Charles Bukowski (30 page)

Bukowski in the room at the hotel on the resort island of Catalina where he was staying with Liza Williams on vacation. Note the caged bird bought to keep him company. (
courtesy of Liza Williams
)

In Santa Barbara with his editor-publisher John Martin and John’s wife, Barbara, who designed Bukowski’s Black Sparrow Press books. (
courtesy of
John Martin
)

Bukowski is beginning to enjoy modest success in 1974 when this picture was taken at his Carlton Way apartment during a magazine interview. On the shelves behind him are some of the many chapbooks and small literary magazines his work had already appeared in. (
taken by William Childress
)

(
Left
) Linda King at Flo’s Place, a bar she worked in on Sunset Boulevard. (
courtesy of Linda King
)

Joan Smith, a former go-go dancer friend of Bukowski’s. She is also a poet, and published a tribute book to Bukowski after his death called
Das ist Alles
. (
courtesy of Joan Smith
)

Amber O’Neil cleverly got her own back on Bukowski for what he wrote about her in his third novel,
Women
, by writing a hilarious roman-a-clef of her own called
Blowing My Hero
. (
courtesy of Amber O’Neil
)

Joanna Bull felt so ill after having sex with Bukowski she threw up. (
courtesy of
Joanna Bull
)

Poet Ann Menebroker, a close female friend and long-term correspondent of Bukowski’s. He wanted her to leave her husband and come to live with him in LA. (
courtesy of Ann Menebroker
)

Jo Jo Planteen, a young fan whom Bukowski tried to seduce in the late 1970s. (
courtesy of Jo Jo Planteen
)

Pamela Miller,
aka
Cupcakes, the redhead Bukowski fell madly in love with when he met her in 1975. (
taken by Howard Sounes in 1997
)

With Georgia Peckham-Krellner, Cupcakes’ best friend, in Bukowski’s kitchen at Carlton Way. (
© Joan Levine Gannij
)

With Brad and Tina Darby, Bukowski’s neighbors at Carlton Way. Tina worked as an exotic dancer at a go-go club and Brad managed a sex shop. They spent many evenings together. (
courtesy of Linda King
)