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Hustling Roses Down the Avenues of the Dead: Classic Poems from the Bukowski Archives

The first Bukowski poem I ever came across was a classic piece called “blue collar solitude” in the Black Sparrow Press collection titled Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981). The poem follows…

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Charles Bukowski: Poet Laureate of Skid Row

Birthday: August 16, 1920 Birthplace: Andernach, Germany Real Name: Henry Charles Bukowski Parents: Henry Charles and Katharina [Fett] Bukowski Description of Father: "[A] cruel shiny bastard with bad breath . . ." Education: Attended Los Angeles…

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Jack Kerouac: Safe in Heaven Drunk

Date of Birth: March 12, 1922 Place of Birth: Lowell, Massachusetts Actual Name: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac Nicknames: Ti-Jean (Little Jean), Memory Babe Family: Leo & Gabrielle Kerouac, parents; Gerard, brother (died at age of…

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William S. Burroughs: Secret Agent in Hell

[1914-1997] Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri Family: Mortimer & Laura Lee Burroughs, parents; Mortimer Burroughs Jr., brother; William S. Burroughs Sr., grandfather (inventor of the adding machine) Nicknames: William Lee, El Hombre Invisible, Cosmonaut…

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Weekend in Aintry! James Dickey and the Making of Deliverance

"I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am there." —Arthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en Enfer "The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels…

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Harry Crews: Out of the Gates, Slowly Bleeding

An autographed photograph of author Harry Crews (1935-2012) hangs inside my hallway closet (for some unknown reason, my wife won’t let me hang it in the living room). It’s a…

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Johnny Eck: King of the Freaks

Often billed as "The Amazing Half Boy," Johnny Eck (1911-1991) appeared in Tod Browning's 1932 horror classic, Freaks. Eck (real name: Johnny Eckhardt) was born without a body below the…

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