Charles Bukowski

Died: 1994
Originally from: Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Profession: Writer
At: Los Angeles

So who was Charles Bukowski?
The abused, acne-scarred son of an often out-of-work American ex-soldier, Charles Bukowski became the ultimate poet and chronicler of American lowlife: drunks, hookers, bar fights, vomit and all. He wrote with raw power, in plain, stripped-back lines, about the bitter grind of daily life in novels like Post Office and Factotum. His fiction and his poems remain undergraduate favourites and rock star inspiration even now.

Where did he drink?
Bukowski favoured down-home bars full of afternoon drinkers. LA legend places him at Hank's on Grand Avenue and The Frolic Room on Hollywood Boulevard, though neither claim is well documented. He met his future wife, Linda Lee Beighle, at the Dew Drop Inn, the health food cafe she ran in Redondo Beach's Riviera Village. It was hardly his natural habitat.

What did he drink?
Linda, whom he married in 1985, managed to wean him off hard liquor and onto wine – albeit two or three bottles in a typical writing evening and sometimes as many as seven. Rumour has it the great man favoured Liebfraumilch, though others say he preferred a nice Cab Sauv.

Whatever the truth of his taste in wine, it is fair to say Bukowski was no cocktailian. He favoured American beers, even as he ranted that they had gone downhill since World War II, out of a bottle by preference, not a can. Miller's or Schlitz, not Bud, and sometimes a Heineken or ten. Typically, he'd consume a couple of six-packs plus a pint of cheap Scotch over an evening's writing.

Any famous drinking buddies?
Ironically for a man who made it big writing about lowlifes, hookers, drunks and dropouts, Bukowski moved in some stellar company. On the underground scene he crossed paths with Allen Ginsberg, though the two were never close. He was also friendly with Leonardo DiCaprio's father, George, who was then managing a dirty book store.

In his Hollywood years, Bono was an admirer. U2 dedicated a 1992 Dodger Stadium concert to Bukowski and Linda, and the following year Bono quoted him in the outro of "Dirty Day" on Zooropa. Mickey Rourke played Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, in Barfly, a performance the writer didn't much care for. He did become genuine friends with Sean Penn, then married to Madonna, and took him to the races. After Bukowski's death, Penn dedicated his 1995 film The Crossing Guard to him. Bukowski, who loathed many writers, deigned to both dine and drink with the literary titan and fight aficionado Norman Mailer.

How did drink change his life?
As a shy, physically abused teenager, Bukowski found alcohol transformative: "This is going to help me for a very long time," he remembered thinking long after the event. Although an ulcer nearly killed him in 1955 and a doctor said that continuing to drink would be fatal, he lasted into his 70s.

Drink fuelled Bukowski's writing, brought him fame, celebrity and, in later life, even some wealth. Yet it also stopped him writing for at least ten years, and, combined with the acne scars, made him as ugly physically as he could be to the women in his life when drunk.

Any drinking stories?
Bukowski's life and work were one long drinking story. Though the one where he lost his virginity to a lady he ungallantly describes as a "300-pound hooker" bears repeating, if only for the fact that he was 24.