Screams from the Balcony - by Charles Bukowski (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From post office night shifts to small-press fame, Bukowski's letters lay bare a decade of survival on beer and a battered typewriter.

Screams from the Balcony is a collection of letters chronicling Charles Bukowski's life as he tries to get published and work at a postal office, all while drinking and gambling.

Written from cramped apartments on Mariposa Avenue and De Longpre, the letters record his persistent work on a manual typewriter despite neighbor complaints. Bukowski types these dispatches between grueling night shifts at the Los Angeles post office, regularly nursing hangovers over racing forms.

The collection gathers his candid exchanges with underground editors and poets, frequently wrangling over delayed chapbooks and unpaid rent.

• Dirty Realism: Unvarnished accounts capture his daily survival, from late-night radio symphonies by Mahler and Sibelius to agonizing hospital stays and bleeding ulcers.


• Literary Feuds: Pungent critiques spar with the wider literary establishment, taking aim at contemporaries like Robert Creeley and recounting fiery exchanges with Beat muse Sheri Martinelli.


• Raw Honesty: Intimate letters chronicle his partnership with Loujon Press founders Jon and Louise Webb, who hand-set his early collections on an ancient press in New Orleans while sharing poverty and beer.


• Also by This Author: Essential Bukowski, On Cats and On Writing.

From the Back Cover

Screams from the Balcony is a collection of letters chronicling Charles Bukowski's life as he tries to get published and work at a postal office, all while drinking and gambling.