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| Note: Some of the places and dates listed below conflict with those found in Bukowski's FBI/post office files or in previously published biographies. Anything you see here that contradicts "the official record" is based primarily on information found in letters, first-hand accounts, and other reputable, independently researched, non-government-approved sources. Believe it! |
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| Events | Publications | Addresses | Readings | Jobs/Miscellany | |||
| 1920 | Henry Charles Bukowski born in Andernach Germany [August 16] | Andernach, Germany Coblenz (now Koblenz), Germany |
1920 | ||||
| 1921 | 1921 | ||||||
| 1922 | 1922 | ||||||
| 1923 | Bukowski's move to America [April 18] | Baltimore 231 S. Hudson Ave, Pasadena (with relatives) |
1923 | ||||
| 1924 | Trinity street (Los Angeles) | 1924 | |||||
| 1925 | Attends San Marino School (now Valentine School), just South of Pasadena | 1925 | |||||
| 1926 | Attends Virginia Road Elementary School Father drives dairy delivery truck for L.A. Creamery |
4511 W 28th St, Los Angeles 90016 | 1926 | ||||
| 1927 | 1927 | ||||||
| 1928 | 1928 | ||||||
| 1929 | 1929 | ||||||
| 1930 | 1930 | ||||||
| 1931 | 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 | 1931 | |||||
| 1932 | 1932 | ||||||
| 1933 | Attends Mount Vernon Junior High School Breaks out in an extreme case of Acne Vulgaris and undergoes painful treatments |
1933 | |||||
| 1934 | 1934 | ||||||
| 1935 | Begins going to the library; the Baldwin Hills branch of the Los Angeles Public Library at 2906 S. La Brea Ave, 90016 Writes first short story about a WWI pilot |
1935 | |||||
| 1936 | Bukowski's father loses his job yet pretends to go to work every day Begins Susan Miller Dorsey High School [Sep] |
1936 | |||||
| 1937 | Transfers to Los Angeles High School [Sep] | 1937 | |||||
| 1938 | 1938 | ||||||
| 1939 | Graduates from Los Angeles High School. Attends Los Angeles City College to study Journalism and English |
Works part time (very briefly) in stockroom of Sears & Roebuck on Olympic Blvd. for 55 cents an hour | 1939 | ||||
| 1940 | Father throws Bukowski's possessions and manuscripts onto the front lawn after reading his short stories, Bukowski leaves home temporarily and finds a room on Temple Street (with financial assistance from his mother) | First publication; letter to the editor of LA City College paper, Cubby Hole Short story and poem [apparently] published in Write, Vol. 1 No. 2 (no copies known to exist - would be first published poetry and prose) |
2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 Temple street 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 |
1940 | |||
| 1941 | Leaves Los Angeles City College without graduating [June] | 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 | Works in the Southern Pacific railroad yards (unverified), and making auto transmission parts at Borg-Warner, 1516 S. Flower St. | 1941 | |||
| 1942 | Leaves Los Angeles to strike out on his own and see the country. While he claims to have lived in many cities during this period, evidence suggests he was in Philadelphia for the bulk of his time away from Los Angeles. | Ft. Worth, New Orleans, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco [no verified addresses for these cities] Philadelphia |
Works at Fairmont Motors, 16th and Fairmont St., Philadelphia | 1942 | |||
| 1943 | Loses virginity at age 23 to a woman he describes as a "300 pound whore" | 1943 | |||||
| 1944 | Taken into custody by FBI agents in Philadelphia for suspected draft evasion [7/22]; spends 17 days at Moyamensing Prison Exempted from service in World War II for "Failing To Meet Medical Standards" after a physical and psychological evaluation [8/7] |
Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip published in March/April issue of Story Magazine | 261 W 16th, New York Philadelphia 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 |
1944 | |||
| 1945 | 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 1623 Green St., Philadelphia [October/November] |
Works at Merry Co. (picture frame factory?), 634 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles | 1945 | ||||
| 1946 | 20 Tanks From Kasseldown published in Portfolio III Publishes first poems in Matrix |
603 N 17th St, Philadelphia, PA 19130 | Works in a tool warehouse, Philadelphia, October | 1946 | |||
| 1947 | Returns to Los Angeles permanently, meets Jane Cooney Baker, they live together on and off until 1955 FBI files indicate the two were married, though Bukowski never acknowledged a marriage to Jane |
2020 Mt Vernon St, Philadelphia [Apr] 2122 S. Longwood Ave, 90016 |
Works at Milliron's Dept. Store, 4th and Broadway (Milliron's became The Broadaway) | 1947 | |||
| 1948 | 737 S. Union Ave. 90017 [Aug] | 1948 | |||||
| 1949 | 521 Union Dr, 90017 503 Union Dr, 90017 |
Works at Milliron's Dept. Store [cont.] Works at Sunbeam Lighting Co., 777 E. 14th Pl. |
1949 | ||||
| 1950 | 334 S Westlake Ave, 90057 [not in FBI file] | Works at Sunbeam Lighting Co. [cont.] Works for post office for the first time, December 11 to December 27 as a Temporary Substitute Carrier |
1950 | ||||
| 1951 | 503 Union Dr, 90017 268 4/6 S Coronado St, 90057 |
Works at Sunbeam Lighting Co. [cont.] Works at Calnevar Co. (making simulated wire wheels for cars), West Washington Blvd. |
1951 | ||||
| 1952 | 268 4/6 S Coronado St, 90057 2325 Ocean View Ave, 90057 [listed in FBI file, but no correspondence to verify] |
Works at Calnevar Co. [cont.] Starts work for the Post Office as an Indefinite Substitute Carrier [3/5] |
1952 | ||||
| 1953 | 268 4/6 S Coronado St, 90057 | Works for the Post Office as an Indefinite Substitute Carrier [cont.] | 1953 | ||||
| 1954 | Treated at LA County Hospital for an internal hemorrhage (bleeding ulcer), nearly dies [Apr] (this event is widely reported to have taken place in 1955, but letters and hospital bills from the era indicate the year was 1954) After hospitalization begins writing poetry in greater quantity (earlier letters show that he had not given up writing "for ten years" after the publication of Portfolio, as he later claimed) |
1237 W. 11th St, 90015 323 1/2 N Westmoreland Ave, 90004 |
1954 | ||||
| 1955 | Sends letter of resignation to the post office (citing "ill health") after three years as a letter carrier [3/11] Sends another letter to the post office asking to be re-hired [6/16] Married to Barbara Fry in Las Vegas [10/29] |
323 1/2 N Westmoreland Ave, 90004 Wheeler, Texas 2254 1/2 Branden St, 90026 (with Barbara Fry) |
Works for the Post Office as an Indefinite Substitute Carrier [cont.] Works for Supreme Lighting Co., 600 E. Turner St. Works at Graphic Arts Center, 1534 W. 7th St. Underwood portable typewriter |
1955 | |||
| 1956 | Begins first novel, A Place to Sleep the Night [unfinished] Mother, Katherine Bukowski, dies [12/24] Takes art classes at L. A. City College [10/56 to 2/57] |
2254 1/2 Branden St, 90026 580 N Kingsley Dr, 90004 |
Works at Graphic Arts Center [cont.] | 1956 | |||
| 1957 | Co-edits Harlequin with Barbara Fry | Works at Graphic Arts Center [cont.] P.O. Box 75-451, Sanford Station (3751 W 6th St.), Los Angeles, 5, Calif. [11/12] |
1957 | ||||
| 1958 | Separated from Barbara Fry Divorced from Barbara Fry [3/18] Father, Henry Bukowski, dies [12/4], Bukowski sells father's house for $15,000 ($8000 was still owed on the mortgage) Reconnects with Jane Cooney Baker [Dec] |
1623 North Mariposa Ave, #303, 90027 | Takes a job at the post office as a Temporary Substitute Distribution Clerk (mail sorter) [1/2] Postal Employee Number: 106160 |
1958 | |||
| 1959 | Promoted to Distribution Clerk (still sorting mail, but no longer temporary) [3/21], works as a clerk until January, 1970 | 1959 | |||||
| 1960 | First contact with Outsider publisher Jon Webb Begins submitting poems to small literary magazines in greater numbers |
His Wife, The Painter (broadside) [June] Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail [Oct] A Signature Of Charles Bukowski Poetry [Dec] |
1960 | ||||
| 1961 | Attempts suicide by gas, wakes up with a headache, opens windows | Signature 2 [Aug] A Charles Bukowski Album |
1961 | ||||
| 1962 | Jane Cooney Baker dies [1/22] First important review of his work, by R.R. Cuscaden |
Poems and Drawings [3/17] Run with the Hunted [Mar] Longshot Pomes for Broke Players [Spring] The Priest And The Matador (broadside) |
45 minute poetry reading on Los Angeles radio station KPFK [8/5] | 1962 | |||
| 1963 | Meets Frances Smith Outsider of the year "award" from the Webbs First published interview in Chicago Literary Times |
It Catches My Heart In Its Hands [11/26] Same Old Thing, Shakespeare Through Mailer (broadside) |
1963 | ||||
| 1964 | Marina Louise Bukowski born [9/7] | Grip The Walls [Dec] His Wife The Painter, The Old Man On The Corner, The Paper On The Floor, Waste Basket (broadsides contained in Coffin #1) |
5126 1/4 DeLongpre Ave, 90027 (with a pregnant Frances Smith) [May] 5124 DeLongpre Ave, 90027 [Dec] |
1964 | |||
| 1965 | Writes poems for Crucifix in A Deathhand in New Orleans [March 6 - March 20] Receives first letter from future publisher John Martin [10/19] Separated from Frances Smith [Nov] |
Crucifix in a Deathhand [Apr] Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts [Aug] Cold Dogs in the Courtyard [Summer] |
5124 DeLongpre Ave, 90027 | 1965 | |||
| 1966 | Bukowski and John Martin meet for the first time [1/22] Hemorrhoid operation [3/2] Starts novel The Way the Dead Love [unfinished] |
John Martin publishes first Bukowski broadside True Story in an edition of 30 (first Black Sparrow publication) [Apr] The Genius of the Crowd [June] All The Assholes In The World and Mine [Sep] |
Still driving 1957 Plymouth that he and Barbara Fry bought new ten years earlier | 1966 | |||
| 1967 | 2 Poems [4/7] Notes of a dirty old man column debuts in Open City weekly [Vol. 2 No. 2, May 12 - 18] - ran 87 weeks The Curtains Are Waving And People Walk Through The Afternoon Here And In Berlin And In New York City And In Mexico [10/13] |
Reads 18 poems from the upcoming At Terror Street and Agony Way onto tape for the limited edition tape released along with the book [Dec] | 1967 | ||||
| 1968 | Post office officials and FBI interview Bukowski [2/8] | At Terror Street and Agony Way, book and open reel tape [5/15] Poems Written Before Jumping Out Of An 8 Story Window [Summer] |
1968 | ||||
| 1969 | John Martin offers to pay Bukowski a quarter of his own income ($100/mo at the time) "for life" to quit the post office and write full time [Dec] | Notes of a Dirty Old Man [1/24] A Bukowski Sampler [7/15] The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills [12/30] Penguin Modern Poets |
First known public readings at The Bridge bookstore, Los Angeles [12/19, 12/20] [Actual first reading was broadcast on KPFK radio seven years earlier] | Remington typewriter Records 6 hours of poetry for Beatles short-lived experimental/spoken word label, Zapple. [Feb] Record is never released, but excerpts appear on CD in the 1990's. |
1969 | ||
| 1970 | Quit post office [1/7] Finishes first novel Post Office [Feb] Starts novel The Horseplayer [unfinished] Meets Linda King First airplane trip (to Washington state for readings) |
Fire Station [Mar] Notes of a Dirty Old Man published in Germany, first of many German translations |
Cal State L.A. [2/17] The Kiva, University of New Mexico [5/15] West Washington State College [5/29] Bellevue Community College [5/30] Bookstore ? [7/3] California State University Long Beach [7/22] Venice, CA coffeehouse [8/5] Rembrandt Hall, Pomona College, CA [Nov] |
Underwood typewriter | 1970 | ||
| 1971 | Sells his literary archive and papers to UCSB for $5,000 Starts novel The Poet [unpublished] |
Post Office [2/8] | Venice, CA coffeehouse [1/27] University of Southern California [4/23] Benefit for Kenneth Patchen [?] |
Switches from an Underwood typewriter to a Royal (Quiet De Luxe) [Jan]. Used mainly portable Underwood typewriters prior to the Royal Drives 1962 Mercury Comet |
1971 | ||
| 1972 | Splits with Linda King and begins seeing Liza Williams [May - July] Reunites with Linda King [Aug] |
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions And General Tales Of Ordinary Madness [Apr] Mockingbird Wish Me Luck [6/1] Me And Your Sometimes Love Poems |
Two readings in one day (noon and early evening), California State University Long Beach [Apr] City Lights Poets Theater, 555 Chestnut, San Francisco [9/14] Papa Bach's bookstore, Los Angeles [maybe two readings, dates unconfirmed] |
1972 | |||
| 1973 | Separates from Linda King [8/1] Bukowski, Taylor Hackford's film premieres at Barnsdall Park Municipal Gallery Theater [11/25] Bukowski, Taylor Hackford's film (60 minute version) airs on KCET in Los Angeles [11/26] |
While The Music Played [2/12] South Of No North [12/17] |
2440 Edgewater Terrace, 90039 (with Linda King) 151 s. oxford ave #24, 90004 |
California State University Long Beach [11/29] San Francisco Museum of Art, Poetry Center [12/6] |
P. O. box 26469, Los Angeles, 90026 [10/19] | 1973 | |
| 1974 | $5,000 grant from National Endowment of the Arts to write a novel | Burning In Water Drowning In Flame [6/21] Poems Written Before Jumping Out Of An 8 Story Window German translation sells 50,000 copies |
5526 Carlton Way, 90027 5437 2/5 Carlton Way, 90027 |
Underwater Poetry Festival, Salt Lake City [10/5] MCCC-TV Studio, Detroit [10/31] Santa Cruz Poetry Festival [11/25] |
Telephone: (213) 462-0614 | 1974 | |
| 1975 | Africa, Paris, Greece [3/21] Factotum [12/18] |
5437 2/5 Carlton Way, 90027 | West Coast Bodega, Long Beach [3/5] Northern California [May] Telegraph Hill Gym, San Francisco [5/31] Golden Bear, Huntington Beach [6/25] Houston [Oct] Baudelaire's, Santa Barbara [Oct] Golden Bear, Huntington Beach [10/31] Evanston, IL [11/18, 11/19] |
Switches from Royal typewriter to an Olympia Standard [Dec] | 1975 | ||
| 1976 | Meets future wife Linda Lee Beighle at a reading at the Troubadour [9/29] First trip outside the U.S. for a reading in Canada [Oct] |
Scarlet [4/14] Art [12/13] |
Amazingrace, Chicago [Jan] St. Mark's Church Poetry Project, New York [June] Troubadour, Los Angeles [7/11 comedian Steve Martin opens] San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center [9/10] Troubadour, Los Angeles [9/29] Western Front, Vancouver [Oct] Santa Cruz Poetry Festival [11/13] |
Major profile in Rolling Stone magazine [June 17] Drives Volkswagon Beetle |
1976 | ||
| 1977 | Maybe Tomorrow [3/1] Love Is A Dog From Hell [9/15] |
Baudelaire's, Santa Barbara [6/5] | 1977 | ||||
| 1978 | First trip to Europe [May] Travels to France and appears on (and walks off) popular arts program Apostrophe [Oct] |
You Kissed Lilly [2/8] We'll Take Them [9/5] Women [12/15] Legs, Hips And Behind |
San Pedro [Oct] | Milwaukee, U of W [4/17] Germany [May] |
1978 | ||
| 1979 | Meets Barbet Schroeder and begins writing the screenplay, The Rats of Thirst, which would eventually be filmed as Barfly Buys first new car, a BMW. |
Play The Piano Drunk Like A Percussion Instrument Until The Fingers Begin To Bleed A Bit [7/25] Shakespeare Never Did This [Sep] |
Viking Inn, Vancouver [10/12] | Drives BMW. Volkswagon Beetle is relegated to the garage in San Pedro | 1979 | ||
| 1980 | Final live reading at the Sweetwater in Redondo Beach [Apr] | Bukowski stops using carbon paper and begins to use a Xerox machine to make manuscript submission copies [May] | 1980 | ||||
| 1981 | Italian film production of Tales of Ordinary Madness starring Ben Gazzara released [9/11] | Dangling In The Tournefortia [9/25] | Temporary split with Linda [Feb] Phone: (213) 832-3170 |
1981 | |||
| 1982 | Ham On Rye [7/28] Horsemeat [12/27] |
Temporary split with Linda [Dec] | 1982 | ||||
| 1983 | Bring Me Your Love [7/8] Hot Water Music [9/28] The Bukowski/Purdy Letters [Nov] The Most Beautiful Woman In Town And Other Stories [Dec] Tales Of Ordinary Madness [Dec] |
Temporary split with Linda [Aug] Switches from Olympia typewriter to an IBM Selectric [Aug] |
1983 | ||||
| 1984 | There's No Business [3/28] War All The Time [10/16] Barfly [Dec] Horses Don't Bet On People & Neither Do I Going Modern |
Phone: (213) 519-7279 | 1984 | ||||
| 1985 | Proposes to Linda Lee Linda Lee Beighle [3/20] Marries Linda Lee at the Church of the People in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles [8/18] |
Cornered [Oct] | 1985 | ||||
| 1986 | The Wedding [Jan] The Day It Snowed In L. A. [Sep] You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense [9/26] Relentless As The Tarantula |
P. O. box 132, San Pedro, 90731 [Mar] | 1986 | ||||
| 1987 | Barfly film released [10/16] Belgian film Crazy Love, released, based on Bukowski stories [Oct] The Bukowski Tapes premieres in America at EZTV in Santa Monica, CA (with Bukowski and Schroeder in attendance), limited release on VHS by Lagoon Video |
Bukowski Photographs 1977-1987 [Sep] | 1987 | ||||
| 1988 | Undergoes three treatments for removal of separate skin cancers [summer] | The Roominghouse Madrigals [5/25] Beauti-Ful [Aug] |
1988 | ||||
| 1989 | Undergoes treatment for Tuberculosis, which forces him to temporarily give up drinking | Red [1/30] Hollywood [4/25] |
1989 | ||||
| 1990 | Septuagenarian Stew [5/10] This [5/25] Not Quite Bernadette [Fall] Darkness & Ice [Nov] |
1990 | |||||
| 1991 | First full-length biography published, Neeli Cherkovski's Hank - The Life of Charles Bukowski | In The Shadow Of The Rose [7/25] People Poems |
Switches from the IBM Selectric to an Apple MacIntosh [1/18] Abandons the Xerox machine and now uses only a computer printer to make manuscripts [Apr] |
1991 | |||
| 1992 | Undergoes treatment for cataracts, diminishing his vision | The Last Night Of The Earth Poems [3/23] Three Poems [5/21] |
1992 | ||||
| 1993 | Spends 64 days in the hospital receiving chemotherapy treatment for Leukemia, quits drinking and smoking. Begins practicing Transcendental Meditation [9/19] | Bukowski Photographs 1977-1991 [Jan] Run With The Hunted (collection of previously published poems) [5/4] Screams From the Balcony (letters) [11/15] |
1993 | ||||
| 1994 | Bukowski dies [3/9] Buried at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, near his home in San Pedro [3/14] |
Pulp [4/22] | Writing until the very end, he uses a fax machine to send his "first fax poem" to John Martin [2/18] Bukowski dies less than 3 weeks later | 1994 | |||
| 1995 | Heat Wave [Oct] Living on Luck (Letters) [11/15] |
1995 | |||||
| 1996 | Betting on the Muse [5/13] | 1996 | |||||
| 1997 | Bone Palace Ballet [3/25] The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship [3/23] |
1997 | |||||
| 1998 | 1998 | ||||||
| 1999 | Reach For The Sun (Letters) [June] what matters most is how well you walk through the fire [Sep] |
1999 | |||||
| 2000 | Open All Night [Oct] | 2000 | |||||
| 2001 | Beerspit Night and Cursing (Letters) [May] the night torn mad with footsteps (Final Black Sparrow Bukowski poetry release) [Sep] |
2001 | |||||
| 2002 | Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line the Way (first release published by Ecco/HarperCollins) [12/24] | 2002 | |||||
| 2003 | Bukowski (Photographs) Final Black Sparrow publication The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain [12/23] |
2003 | |||||
| 2004 | Born Into This documentary feature released [5/28] | 2004 | |||||
| 2005 | Factotum film released in Europe (U.S. release in 2006) | Slouching Toward Nirvana [1/18] | 2005 | ||||
| 2006 | Linda donates Bukowski's papers to the Huntington Library in Los Angeles [June] Huntington Library event, "Celebrating Bukowski," to announce Linda's donation [9/20] The Bukowski Tapes gets wide release on DVD |
Come On In! [1/3] | 2006 | ||||
| 2007 | The People Look Like Flowers At Last (Final book of "new" poems?) [4/1] Pleasures of the Damned (collection of previously published poems, includes a few uncollected works) [10/30] |
2007 | |||||
| 2008 | Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook [Sep] | 2008 | |||||
| 2009 | The Continual Condition [10/2] | 2009 | |||||
| 2010 | Absence of the Hero City Lights follow-up to Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook [Apr] | 2010 | |||||