Discovering Bukowski (1 Viewer)

good article, but this line struck me as funny:

He worked as a postman for 12 years until he skyrocketed to fame.

I'm not sure that he had "skyrocketed to fame" in 1971, unless he meant that he skyrocketed to small press fame.

But I'm a nit-picker.

Bill
 
Thank you Ponder, nice article. I thought I paid attention to what I read here in this forum, which is the source of most of my Bukowski knowledge, But I was surprised by a few of the friends listed in the article.

Among the friends and fans he acquired over the years were singers/songwriters such as Tom Waits, Bono and Sinead O'Connor; film directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Paul Verhoeven, Taylor Hackford and David Lynch; and screen actors including Sean Penn, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Elliot Gould, Harry Dean Stanton and Helen Mirren.

Helen Mirren?
I need to pay more attention or break down and buy a biography.
 
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"a virgin to the age of 50 ..." -:confused:
- Apart from the errors, it was a nice article.
Thanks, Ponder...
 
Helen Mirren?
I need to pay more attention or break down and buy a biography.

I don't recall ever reading that he was friends with Helen Mirren, but of course she has been living with Taylor Hackford since the late 80s (they're married now) so they may have met at least.
 
Thank you, if I would have just thrown her to Google I could have found that connection, duh.

Thank you hank for advancing my meager knowledge.
 
Yep I just discovered it too - he met Helen Mirren and they got on OK it seems, had a meal and "emptied bottles like old timers" - pg 287 of "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life", the biography by Howard Sounes (look it up in Google Books if you can't find a copy).
 
Whoa, old thread....

Rumors of Bukowski's death had gone round on four occasions in recent months. Nobody knew for certain how it was happening, but Bukowski believed it to be malicious and wrote a poem about the jealous, failed writers he presumed were responsible for upsetting his family and friends.

your cowardice will
not be
missed
and you were
dead
long
before
me.

('an answer')​

It was a long time since Hackford had seen Bukowski, and the sorrow he felt when he heard he might be dead reminded him how much he cared, so they arranged to meet at San Pedro. 'He had cancer. He talked about that,' says Hackford. 'He had been in the hospital once. He said, “It's slow-moving and I'm writing every day.”' Hackford brought champagne and two bottles of red wine over to the house and introduced Bukowski and Linda Lee to his girlfriend, the actress Helen Mirren, whom Bukowski had watched in Peter Greenaway's sexually explicit movie, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.

'Yeah, I saw you taking it all …' he said mischievously as he greeted her, 'lying there in that freezer …'

She laughed and they were soon emptying bottles like old times. They went out for Thai food, drinking beer at the restaurant, and came back to the house for more wine. 'I stumbled out of there at a quarter to six in the morning,' says Hackford. 'Helen and I and Hank had drunk seven bottles of wine – Linda had stayed on rum and coke – seven bottles of regular wine and a bottle of champagne.'

After the initial euphoria of being in remission, Bukowski gave up alcohol altogether and drank only herbal tea and mineral water. He had been cutting back ever since his bout of TB and found that he didn't miss the booze at all. He quit smoking, too.
 
:agb:
Yep I just discovered it too - he met Helen Mirren and they got on OK it seems, had a meal and "emptied bottles like old timers" - pg 287 of "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life", the biography by Howard Sounes (look it up in Google Books if you can't find a copy).
Yet another reason to like Helen Mirren.
 

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