American band Red Hot Chili Peppers reference Bukowski and his works in several songs; singer Anthony Kiedis has stated that Bukowski is a big influence on his writing. [ citation needed]

Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground From Obscurity to Literary Icon". Palgrave Macmillan. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 . Retrieved April 2, 2015. Fall Out Boy referenced Bukowski's novel Post Office in their unreleased song "Guilty as Charged (Tell Hip-Hop I'm Literate)". A small Belgian film called Crazy Love came out in 1987 with script co-written by Bukowski himself.Bukowski’s short story, "Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip," was published in, Story Magazine, when he was 24. Two years later "20 Tanks from Kasseldown", another short story, was published in Issue III of, Portfolio; however, Bukowski grew disillusioned with the publication process and quit serious writing for almost a decade in what he termed his "ten-year drunk". This period formed the basis for later semi-autobiographical chronicles, fictionalized versions of Bukowski's life through his alter-ego, Henry Chinaski.

Pulp is a book that will make fans of sci-fi and detective genre writing wonder what might have been, had Bukowski decided to produce more in those veins (satirical or otherwise). Still, as evidenced by two previously uncollected stories in the recent Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook – “The Other” and “The Way it Happened” – Bukowski was never quite so two-dimensional in style and subject matter as his critics would have us believe. Pulp is not exactly his first trip into the realm of private eyes and the paranormal, so it should come as no surprise how readily these seemingly foreign elements are assimilated into his more standard tale of bars, broads, and brawls. US heavy metal band W.A.S.P in their 1992 album "The Crimson Idol" used one line of Bukowski's poem, "Some People". It is no coincidence, after all, that Pulp is called what it’s called (the title being a reference to tawdry dime novels of times past) or that the book itself is dedicated “to bad writing.” Still, if there is any writer capable of taking something bad and making it so much worse that it ends up being good, it is Bukowski. Consider the following excerpt from chapter nine: https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/an-introduction-to-charles-bukowski-in-8-poems/Harry Styles stopped One Direction concerts to read Bukowski in 2014. [44] He later quoted "Old Man, Dead in a Room" in his song "Woman," [45] and opened his 2021 Love on Tour shows with a quote from "Style". [46] Glenn Esterly/Abe Frajndlich (2020). Bukowski. The shooting. By Abe Frajndlich. Hirmer Publishers. ISBN 978-3-7774-3667-8. Ecco Press continues to release new collections of his poetry, culled from the thousands of works published in small literary magazines. According to Ecco Press, the 2007 release The People Look Like Flowers at Last will be his final posthumous release, as now all his once-unpublished work has been made available. [33] Writing [ edit ] Bukowski also performed live readings of his works, beginning in 1962 on radio station KPFK in Los Angeles and increasing in frequency through the 1970s. In his early teen years, Bukowski had an epiphany when he was introduced to alcohol by his friend William "Baldy" Mullinax, depicted as "Eli LaCrosse" in Ham on Rye, son of an alcoholic surgeon. "This [alcohol] is going to help me for a very long time," he later wrote, describing a method (drinking) he could use to come to more amicable terms with his own life. [17] After graduating from Los Angeles High School, Bukowski attended Los Angeles City College for two years, taking courses in art, journalism, and literature, before quitting at the start of World War II. He then moved to New York City to begin a career as a financially pinched blue-collar worker with hopes of becoming a writer. [18]