Selected Letters Volume 4: 1987 - 1994

Bukowski carved out a unique position in American letters. he was a cult figure who disdained movements and followers, a working-class autodidact who dared to take himself seriously as a writer but who couldn't stop mocking himself as a subject.

Charles Bukowski was a uniguely talented and prolific writer, best known for his Beat Generation writing that reflected his experience of low life urban America. 
Selected Letters Volume 4 collects together correspondence with various friends, lovers and literary contacts, providing an intimate and fascinating insight into Bolowski's mind, his emotions and his attitude towards his own creativity, right up until his death in 1994.

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town

The underbelly of Los Angeles, courtesy of iconic American writer Charles Bukowski

Not since George Orwell has the condition of being down-and-out been so well recorded

Born in 1920, Charles Bukowski became one of America's best-known writers. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971), Factotum (1975), Women (1979) and Pulp (1994) all available from Virgin Books.

Surfacing from the literary underground, Bukowski's wild and immortal stories have become cult favourites. This collection of anecdotal short stories demonstrates Bukowski's compelling semi-autobiographical style and his mastery of visceral language and the depiction of seamy underworlds. 
 
Focusing on themes that recur throughout his work, from Los Angeles and bar culture to alcoholism, gambling, sex and violence, these pieces also introduce unexpected elements of fantasy and surrealism.

Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Born in 1920, Charles Bukowski became one of America's best-known writers. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971), Factotum (1975), Women (1979) and Pulp (1994) all available from Virgin Books.

Beginning in 1967, Bukowski wrote the column "Notes of A Dirty Old Man" for the underground newspaper Open City. Perennially drunk, broke and in search of a woman, Bukowski takes on the guise of a wise fool as he ventures through America's seedy lowlife. Peopled by Kerouac, Burroughs and other much less salubrious characters, his exploits provoke humour and despair, whilst highlighting the inherent beauty and futility of life.

Tales of Ordinary Madness

More semi-autobiographical short stories from cult writer Charles Bukowski

Dirty realism from the godfather of lowlife literature

Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, Chekhov and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate, extreme and has attracted a cult following, while his life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote. This collection of short stories gives an insight into the dark, dangerous lowlife of Los Angeles that Bukowski inhabited. 
 
From prostitutes to classical music, Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture in his 'tales of ordinary madness'. These are angry yet tender, humorous and haunting portrayals of life in the underbelly of Los Angeles.

Post Office

NEW LOOK FOR THIS TIMELESS CULT CLASSIC WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NIALL GRIFFITHS

An amazing, hilarious and unfalteringly entertaining account of a man trapped in a kind of Catch 23

Takes you by the shoulders and shakes you until your teeth rattle

Amazing, hilarious and unfalteringly entertaining

Humour, wisdom and the elegance of simplicity come at you in equal measure

During his lifetime Bukowski published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975). He is one of America's most distinctive writers and a voice for both the outsider and lowlife Americana.

Henry Chinaski is a lowlife loser with a hand-to-mouth existence. His menial post office day job supports a life of beer, one-night stands and racetracks. Lurid, uncompromising and hilarious, Post Office is a landmark in American literature, and over 1 million copies have been sold worldwide. 
 
The new edition is augmented with an anecdotal introduction by the modern Welsh cult-literary author, Niall Griffiths - a writer who was working in a British post office when he first read Bukowski's Post Office.

A Novel

Pulp

CRIME FICTION BUKOWSKI STYLE IN A STUNNING NEW PACKAGE

During his lifetime Bukowski published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975). He is one of America's most distinctive writers and a voice for both the outsider and low life Americana.

Charles Bukowski's brilliant, fantastical pastiche of a detective story. Packed with wit, invention and Bukowski's trademark lowlife adventures, it is the final novel of one of the most enjoyable and influential cult writers of the last century. 
 
Nicky Belane, private detective and career alcoholic, is a troubled man. He is plagued not just by broads, booze, lack of cash and a raging ego, but also by the surreal jobs he's been hired to do. Not only has been hired to track down French classical author Celine - who's meant to be dead - but he's also supposed to find the elusive Red Sparrow - which may or may not be real.

Factotum

NEW LOOK FOR THE CLASSIC NOVEL WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NEELI CHERKOVSKI

1Not since George Orwell has the condition of being down-and-out been so well recorded. - New York Times 
2Funny and sharp, observant, clever with details and honest. - Times Literary Supplement 
3A side-splitting chronicle ... dirty realism from the godfather of lowlife literature - Uncut 
4Its genius is simple and it shines a wee candle on the life of an aspiring poet and home-relief applicant - Bizarre

During his lifetime Bukowski published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975). He is one of America's most distinctive writers and a voice for both the outsider and low life Americana.

Henry Chinaski, an outcast, a loner and a hopeless drunk, drifts around America from one dead-end job to another, from one woman to another and from one bottle to the next. Uncompromising, gritty, hilarious and confessional in turn, his downward spiral is peppered with black humour. 
 
Factotum follows Charles Bukowski's bestselling Post Office, his highly autobiographical first novel. Bukowski's Beat Generation writing reflects his slum upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of low life urban America. He died in 1994 and is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinctive writers of the last fifty years. 
 
Neeli Cherkovski was a close friend of Bukowski and is the author of Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski (Random House, 1991)

Women

The bestselling classic novel repackaged with an introduction by Barry Miles, author of the definitive Bukowski biography

1A poem about love and pain. - Los Angeles Times 
2A laureate of American low life. - Time 
3One of those writers whom each new reader discovers with a transgressive thrill - New Yorker 
4The ultimate Bukowski novel, packed with hilarious episodes - Uncut

YOU CAN TAKE THE MAN OUT OF THE GUTTER, BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE GUTTER OUT OF THE MAN 
 
Low life writer and alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. Now, at the age of fifty, he is living the life of a rock star, running three hundred hangovers a year and a sex life that would cripple Casanova. Women is a riotous and uncompromisingly vivid account of life on the edge.

New Poems Book One

Wordsworth, Whitman, William Carlos Williams and The Beats in their Respective generations moved poetry toward a more natural language. Buckowski moved it a little farther.

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers and one of its most influential and imitated poets. Although he published over 45 books of poetry, hundreds of his poems were kept by him and his publisher for posthumous publication, This is the first collection of these unique poems.

New Poems Book Two

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers abnd one of its most influential and imitated poets. Although he published over 45 books of poetry, hundreds of his poems were kept by him and his publisher for posthumous publication, This is the first collection of these unique poems, which Bukowski considered to be among his best work.

New Poems Book Three

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers and one of its most influential and imitated poets. Although he published over 45 books of poetry, hundreds of his poems were kept by him and his publisher for posthumous publication, This is the first collection of these unique poems, which Bukowski considered to be among his best work.

New Poems Book Four

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers and one of its most influential and imitated poets. His slum upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of gritty urban America are all reflected in his Best Generation writing and poetry, for which he became a cult figure.

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers and one of its most influential and imitated poets. His slum upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of gritty urban America are all reflected in his Best Generation writing and poetry, for which he became a cult figure. 
 
Although in his lifetime Bukowski published over 45 books of poetry, hundreds of his poems were reserved for publication after his death. Following on from the success of three previous volumes, this fourth collection of these unique and previously unpublished poems, which Bukowski considered to be among his finest work, is essential for all readers and collectors of one of the most distinctive writers of recent years.

Charles Bukowski

Seamus Cooney

'I wrote letters to many in those days ... it was rather my way of screaming from my cage.' 
The 1960's saw Charles Bukowski struggle for recognition and slowly emerge as a unique, talented and prolific poet and writer, whilst holding down a day job at the Post Office. During the 1970's and 80's Bukowski writes about his own fame, his contemporaries and his good fortunes; at the end of the 70's we see him beginning to enjoy the fruits of his labour. 
These letters to various literary contacts, friends and lovers provide an intimate and fascinating look at Bukowski's mind, his emotions, his attitude towards his own creativity and the comings and goings of his daily life.

Selected Letters Volume 3: 1971 - 1986

Charles Bukowski

Books by Charles Bukowski

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter