Charles Bukowski—onetime bum, long-term alcoholic, and author of such now-classic novels as Post Office, Factotum, and Women—rose from obscurity to become world famous. His semi-autobiographical books about low-life America made him a cult figure and culminated in the making of Barfly, a Hollywood film based on his life. In this, the first major biography of Bukowski, Howard Sounes has drawn on years of exhaustive research—including new interviews with virtually all of Bukowski’s friends, his family, and his many lovers, as well as unprecedented access to his private letters and unpublished writing—to reveal the extraordinary true story of the Dirty Old Man of American literature.

Illustrated with over sixty never-before-published photographs, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life also includes original drawings by Bukowski and unique contributions by friends, including Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, R. Crumb, and Harry Dean Stanton. Interspersed with telling excerpts from Bukowski’s poetry and prose, including work that has never been published, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is a must for Bukowski devotees and new readers alike.