Notes of a Dirty Old Man
The column in which Bukowski built the same public character he performs in these interviews.
Read our takeSunlight Here I Am
Charles Bukowski
Sunlight Here I Am
Thirty-four interviews across thirty years, from an unknown in a Hollywood apartment to a famous man beside a San Pedro pool.
- 2003
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeSunlight Here I Am, published by Sun Dog Press in 2003 and edited by David Stephen Calonne, collects thirty-four interviews and encounters with Charles Bukowski between 1963 and 1993. The span is the whole arc of the career. It opens with him answering questions from the Literary Times of Chicago in a one-bedroom Hollywood apartment, when almost nobody had heard of him, and closes beside a swimming pool in San Pedro in August 1993, talking to a German journalist seven months before he died. Read in order, the interviews show the public character being built, then maintained, and in the last of them sometimes dropped.
The story, in more detail
Interviews are the form in which Bukowski's public character was assembled, which makes a chronological collection of them unusually revealing. The early ones are a man with nothing to lose talking to tiny magazines. The middle ones are a famous drunk performing for people who came to see a famous drunk. The late ones, conducted when he was in his seventies and settled in San Pedro, are quieter and talk about the work more directly than the reputation would predict.
Why we recommend it
The whole career in conversation
From an unknown answering a Chicago magazine to a famous man beside a pool, thirty years apart.
The persona, visible in construction
Chronological order shows the character being built rather than presented finished.
What this book explores
Timeline
1963
The first interview, with the Literary Times of Chicago.
August 1993
The last, beside a pool in San Pedro, seven months before his death.
2003
Sun Dog Press publishes the collection, edited by David Stephen Calonne.
Book editions
- Paperback
- Sun Dog Press
- 2003
- 9780941543378
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
Shakespeare Never Did This
The 1979 travel book covering the European trip and its famous television appearance.
Read our takeSunlight Here I Am: frequently asked questions
What is Sunlight Here I Am?
A collection of thirty-four interviews and encounters with Charles Bukowski between 1963 and 1993, published by Sun Dog Press in 2003 and edited by David Stephen Calonne.
What is the earliest interview?
From 1963, when Bukowski answered questions from the Literary Times of Chicago in a one-bedroom Hollywood apartment, years before he was widely known.
What is the last one?
August 1993, beside a swimming pool in San Pedro, with a German journalist — seven months before he died.
Why read the interviews?
Because the public Bukowski was largely built in them. Read in order, they show the character being assembled and maintained across thirty years.
Who edited it?
David Stephen Calonne, who also edited the volumes of uncollected prose and wrote a critical biography of Bukowski.
If you like Charles Bukowski
Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.
View author
Simone de Beauvoir
French writer and philosopher whose novels, memoirs, and social analysis examined freedom, gender, responsibility, aging, and the material conditions that shape a life.
View author
Ernest Hemingway
Author of The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast; his pared-down style, developed in 1920s Paris, became the most imitated in American prose.
View author
References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Sunlight Here I Am, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Sunlight Here I Am
EssaysCharles Bukowski, 2003Used 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 editor's critical biography and the interview record.
3Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication details and the span of the interviews.
5Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details checked against the checklist.
i
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.
Explore more resources