On Writing - Hardcover

Bukowski, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062396005 ISBN 13: 9780062396006

Publisher: Ecco, 2015

Synopsis

Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, riveting, and celebrated masters.

Charles Bukowski’s stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of correspondence—letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers—the writer shares his insights on the art of creation.

On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life—and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and counterculture icon—the “laureate of American lowlife” (Time)—who stoically recorded society’s downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: “Don't try.”

Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski’s trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.

About this title

Review:

Always passionate, frequently funny, occasionally incoherent excerpts from a significant 20th-century American writer.--Kirkus Reviews

"By turns, the poet's letters are humorous, boastful, self-deprecating, and angry at the world, but they are always entertaining. VERDICT: Bukowski fans will welcome this new collection tied to the celebration of what would have been his 95th birthday."--Library Journal

"The letters are a wild ride informed in equal parts by ego, alcoholism, misanthropy, erudition, and the genius, as Bukowski puts it, of one 'touched by the grace of the word."--Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover:

Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, pivoting, and celebrated masters.

Charles Bukowski's stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of previously unpublished material--letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers--Bukowski shares his insights on the art of creation.

On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life--and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and countercultural icon--the "laureate of American lowlife" (Time)--who stoically recorded society's downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: "Don't try."

Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski's trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062396005
• ISBN 13: 9780062396006
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208