What other writers have you read because Bukowski told you so?

[HenryChinaski]

yeah..I've been submitting poetry and short short fiction to Pearl for quite some time now.
I must confess though, nothing has been accepted. I mean honestly, what does a man of 20 yrs have to write about?

AND they also published the bukowski reviews

 

[Bukmule]

I read West of Rome by John Fante and thought it was hysterical ( and very well written ).

 

[MarkDB]

Fante

The best thing Buk ever did for me besides giving me his own work was turning me on to Fante. I howl when reading the Arturo Bandini saga and his other work. It is just so close to some of my own experience and to so many of my Italian friends growing up, even though many years before. I think that Fante captured so many shared experiences about this american life in words that just smack you in the face with all the humor and sadness of its realism.

 

[mfinney]

don't feel bad man i submitted to Pearl many times and nothing got published either. but i'm 17 what the hell do i have to write about? :)

but yeah, i think the best writer Buk got me into was Celine. Journey blew me away when i read it.

 

[blackberry wild]

Because he said so...

I looked up Bukowski when i was about 18 because i was a fan of the L.A. band X. I saw an interview with them on some news program where they asked the band who their influences were. Bukowski was mentioned. I went to the Library and looked him up. Erections, ejaculations.....i'm, like, OKaeeee.
But know one has ever had an impact on me like he and his writings have. Twentysome years later and no one comes close to him, except the writers who influenced him. I read Dostoyevsky, Celine, Thurber, Stenhal, Fante, Li Po, and I can't really think of the others right now. Celine blew me away and Dostoyevski is a genius too. It's really the only thing that makes you steady...to know that you're not really crazy...to know that, OK, I'm really not the only one who see's things this way. It's comforting in a strange way.

 

[zoom man]

Knut Hamsun

 

[d gray]

can't believe nobody has mentioned carson mccullers. unless i missed it. carson mccullers.

 

[mjp]

That's an interesting image for your avatar there. Is that your art? I like it. There's a lot of crappy Bukowski art out there, but this captures something.

 

[d gray]

hey mjp - thanks alot, nice of you to say that. it is mine from a sketchbook. while we're at it i've been meaning to post my thanks to you and everyone on this forum for contributions large and small. i'm an archive/info nut for people/artists that i dig so this place is heaven for me. cheers to all!

 

[jose leitao]

I had read quite a lot of the same stuff Buk raves about in his letters and poems, but the only one I can say I discovered through Bukowski, was Céline.

That guy has killer material, especially if you are capable of reading him in French.

I have Portuguese editions of his works, which include some rarities from his most anti-semitic panflets as well. Properly expunged, and critically examined, mind you...

But Céline was more a victim of himself than anyone else. He was just too honest, and got involved with some very unfortunate ideologies, which caused a viral criticism of some of his work (some plainly justified, other mostly prejudice)... afterwards, they rehabilitated him in the cultural circles, and in latest years, his books have been making a comeback.

But his 'Voyage au bout de la Nuit' is supberb...

 

[karl hungus]

celine

I've read 'Journey to the End of the Night' and I enjoyed it a whole lot, but how does the rest of his works compare? Any suggestions on what I should read?

 

[jose leitao]

Death On The Installment Plan, (Mort à Crédit) is also a good book by Céline.

 

[zoom man]

Jean Giono's Blue Boy too,
I think,
Thought recommended to Buk by Henry Miller.
He told him he would very much like it,
So I just had to read it

 

[HenryChinaski]

i've been reading Dostoyevski's "Notes from the underground"

he didnt receive much praise from it, but i find it highly interesting. check it out if youre into multiple personalities that think they're better and smarter than everybody. that's it in a nutshell. spitefull two-sided fydor that finds pleasure in a toothache.

read up kiddies!

 

[acky]

Carson McCullers-the heart is a lonley hunter

one book you all forgot to mention and which Buk loved (and said was the greatest book written by a woman) is Carson McCuller's "The heart is a lonley hunter" have read it and it is brilliant.

Submitt poetry and storys to my new Buk dedicated MSN poetry/story web site-just go to

http://groups.msn.com/bukowskisgoatee/poetry.msnw

to join-look forward to seeing you there
cheers
acky

 

[acky]

also think Buk would have liked the english authors Irvine Welsh of "Train spotting" fame and the scottish writer James Kellman (his best i think is called "A Dissafection") i asume you can get them in the USA somehow ? They are well worth checking out
cheers
acky

 

[acky]

magnus mills "the restraint of beasts"

another writer I am sure Buk would have liked is called Magnus Mills because he is very very funny and a great no bullshit writer.Although i do not know if you Americans would get the english sense of humour but you should as it is so well written-had me laughing out loud.His most famous is called "The Restraint of Beasts" and will have you rolling about laughing.

 

[acky]

Buks favorite authors and composers

Heres a further list of authors who Buk liked-taken page xii of the book "Charles Bukowski :Sunlight Here I am" edited by David Stephen Calonne which is well worth getting and contains key interviews at different stages of his life.Here is the list

Carson mcCullers (the heart is a lonley hunter which is great)
Friedrich Nietzsche (have not read)
Arthur Schopenhauer (have not read)
Antonin Artraud (have not read)
J.D.Salinger
Sherwood Anderson (have not read)
Franz Kafka
John Fante
D.H.Lawrence (have not read)
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Knut Hamsun
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Henry Miller (although i thought Buk said he found it difficult to read him-i certainly found it difficult to read him !)
William Saroyan (have not read)
Ernest Hemingway (have not read)
Ivan Turgenev (have not read)
James Thurber (have not read)
Maxim Gorky (have not read) (i thought Buk said he liked early Gorky but i may be wrong)
John Dos Passos (have not read)
ee cummings (have not read)
Robinson Jeffers (have not read)
Stephen Spender (have not read)
W.H.Auden (read some)
Giovanni Boccaccio (have not read)
Conrad Aiken (have not read)
Ezra Pound (have not read)
Li Po (have not read)
Catullus (have not read) (never heard of him ?)

and his fav composers were as follows

Bach
Beethoven
handel
mahler
Mozart
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Stravinsky
Wagner

Maybe if some of you have read the authors above which i have not read you could point out to me the best books of theirs to get to read first.
cheers
ack

p.s. check out my new MSN web site where you can post Buk related poems and storys even if you were only inspired to write after reading Buk
called

Bukowski's goatee

and to be found at

http://groups.msn.com/bukowskisgoatee/poetry.msnw

be good to hear from you thier

ack

p.s.. let me know if i have missed anyone -I know he also loved "the singing detective" (english) t.v. series which was written by (the english writer) Dennis Potter maybe because the guy in it had a terrible skin decease.

 

[cirerita]

Catullus was a Roman writer very famous for being the first one -or one of the first ones- to write poems with explicit sexual content. that's why B liked him, I guess :D

 

[hank solo]

Talking of Catullus ... Sure many of you will have seen this site before...

The Charles Bukowski Memorial Center for Classical Latin Studies

two unrefined gentlemen

 

[acky]

Chatterton and Villon

Thanks for the cattulus link.
Thier are another couple of poets who i think he only mentions once in the poem "Object Lesson" on page 82 of The Roominghouse Madrigals (early poems 1946-1966).They are

Francois Villon 1431-14 ?

who can be found by going to following link

http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/poetry/Francois_Villon/index.htm


and the english poet

Thomas Chatterton 1752-1770

who can be found by going to the following link

http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-chatterton/poet-7172/

in Poem hunter.com

 

[cirerita]

nope, he mentions both Chatterton and Villon in quite a few poems, especially in those typical name-dropping Bukowski poems.

 

[acky]

Oh right Cirerita-have read most of his books-except a few recent ones.Must have forgot him mentioning them in other poems-it's a wonder they did not get a mention in the "Sunlight here i am book" (which is well worth getting).i wonder how Buk first got to hear about them-no internet back then and they are hardly famous (or at least i had never heard of them before) some library maybe ? The best book on Buk by the way-in my humble opinion is Steve Richmond's "Spinning of Bukowski" it really gives you an idea of what it was like to know the man.

 

[cirerita]

B devoured the public libraries in his early twenties, that's where he did most of his reading.

 

[Ninjerk]

I just finished The Stranger a few days ago and I wasn't extremely impressed. I liked the persona of the main character and, trying not to spoil the book, the bit about him ending up where he does because of a perhaps-unrelated occurence. I felt the protagonist was trying to displace his guilt a bit too much and there really wasn't any motivation for it at all (there was obvious hostile intent from the Arab but it hardly warranted his treatment).

 

[HenryChinaski]

man I need to get my hands on a copy of Celine's Journey To The End Of Night. Can somebody help me out? PM me plz. I'm sure we can work out a loan of the book or something. ;)

 

[cirerita]

why don't you try your local library?

 

[jorgen]

The Hunger

Bukowski mentions Hamsun several times in both novels and poems, and the novel that impressed Hank the most was Hamsun's debut The Hunger. I also recommend Mysteries and Pan for those who would like to check out the Norwegian genius.

 

[SamDusky]

man I need to get my hands on a copy of Celine's Journey To The End Of Night. Can somebody help me out? PM me plz. I'm sure we can work out a loan of the book or something. ;)

If you send me a SASE, I'll send you my copy.

SD

 

[Erik]

Bukowski mentions Hamsun several times in both novels and poems, and the novel that impressed Hank the most was Hamsun's debut The Hunger. I also recommend Mysteries and Pan for those who would like to check out the Norwegian genius.

Keep in mind though that Hamsun was a Nazi and a traitor to rival Quisling.:mad:
His real name was Knud Pedersen.
When Hitler died he wrote an obituary in a leading Norwegian newspaper praising Hitler's greatness!
Hitler in turn much admired Hamsun.
Hamsun could write but he couldn't think straight. A good poet must do both.

Like Buk says, too many writers get caught up in dirty politics, other examples: Celine & Pound.
Buk should know, he nearly got caught up in the Nazi movement himself, didn't he?;)

PS: anybody read the wild french author by name of Michel Houellebecq?
He definitely kicks ass!