This book collects several of David Barker’s more personal writings about the legendary Los Angeles underground author, Charles Bukowski, whom he witnessed firsthand as a young fan in the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Barker wrote dozens of pieces about Bukowski. Except for his memoir, Charles Bukowski Spit in My Face, none of these have ever been reprinted. They are now being made available in a series of books from Rumba Train Press, of which this is the first volume. It includes the following:
“Charles Bukowski Spit In My Face.” Barker’s memoir Charles Bukowski Spit In My Face tells in detail his experiences with the famous writer. As a college student, Barker and his fellow student poets worshipped Bukowski, who was making a name for himself in nearby Los Angeles. They attended Bukowski’s readings, hung out with him at bars, and in 1972 attended a big party at the home of Bukowski’s girlfriend, Linda King. This was paradise for an adoring fan until Barker later made the mistake of asking Bukowski to sign a book at a bar. Buk had been drinking heavily and his rage against humanity was boiling to the surface. It didn’t go well for Barker that night. A few years later he made a second mistake and wrote about the event. He describes the fallout from publishing his story in three prefaces to the memoir, included here. The memoir and prefaces were revised for this book.
“Buk at Big L.A. Poetry Blowout: Literary Nightmares and Sorry Nocturnal Hallucinations.” Selected notes on tormented dreams that plagued Barker following the publication of his memoir. Until then Barker had enjoyed a good reputation in the small press poetry scene, being published in some of the best literary magazines. That changed when his “Spit” book came out. He was blacklisted. Editors suddenly wanted nothing to do with him. Overnight he became a nonentity. While he accepted this and moved on, his subconscious mind still wrestled with it, resulting in countless dreams in which he was haunted by a near mythical “Bukowski” figure with whom he struggled to make peace.
“Eat Here and Get Filthy Healthy – A Visit to the Dew Drop Inn.” The Dew Drop Inn in Redondo Beach was a health food restaurant run by Bukowski’s girlfriend (later his wife), Linda Lee Beighle. In 1978, curious about the place, Barker and his wife visit the cafe, but while there he’s terrified that Bukowski will show up and attack him. They have lunch and enjoy the hippie ambience, which he describes in detail. This is the most detailed description of the Dew Drop Inn that you’ll find anywhere, with rare, never before seen photographs of it.
“Drunken Buddha of De Longpre.” This piece praises the continued excellence of Bukowski’s writing in his later years as he gained wide fame and success. In it Barker puts his youthful adulation of Bukowski into mature perspective.
“Flowers for the Grave of Charles Bukowski: A Journal Written in the Days After Bukowski’s Death.” In this daily log from 1994, Barker reports his immediate thoughts and feelings as news leaked out about the death of his literary hero, Bukowski. With the Web still in its infancy, Barker learns the scant details of Buk’s final days from TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
“Singing Again All Hours of the Night” and “Young Mr. Bukowski” are two poems by Barker that were published together as a broadside in 1986. They present idealized images of Bukowski at the beginning and end of his remarkable literary career.
“Bukowski: The King of San Pedro” is a short biography of Charles Bukowski and critical appraisal of his work that was published as a miniature book in 1985. Barker calls it “a mini bio that was also a bit of hero worship.” The publisher, Richard G. Wong, created the book in cooperation with Bukowski who read galley proofs of the text before it was printed. Bukowski was very pleased with the finished book.
Praise from Bukowski for “The King of San Pedro”:
“Barker seems to have me down pretty good. It’s as if he had followed me around. If I once did, indeed, spit on his face, it really wasn’t his, it was Humanity’s. […] I must thank you again […] for coddling me in this curiously lovely little leatherbound honor. It, for me, is a high point. One of the highest.” Charles Bukowski, in a letter to publisher Richard G. Wong dated 1/8/1986.
The Kindle eBook is available on Amazon.
David Barker
Death At The Flea Circus 