“barred from the Polo Lounge.” May 1983 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“trying to dry out.” June 22, 1983, manuscript (second draft); collected in The Continual Condition, 2009.
“speaking of drinking . . .” August 20, 1983, manuscript; previously uncollected.
Tough Company, by Tom Russell, February 2008. These interview excerpts were first published in January 1984 in the Norwegian magazine Puls.
“40 years ago in that hotel room.” February 1984 manuscript; collected in The Night Torn . . .
“my vanishing act.” October 1984 manuscript; collected in You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense, 1986.
“the master plan.” November 1984 manuscript; collected in You Get So Alone . . .
“this.” December 1984 manuscript; collected in You Get So Alone . . .
The Charles Bukowski Tapes, directed by Barbet Schroeder, January 1985.
“On quitting your job at 50 . . .” Excerpt from a February 22, 1985, letter to A. D. Winans; collected in On Writing.
“dark night poems [#6 and #11].” November 1985 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“An Evening at Buk’s Place.” This interview, conducted on February 17, 1986, was later collected in Jean-François Duval’s Bukowski and the Beats. A Commentary on the Beat Generation, 2002.
“immortal wino.” October 16, 1986, manuscript; collected in Septuagenarian Stew, 1990.
“cleansing the ranks.” Water Row Review 1, 1987; collected in Septuagenarian . . .
“Gin-Soaked Boy,” Film Comment 23.4, July/August 1987.
“240 pounds.” 1988 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“The screenplay began to move . . .” Excerpts from Hollywood, 1989.
“2 Henry Miller paintings and etc.” 1989 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“the gigantic thirst.” Late 1989 manuscript; collected in The People Look Like . . .
“Charles Bukowski,” Arete 2.1, July–August 1989.
“I fell off the wagon twice . . .” Excerpt from a November 8, 1989, letter to Carl Weissner; previously unpublished.
“Q&A,” Arete 2.6, Summer 1990.
“hangovers.” (Early 1991); The Last Night of the Earth Poems, 1992.
“the replacements.” c. 1991 manuscript; collected in The Last Night . . .
“Interview with Charles Bukowski,” Lizard’s Eyelid, c. 1992.
“and it didn’t even break.” June 11, 1992, manuscript; previously uncollected.
“tonight.” June 1992 manuscript; collected as “a fine madness” in The Continual . . .
“Hello John: Just two poems tonight . . .” October 20, 1992, letter to John Martin; previously unpublished.
“11/6/92 12:08 AM.” Spillway. New Directions in Poetry 5, 1996; collected in The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, 1998.
“wine pulse.” February 29, 1984, manuscript; collected in The Night Torn Mad . . .
Acknowledgments
The editor and publisher would like to thank the owners of the poems here printed, which include the following institutions:
University of Arizona, Special Collections
The University of California, Los Angeles, Special Collections
The University of California, Santa Barbara, Special Collections
The Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Indiana University, Lilly Library
The University of Southern California, Rare Books Collection
Thanks also to the following publishers and periodicals, where some of the poems, short stories, and interviews were first printed: Arete, Literary Artpress, Berkeley Barb, City Lights, Film Comment, Hustler, Jeopardy, Lizard’s Eyelid, London Magazine, Los Angeles Free Press, Mano-Mano, Mystery Island Publications, Rolling Stone, Second Coming, Spillway, Sun Dog Press, Throb, Two Charlies, Water Row Review, and Wormwood Review.
To Ona and Gara, for saying go when all else says stop.
To Linda Bukowski, for such passion in keeping the flame alive—keep on trucking!
To Bukowski, for exploring uncharted territory against all odds, drink in hand.
About the Authors
CHARLES BUKOWSKI is one of America’s best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in 1920 in Andernach, Germany, to an American soldier father and a German mother, and brought to the United States at the age of two. He was raised in Los Angeles and lived there for over fifty years. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventythree, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.
ABEL DEBRITTO, a former Fulbright scholar and current Marie Curie fellow, works in the digital humanities. He is the author of Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground, and the editor of the Bukowski collections On Writing, On Cats, On Love, Storm for the Living and the Dead, and Essential Bukowski.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Charles Bukowski
Available from Ecco
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969)
Post Office (1971)
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972)
South of No North (1973)
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955–1973 (1974)
Factotum (1975)
Love Is a Dog from Hell (1977)
Women (1978)
You Kissed Lilly (1978)
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)
Shakespeare Never Did This (1979)
Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
Ham on Rye (1982)
Bring Me Your Love (1983)
Hot Water Music (1983)
There’s No Business (1984)
War All the Time: Poems 1981–1984 (1984)
You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)
The Movie: “Barfly” (1987)
The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems 1946–1966 (1988)
Hollywood (1989)
Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems (1990)
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960–1970 (1993)
Pulp (1994)
Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s–1970s (Volume 2) (1995)
Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories (1996)
Bone Palace Ballet: New Poems (1997)
The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)
Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters 1978–1994 (Volume 3) (1999)
What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire: New Poems (1999)
Open All Night: New Poems (2000)
Night Torn Mad with Footsteps: New Poems (2001)
Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski & Sheri Martinelli 1960–1967 (2001)
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems (2003)
The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain: New Poems (2004)
Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)
Come On In! (2006)
The People Look Like Flowers at Last (2007)
The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)
The Continual Condition (2009)
On Writing (2015)
On Cats (2015)
On Love (2016)
Essential Bukowski (2016)
Storm for the Living and the Dead (2017)
Copyright
ON DRINKING. Copyright © 2019 by Linda Lee Bukowski. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or
by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover art and design by Sara Wood
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-285795-8
Version 01102019
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-285793-4
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