CHARLES BUKOWSKI (1920-1994): RESEARCH AND CRITIQUE OF AN AMERICAN WORKING-CLASS POET

Authors

Dana Anderson, Brigham Young University
Dr. Lance Larsen, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Charles Bukowski, American working class, poet

College

Humanities

Department

English

Abstract

In 1959, an inconspicuous Los Angeles postal worker named Charles Bukowski published his first book of poetry-Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail in a press run of only 200 copies. Yet, by the time of his death last March he had sold over one and a half million copies of 46 volumes of poetry and pros works which have been translated into 20 languages and have generated a huge readership here and throughout Europe. Writing from the rigors of the working class, Bukowski was uniquely qualified in his critique of an “American dream” which no longer seemed plausible, of an America which entrenched average people like himself in a dehumanizing cycle of work and consumption.

Recommended Citation

Anderson, Dana and Larsen, Dr. Lance (2013) "CHARLES BUKOWSKI (1920-1994): RESEARCH AND CRITIQUE OF AN AMERICAN WORKING-CLASS POET," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 745.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/745