Member-only story
Charles Bukowski’s Favorite Los Angeles Locations
Time Magazine called Charles Bukowski “laureate of the lowlife.” He was a student of the gritty streets who wrote about the shadow side of America. Prostitutes, dingy bars, human cruelty, and lonely trysts. He was a brutal drunk, a misogynist, a self-admitted louse. He was also a prolific writer and a sensitive poet with a twisted sense of humor.
Born in Germany in 1920, Bukowski grew up in Los Angeles, son to an abusive, alcoholic father. He began writing (and drinking) in his teens. He struggled for decades, toiling as an on-again/off-again postal worker until 1969. He was a private person who loved cats and valued his solitude. “I don’t hate people,” he wrote. “I just feel better when they’re not around.”
Though he had many literary heroes, Los Angeles was his creative muse. Many of his fabled haunts have long since been torn down but some locations remain intact providing a unique view into the life of LA’s literary son.
Post Office Terminal Annex, Downtown LA: Bukowski worked as a letter-filing clerk for 14 years. During this period he penned a column called Notes of a Dirty Old Man for the LA Free Press. He came to believe the post office was killing him by slowly poisoning his desire to write. Black Sparrow Press Publisher John Martin offered Bukowski $100 a month for life if he quit his job and…
