The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain


Book Description

The second of five new books of unpublished poems from the late, great, Charles Bukowski, America's most imitated and influential poet –– 143 never–before–seen works of gritty, amusing, and inspiring verse.




The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain


Book Description

Presents 143 new poems from one of America's greatest modern writers and most influential poets.




sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way


Book Description

One of the most recognizable poets of the last century, Charles Bukowski is simultaneously a common man and an icon of urban depravity. He uses strong, blunt language to describe life as he lives it, and through it all charts the mutations of morality in modern America. Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way is a treasure trove of confessional poetry written towards then end of Bukowski’s life. With the overhang of failing health and waning fame, he reflects on his travels, his gambling and drinking, working, not working, sex and love, eating, cats, and more. Sifting Through is Bukowski at his most meditative – published posthumously, it’s completely non-performative, and gets to the heart of Bukowski’s lifelong pursuit of natural language and raw honesty. We recommend you read this as Bukowski wrote: by sifting through the madness for what hits you as the word, the line, the way.




Whiter Than Snow


Book Description

From The New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for Sale comes the moving and powerful story of a small town after a devastating avalanche, and the life changing effects it has on the people who live there Whiter Than Snow opens in 1920, on a spring afternoon in Swandyke, a small town near Colorado's Tenmile Range. Just moments after four o'clock, a large split of snow separates from Jubilee Mountain high above the tiny hamlet and hurtles down the rocky slope, enveloping everything in its path including nine young children who are walking home from school. But only four children survive. Whiter Than Snow takes you into the lives of each of these families: There's Lucy and Dolly Patch—two sisters, long estranged by a shocking betrayal. Joe Cobb, Swandyke's only black resident, whose love for his daughter Jane forces him to flee Alabama. There's Grace Foote, who hides secrets and scandal that belies her genteel façade. And Minder Evans, a civil war veteran who considers his cowardice his greatest sin. Finally, there's Essie Snowball, born Esther Schnable to conservative Jewish parents, but who now works as a prostitute and hides her child's parentage from all the world. Ultimately, each story serves as an allegory to the greater theme of the novel by echoing that fate, chance, and perhaps even divine providence, are all woven into the fabric of everyday life. And it's through each character's defining moment in his or her past that the reader understands how each child has become its parent's purpose for living. In the end, it's a novel of forgiveness, redemption, survival, faith and family.




The Pleasures of the Damned


Book Description

The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best poetry from America's most iconic and imitated poet, Charles Bukowski. Celebrating the full range of the poet's extraordinary sensibility and his uncompromising linguistic brilliance, these poems cover a lifetime of experience, from his renegade early work to never-before-collected poems penned during the final days before his death. Selected by John Martin, Bukowski's long-time editor and the publisher of the legendary Black Sparrow Press, this stands as what Martin calls 'the best of the best of Bukowski'.




Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground


Book Description

This critical study of the literary magazines, underground newspapers, and small press publications that had an impact on Charles Bukowski's early career, draws on archives, privately held unpublished Bukowski work, and interviews to shed new light on the ways in which Bukowski became an icon in the alternative literary scene in the 1960s.




Charles Bukowski


Book Description

'Fear makes me a writer, fear and a lack of confidence' Charles Bukowski chronicled the seedy underside of the city in which he spent most of his life, Los Angeles. His heroes were the panhandlers and hustlers, the drunks and the hookers, his beat the racetracks and strip joints and his inspiration a series of dead-end jobs in warehouses, offices and factories. It was in the evenings that he would put on a classical record, open a beer and begin to type... Brought up by a violent father, Bukowski suffered childhood beatings before developing horrific acne and withdrawing into a moody adolescence. Much of his young life epitomised the style of the Beat generation - riding Greyhound buses, bumming around and drinking himself into a stupor. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including the novels Post Office, Factotum, Women and Pulp. His novels sold millions of copies worldwide in dozens of languages. In this definitive biography Barry Miles, celebrated author of Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats, turns his attention to the exploits of this hard-drinking, belligerent wild man of literature.




Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Mickey Rourke Movies


Book Description

This book explores important life lessons through the lens of Mickey Rourke movies. Fifteen movies are discussed from all phases of his extraordinary career, from his teen heartthrob years of the early 1980s to his more recent work as a token bad guy. Despite never having taken a film class or paid full-price to see a movie, the author explores each film and makes a seemingly endless series of insightful, and often humorous, observations about the human condition. In fact, this book features a minimum of two jokes per page.




Poetry Los Angeles


Book Description

A look at the poetry of one of America’s most populous and fascinating cities, with poems spanning from 1942 to 2012




Culture and Customs of the United States [2 volumes]


Book Description

American life and culture is truly unique in that it was born from many other cultures around the world. When immigrants migrated to the Land of Opportunity, they brought with them pieces of their own heritage: foods, religions, holidays, festivals, music, and art, just to name a few. Through time, these customs have developed into what we now know as American life. Explore how even within the US, various cultures and customs differ from New England to the Midwest to the Pacific. Discover how many religions are practiced all over the country, and how each sect differs in its celebration. Learn how gender plays an important role in American society, and how things have changed and progressed in the past century. Readers will learn about American holidays-religious, federal, and even those fabricated by Hallmark and television! Sports, leisure activities, and fashion also play a major role in American culture, as discussed in this all-encompassing work. Discover how American cuisine has evolved from other cultures, such as Italian, Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, and West Africa, and how each region has its own indigenous dishes, including New England clam chowder, Southern jambalaya, and Mid-western lutefisk. Contemporary and classic literature is also discussed, along with the evolution of poetry. Readers will learn about the development of mass media, as well as the growth of cinema and films from the first silent film to today's popular blockbuster trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean. Music and dance are also discussed in detail, covering the New York Philharmonic to Woodstock. Contemporary art and architecture is discussed as well as types of housing across all the regions of the U.S. This unique two-volume addition to the Culture and Customs of the World series gives high school students, both national and international, the chance to examine the United States from the outside in. The mosaic of American culture comes to life in this expansive yet detailed study of what makes the United States a complex blend of customs and traditions. Each volume in this comprehensive two-volume study offers chapters that detail how American life was born and how it has grown, covering the history of customs as well as how traditions are now celebrated in New England, the South, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest, as well as Alaska and Hawaii. Narrative chapters include the following: