Maybe he really got the Guggenheim, but they sent the check to Bukoski, Henry Charles (as it's spelled in the request to Malone), rather than Bukowski. ;)
Interesting that he pegs his association with Matrix as "desultory" and starting around 1948, a couple of years after it really started. I guess it's like padding job dates on a resume. The real interesting question is whether he only submitted to Matrix during those years, or he submitted elsewhere but Matrix were the only ones to publish him.
Besides Write, of course. ;)
The Guggenheim is very difficult to get, yet you see some of the people they support and have to wonder "what the fuck?"
Malone must have worked a long time on that recommendation. It's great. You know, except toward the end there where he more or less says Bukowski's prose is shit, but they should give him a grant to write some poems, because he's really good at that.