Poet Laureate of Skid Row

[mjp]

Anyone know where that term, Poet Laureate of Skid Row, originated? I'm really over seeing it in every half-assed article about Bukowski. Really.

 

[vodka]

sounds like just an easy title to apply, if you ask me.

 

[marina del rey]

Pretty sure this book didn't coin the term, but it might have helped to popularize it lately.

 

[bospress.net]

The same people that label him "beat" also feel the burning desire to label him as "The Poet of Skid Row".

Bill

 

[Bukfan]

What about, "The Beat Poet Laureate Of Skid Row" ? :D

 

[Kalli]

I feel like I first saw it in an older book review, but I bet marina del rey is right and 'Drinking with Bukowski' poularized it recently...

 

[Short Bus]

What about, "The Beat Poet Laureate Of Skid Row" ? :D

Ha! Good One

 

[Lolita Twist]

I like the term Poet Laureate of Skid Row. Though no, I don't think Buk is "beat". There's a quote on the back of the "new" print of Post Office... something about the Beats taking poetry far, and Buk took it further.

I don't know where the term came from, I just always see it everywhere Buk is mentioned.

 

[james]

just pulled this from some blog:

"A prolific author of the ordinary lives of people, in 1986, Charles Bukowski was dubbed a "laureate of American lowlife" by Time Magazine."

pretty close...maybe it morphed from this to the current quote?

 

[Lolita Twist]

^ I like that one much better. It's honester. "Honester" is like "obviousness", by the way.

 

[zenguru]

I've heard him called Poet Laureate of the Lowlife. But that skid row line is new to me.

 

[Rekrab]

"Poet Laureate of Skid Row" sounds like it may predate Bukowski's rise to fame. It could be a term that has been around a long time and was merely adapted for Bukowski. Going to Google, it was used -- for example -- to describe Nelson Algren:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937429,00.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=seiQER_w04AC&pg=PA406&lpg=PA406&dq=%22Poet+Laureate+of+Skid+Row%22+-Bukowski&source=bl&ots=E5SlAmHkm5&sig=NSs47tdaXFyrwtq5-6FbWc59WtQ&hl=en&ei=3c69S93QGJS2sgPtw4GDBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CA4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Poet%20Laureate%20of%20Skid%20Row%22%20-Bukowski&f=false

 

[Rekrab]

And for those of you with time to burn, here are 1,600 and some odd websites were it's used without mentioning Bukowski, although many of these could be people borrowing it from Buk:

http://www.google.com/webhp?rls=ig#hl=en&rls=ig&q=%22Poet+Laureate+of+Skid+Row%22+-Bukowski&aq=&aqi=&aql=&oq=%22Poet+Laureate+of+Skid+Row%22+-Bukowski&gs_rfai=&fp=467c3568f2eec009

 

[roni]

that was new to me, Rekrab. Thanks. I only knew it as a Buk-reference.

 

[mjp]

Charles Bukowski was dubbed a "laureate of American lowlife" by Time Magazine."

By a travel writer, no less.

It's in an article titled, "Celebrities Who Travel Well," by Pico Iyer, in the June 16, 1986 edition of TIME.