-years-old. The pair did not have the best relationship.

Bukowski’s father was certain that firm discipline had to be an essential aspect of his upbringing. As such, he saw fit to beat Bukowski for the smallest offenses. Bukowski said he received at least three beatings a weak.

It didn’t help that Bukowski was such a shy child. His bad acne contributed to the author’s social anxiety. Not only did the boys bully him but the girls rejected him. Discovering alcohol at the age of thirteen is one of the very few shining moments in Bukowski’s childhood.

Life eventually took the author far from home. He was attending Los Angeles College when the Second World War began and he saw fit to move to New York. The move coincided with Charles Bukowski’s decision to become a writer.

And write he did. Of course, his enthusiasm for the activity did not last. The author spent many years writing and receiving rejections. His misfortunate in the publishing field was such that by 1946, he had decided to finally give up on writing as a whole.

The decision nearly cost him his life. Whether he was looking to drown his sorrows or he simply sought excitement, the author took up a heavy drinking habit. The binge lasted a decade and it wasn’t until a near death experience in Los Angeles brought him back to his senses that Bukowski realized he was happiest when he was writing.

And his second attempt at establishing a writing career paid off. The author was 35 when he crafted relationships with the L.A. Free Press, Open City, and other underground newspapers.

Alcohol remained an ever-present aspect of his life. People gravitated to his poems and short stories because most of them were autobiographical and Bukowski was not afraid to use them to bear his soul.

Bukowski’s protagonists always faced challenges that mirrored his own. They struggled to find a place in the word, did a lot of menial jobs, tried and failed to find love with all the wrong women and could not stop drinking.

Besides his hard-drinking ways, Bukowski was popular for his grim view of the world. Bukowski thought contemporary society was a desolate place filled with lonely people struggling to belong.

His works revolved around sex, gambling, and music, and they always had a hard edge to them. His poems, though seemingly independent, had the capacity to blend together to speak with a unified voice.

The short story and poem collections he published kept industry experts guessing and garnered Charles Bukowski quite the cult following.

The author’s death in 1994 was attributed to Leukemia. And while Bukowski’s passing was mourned, his death did little to diminish his presence on the literary landscape. Works like ‘The People Look Like Flowers at Last’ were released after his death and continued to spread the cynical messages that had made Charles Bukowski a star in his heyday.

In the interviews he gave, Bukowski suggested that he wrote for people who suffered through life like he had. He described his audience as demented and defeated, a selection of readers who appreciated his vulgarities and could follow the singular tale that was woven through his many poems and short stories.

Over the years, fans of the author have had the opportunity to see his work collected in numerous anthologies. The most notable of these collections is ‘Run with the Hunted’ which organizes Bukowski’s short stories and poems in order, allowing readers to gain a new appreciation for the narrative that runs through them.

+Adaptations

Charles Bukowski had the opportunity to see many of his works receive film adaptations. The most notable include Factotum, a 2005 film of French and Norwegian origins that Bent Harner directed.

The book was adapted from the 1975 novel ‘Factotum’ and it starred Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski, a famous character in Bukowski’s books whom he referred to as his alter ego.

Crazy Love, which came out in 1987, directed by Dominique Deruddere from Belgium, used a variety of Bukowski’s writings as source material rather than a single volume. The same is true for Tales of Ordinary Madness, a 1981 Marco Ferreri directed film which utilized many of Bukowski’s poems and short stories.

Barfly, a 1987 Barbet Schroeder-directed film, isn’t an adaptation but, rather, a semi-autobiography of Charles Bukowski. The central character is Henry Chinaski through whose exploits people are allowed a glimpse into Bukowski’s hard-drinking days in Los Angeles.

+Post Office

Henry Chinaski loves women, alcohol and racetrack betting. Those three things are the driving factors of his life. So he isn’t quite sure how, as a middle-aged man, he landed a job with the U.S. Postal Service.

The work is hardly fulfilling and he eventually spends more than a decade of his life trying to survive the trials of his bosses and coworkers even as overcomes the rigors of dragging waterlogged mailbags all over the country.

Post Office is the book that put Charles Bukowski on the map. Henry Chinaski is Charles Bukowski. Through Chinaski, Bukowski reveals the loser he once was. He talks about his alcoholism, womanizing ways and a litany of other self-destructive habits that made his ambition-free life worth living.

The book is written in a conversational style. Bukowski wants readers to feel like he is sitting with them, telling his story.

+Ham on Rye

Henry Chinaski is Charles Bukowski, the celebrated author, and poet. Through Henry, Charles uses ‘Ham on Rye’ to talk about his harrowing childhood and the joys that adolescence eventually brought.

The book is crude and unyielding in its portrayal of Bukowsi’s humorous but ultimately sad life.

Bukowski doesn’t make Chinaski out to be the nicest of individuals. This is despite knowing that the protagonist is basically his stand-in for the tale that unfolds in ‘Ham on Rye’.

Chinaski doesn’t care about anything or anyone else besides himself. He certainly has no patience for moral arguments or dignity. He provides a harsh look at the reality that was Charles Bukowski’s life.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Charles Bukowski

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