mjp
Founding member
You know, the more I work on the timeline the more I think Bukowski's "lost years" were more like a year and a half, maybe two. Between the FBI files and things he's said and written about, you can pretty much place him in specific places for all but a very short time.
He left Los Angeles City College in June of '41, and talked about being in a downtown Los Angeles bar when Pearl Harbor was attacked, which was in December of 1941. so I think we can place him on Longwood with his parents until at least 1942.
In '42 and '43 he obviously spent time in Philadelphia, but the FBI files say he worked a job there, so he wasn't just on the barstool every day at 6am, and he didn't sit on that Philadelphia barstool for ten years, or even three years (as I believe he claimed).
He talked about picking up a copy of Story magazine (Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip) in New York City, and that was published in the first couple months of 1944. In July of '44 the FBI arrested him on the draft charge, so we can assume he went back to Philadelphia after New York, since that's where he was arrested.
Then after the 17 days in prison he came back to Los Angeles and stayed (and worked) for 10 years, until the trip to Texas with Barbara Frye. After that, it's all Los Angeles, with the brief trips to see the Webbs, and later traveling to do readings.
When he came back to Los Angeles in 1944 (to his parents house), he may have spent more time in bars, but the "ten year drunk," and the idea that he traveled the country extensively "on the bum" are two more myths that I think can be put to rest.
He wrote specifically and often about Philadelphia, New Orleans, New Mexico and Texas. But we know he was in Texas with Barbara Frye only briefly, and New Orleans and New Mexico to visit the Webbs. That leaves Philadelphia and New York as the only places he really went on his own with no real destination or plan (that we know of).
He wrote and talked about the "tar paper shack" in Atlanta, but why nothing else specific in that area? How did he get from Atlanta to Philadelphia without any experiences to write about? Atlanta just seems too disconnected from the places that we know for sure he spent time in. He never wrote about any experiences in the states that surround Georgia; Alabama, the Carolinas, Tennessee...am I the only one who finds that odd?
One other thing - consider his work ethic. He put in 12 straight years at the post office, and wrote with a discipline that is undeniable. We also know that he was always worried about money...these things do not jive with a person who spends years laying around doing nothing.
So, yeah, I know, I've done too much typing here. And probably connected too many dots that can't really be proved with any certainty. But that timeline sort of puts things into a perspective that I haven't have before, and it's kind of interesting to look at his life laid out like that.
He left Los Angeles City College in June of '41, and talked about being in a downtown Los Angeles bar when Pearl Harbor was attacked, which was in December of 1941. so I think we can place him on Longwood with his parents until at least 1942.
In '42 and '43 he obviously spent time in Philadelphia, but the FBI files say he worked a job there, so he wasn't just on the barstool every day at 6am, and he didn't sit on that Philadelphia barstool for ten years, or even three years (as I believe he claimed).
He talked about picking up a copy of Story magazine (Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip) in New York City, and that was published in the first couple months of 1944. In July of '44 the FBI arrested him on the draft charge, so we can assume he went back to Philadelphia after New York, since that's where he was arrested.
Then after the 17 days in prison he came back to Los Angeles and stayed (and worked) for 10 years, until the trip to Texas with Barbara Frye. After that, it's all Los Angeles, with the brief trips to see the Webbs, and later traveling to do readings.
When he came back to Los Angeles in 1944 (to his parents house), he may have spent more time in bars, but the "ten year drunk," and the idea that he traveled the country extensively "on the bum" are two more myths that I think can be put to rest.
He wrote specifically and often about Philadelphia, New Orleans, New Mexico and Texas. But we know he was in Texas with Barbara Frye only briefly, and New Orleans and New Mexico to visit the Webbs. That leaves Philadelphia and New York as the only places he really went on his own with no real destination or plan (that we know of).
He wrote and talked about the "tar paper shack" in Atlanta, but why nothing else specific in that area? How did he get from Atlanta to Philadelphia without any experiences to write about? Atlanta just seems too disconnected from the places that we know for sure he spent time in. He never wrote about any experiences in the states that surround Georgia; Alabama, the Carolinas, Tennessee...am I the only one who finds that odd?
One other thing - consider his work ethic. He put in 12 straight years at the post office, and wrote with a discipline that is undeniable. We also know that he was always worried about money...these things do not jive with a person who spends years laying around doing nothing.
So, yeah, I know, I've done too much typing here. And probably connected too many dots that can't really be proved with any certainty. But that timeline sort of puts things into a perspective that I haven't have before, and it's kind of interesting to look at his life laid out like that.