Bukowski Reading
Bukowski reading is a favorite pastime of many readers. Charles Bukowski is a beloved poet by college and high school students alike. Interestingly enough, he is not in the literary canon and is typically not taught in the classroom. Although, that is Bukowski’s appeal. His appeal is outside the pretentious mainstream of poetry and his writing is very real, very accessible.
He started out in life in Los Angeles and spent most of his life there. It was also the setting for most of his writing. Charles Bukowski had a string of dead-end jobs, lived in boarding houses, drank, and bet on horse races. All of which were favorite topics of his writing and in various combinations (along with women) made up the bulk of his work. He was initially published in small literary publications and eventually had a column in an independent Los Angeles paper. This paper was where many initial people started Bukowski reading. This led to a relationship with John Martin who started Black Sparrow Press based upon the copious writings of Bukowski.
This relationship with Black Sparrow Press was relatively later in Bukowski’s life and led to an international following. He became popular even among pop-culture celebrities (Sean Penn and Bono) trying for an anti-pop culture persona. But his primary following is among the college-age set who enjoy Bukowski reading for his accessible, free-form style and topics of real life. Rather than write about truths from typical poetic platforms like nature, he used dead end jobs and drinking as his platform. He even used a moniker of Hank Chinaski consistently throughout his writing to reference himself.
Black Sparrow published numerous books of poetry from Bukowski. He also had a few novels and even a screenplay that was produced in a movie (Barfly) with Mickey Rourke. Posthumously, his novel Factotum was made into a movie starring Matt Dillon. Aside from his own material there has been much written about Bukowski and movies made about him both fiction and non-fiction. It is always interesting to find out who has done their Bukowski reading and where he will be referenced.
His following only grows. He still has fans from years past and that fan group grows as new people start doing some Bukowski reading. For many people his style and topics of poetry make him the only poet they enjoy. Because his poetic content is timeless, his popularity should diminish in the foreseeable future.