Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0802116450, Hardcover)

Charles Bukowski - onetime bum, longtime alcoholic, and the author of now-classic novels such as Post Office, Factotum, and Women - rose from obscurity to become world famous. His semiautobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure and culminated in the making of Barfly, a major Hollywood film based on Bukowski's life. In this new biography, Howard Sounes has drawn on years of exhaustive research - including new interviews with virtually all of Bukowski's friends, his family, and his many lovers, as well as unprecedented access to his private letters and unpublished writing - to reveal the extraordinary true story of the Dirty Old Man of American literature. Illustrated with over sixty never-before-published photographs, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life also includes original drawings by Bukowski and unique contributions by friends, including Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, R. Crumb, and Harry Dean Stanton. Interspersed with telling excerpts from Bukowski's poetry and prose, including several unpublished works, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is a must for Bukowski devotees and new readers alike. "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is a generous tribute to Bukowski's genius and it clearly and truthfully captures the essence of Bukowski both as writer and man." - John Martin, Black Sparrow Press, Bukowski's lifelong editor-publisher and literary executor.