I guess I'm discovering Bukowski in a roundabout way.
In the mid-70s, the guest professor for my creative writing course at Cal State Long Beach was writer Liza Williams, of LA Free Press fame, aka Dee Dee Bronson from Women. At the time, I had no idea that she was either still seeing Bukowski, or more than likely had recently split up with him. She never discussed him, in spite of me visiting her in LA, or in the letters we exchanged for a few years afterwards (one of which I just rediscovered this weekend). In the 70s, of course, we couldn’t Google someone the way we can today. Liza was such a huge influence on me, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized the connection. I felt pretty stupid, but I was a naive kid at the time.
So, I became exposed to Bukowski’s work only tangentially, and my hope is that somehow I could get a tiny glimpse of insight into Liza through Buk’s eyes, bloodshot as they may have been.
PS If anyone knows how to get in touch with her son, I think he would love her newsy letter, which talks about their road trip to some hot springs in Baja. Cheers.
In the mid-70s, the guest professor for my creative writing course at Cal State Long Beach was writer Liza Williams, of LA Free Press fame, aka Dee Dee Bronson from Women. At the time, I had no idea that she was either still seeing Bukowski, or more than likely had recently split up with him. She never discussed him, in spite of me visiting her in LA, or in the letters we exchanged for a few years afterwards (one of which I just rediscovered this weekend). In the 70s, of course, we couldn’t Google someone the way we can today. Liza was such a huge influence on me, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized the connection. I felt pretty stupid, but I was a naive kid at the time.
So, I became exposed to Bukowski’s work only tangentially, and my hope is that somehow I could get a tiny glimpse of insight into Liza through Buk’s eyes, bloodshot as they may have been.
PS If anyone knows how to get in touch with her son, I think he would love her newsy letter, which talks about their road trip to some hot springs in Baja. Cheers.
