Charles Bukowski

From Philosopedia

Bukowski, Charles (16 August 1920 - 9 March 1994)

A German American poet, novelist, and short story writer, Bukowski in Life (December 1988) wrote,

• For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Because he wrote about ordinary people and their ordinary lives, he was called "the poet laureate of Skid Row," which some poets do not find complimentary.

Heinrich Karl Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany, the son after World War I of Katharina Fett and a German-American soldier. His parents were Catholic and he was raised a Catholic. He came to reject all organized religions and was an atheist.

Bukowski lived a colorful life, suffered from a severe case of acne vulgaris, attended Los Angeles City College for two years, once posed as a Nazi, was arrested in 1944 by FBI agents on suspicion of draft evasion, received a Selective Service Class of 4-F (unfit for military service), worked as a postman in Los Angeles, lived in cheap rooming houses, married a small-town Texas poet (Barbara Frye) sight unseen, divorced in 1959, and died of leukemia. The funeral rites, arranged for by his widow, were conducted by Buddhist monks.

(See a website about Bukowski.)

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