Re:
Neeli Cherkovski's HANK:
It's well written, but the problem is, it
isn't reliable as a biographical source.
He often uses parts from Bukowski's work (literature), and things that Buk (or others) had told just him, and takes them for fact.
So, one has to be careful. Still it's a good read, since Neeli had been a friend of Bukowski since the mid-1960s and knew him well as a person.
All in all, that makes Neeli's book a highly-valuable anecdote-book.
Not a realiable biography.
That's were
Sounes came in, in the late 1990s.
He was the first to actually search through primary sources to find proof or disproof of many wide-spread myths.
His' is
still the standard biography, but scholarly research hasn't stopped since then, so it's outdated now in several parts.
The most up-to-date (printed) biography at the moment, is the one by
David Calonne.
It has a different approach than Sounes' and thus isn't meant to fully replace it as a standard-bio. But it sets the record straight in many parts.
Also, David has a widespread knowledge of cultural topics (literature, philosophy, social-issues, etc), which allows him to connect Bukowski into bigger context.
While the VERY MOST reliable biographical source of all is not printed, but to be found right here on the site:
The
TIMELINE.
This one changes every time, a new discovery concerning the facts appears anywhere. By which I mean, that our very own
mjp keeps that damn thing up-to-date on a more or less daily basis.
You're welcome.