BUKOWSKI, Charles & CHERKOVSKI, Neeli. Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski [Proof Copy: Signed by Bukowski and Cherkovski]

New York: Random House, 1991. pp. 321. Proof copy with annotations throughout by the author.

Seventy-year-old cult figure Charles Bukowski, author of Post Office , Barfly: The Movie and Septuagenarian Stew , is notorious for living the hard-drinking, womanizing, sordid L.A. life depicted in his prose and poetry. In this sympathetic biography, Cherkovski ( Whitman's Wild Children ) plays down the unsavory elements of Bukowski's reputation, including an antagonistic nature brought on by alcohol, instead portraying him as the social ousider's friend and hero. Despite abusive parents who disapproved of his writing, and childhood acne that caused his peers to ostracize him and that permanently scarred his face, Bukowski, Cherkovski shows, became a dedicated, prolific artist who published in and helped found numerous literary journals, later perpetuating his own legend and attaining celebrity status through egotistical, wild behavior. This profile partially de-romanticizes the Bukowski myth, allowing the integrity of the poet's works to prove him an admirable, if contradictory character.

In his early 20s, Cherkovski and Charles Bukowski launched the short-lived mimeographed literary magazine, "Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns." His "Ferlinghetti: A Biography" (1979) was the first published biography of the internationally revered poet and founder of City Lights Books. Cherkovski is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently "Elegy For My Beat Generation." In 2019, he co-edited "Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman" (City Lights Books), and he is the subject of the new independent documentary feature “It's Nice To Be With You Always.” Cherkovski’s papers are held at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

[WR]