More Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Charles Bukowski
More Notes of a Dirty Old Man
The columns the first book left out — nine years of underground newspaper writing, gathered after his death.
- 2011
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeMore Notes of a Dirty Old Man, published by City Lights in 2011, collects the newspaper columns Charles Bukowski wrote under that title which had never appeared in book form. The original Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969) took a selection from Open City, the Los Angeles underground weekly where the column ran in more than seventy issues in 1967 and 1968. But the column did not stop there: it continued in the Los Angeles Free Press across more than two hundred issues between 1970 and 1976, and appeared in NOLA Express and High Times as well. This volume gathers what that long run left uncollected — a second book made from the same weekly deadline, published seventeen years after his death.
The story, in more detail
The column is where the public Bukowski was built. Writing weekly for underground papers with no editor over him, he mixed autobiography, invention, complaint and provocation in whatever proportion the week suggested, and readers could not always tell which was which. Reading the uncollected columns after the famous ones shows how long he sustained it: not a brief burst in the late 1960s but a job he did, on and off, for close to a decade.
Why we recommend it
The rest of the column
Nine years of weekly writing, of which the famous 1969 book was only a selection from the first two.
The persona at work
Written to a weekly deadline with no editor — the conditions that produced the public Bukowski.
What this book explores
Timeline
1967–1968
The column runs in more than seventy issues of Open City in Los Angeles.
1970–1976
It continues in the Los Angeles Free Press across more than two hundred issues.
2011
City Lights publishes the uncollected columns.
Book editions
- Paperback
- City Lights
- 2011
- 9780872865297
Reader reviews
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Read our takeMore Notes of a Dirty Old Man: frequently asked questions
What is More Notes of a Dirty Old Man?
A collection of Charles Bukowski's newspaper columns that had never appeared in book form, published by City Lights in 2011 — seventeen years after his death.
How is it different from the 1969 book?
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969) selected from the column's run in the Los Angeles paper Open City. This volume gathers uncollected columns from across the whole span, including the years in the Los Angeles Free Press.
How long did the column actually run?
Longer than most readers assume: more than seventy issues of Open City in 1967–68, then over two hundred issues of the Los Angeles Free Press between 1970 and 1976, plus appearances in NOLA Express and High Times.
Are the columns true?
Not reliably, and that was the method. Bukowski mixed autobiography with invention, and the column's readers could not always tell which was which.
Where should I start?
With the 1969 Notes of a Dirty Old Man, which is the famous selection. This volume is for readers who finish it and want the rest.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document More Notes of a Dirty Old Man, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1More Notes of a Dirty Old Man
EssaysCharles Bukowski, 2011Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forThe underground-press column years in the career narrative.
3More Notes of a Dirty Old Man
WebsiteWikipediaUsed forThe column's publication history across Open City, the Los Angeles Free Press, NOLA Express and High Times.
4Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication year and the column's chronology.
5Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details checked against the checklist.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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