Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. He published over sixty volumes of poetry and prose, and his works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Bukowski provokes extreme reactions to his work. On the one hand, he is a cult hero, a writer who sees through the pretensions of life and literature to depict the world in all its brutality and beauty. On the other hand, he is dismissed as a primitive writer who spewed out a facile mixture of juvenile bile, self-absorbed rant, and clever posturing designed to get a rise from his audience and raise sales of his books. “I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path,” said Charles Bukowski. Though he lived hard and drank determinedly for most of his life, he died on 9 March 1994 from leukaemia. At the time of his death, he had become wealthy from his many writings and lived in the comfortable suburb of San Pedro. His persona and writing inspired many artists in popular culture. US band Red Hot Chili Peppers reference Bukowski and his works in several songs, including the line "pick up my book, I read Bukowski" in the song "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" from their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Enjoy free online English audiobook “At Terror Street and Agony Way” by Charles Bukowski.
