The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriter

The Pleasures of the Damned features selected later poetry of Charles Bukowski, America’s most influential and imitated American poet.

To his legions of fans, Charles Bukowski was—and remains—a counterculture icon. A hard-drinking wild man of literature, a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he struck a chord with generations of readers with his raw and honest poetry about booze, work, and women, that spoke to his fans as “real” and, like the work of the Beats, even dangerous.

The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works of Bukowski’s later years, edited by John Martin of Black Sparrow Press, including the last of his new, never-before-published poems.

This essential collection captures the voice of a Los Angeles literary legend:

• Counterculture Icon: See the world through the eyes of the hard-drinking wild man of American letters, a stubborn outsider who spoke for generations of the disaffected.
• Los Angeles Literature: Experience the gritty, sun-bleached streets and smoky bars of L.A. that defined Bukowski’s world and became the backdrop for his most powerful work.
• Poems About Life: Find unflinching reflections on booze, work, women, and survival in direct, accessible language that feels as real and dangerous today as it did decades ago.
• Never-Before-Published Work: Discover the last of Bukowski’s uncollected poems, presented here for the first time in a definitive volume selected by his longtime editor, John Martin.