Living on Luck
The second volume of the selected letters, covering the years that follow.
Read our take
Screams from the Balcony
The letters of the post-office decade: an unknown poet writing to small-magazine editors while sorting mail for a living.
- 1993
- Wry
- Savage
- Melancholy
- autobiographical
- voice-driven
- funny
- intimate
About Charles Bukowski
About the volume
Screams from the Balcony, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1993 and edited by Seamus Cooney, is the first of three volumes of Charles Bukowski's selected letters. It covers 1960 to 1970 — the decade when he was working at the Los Angeles post office, publishing in little magazines, and writing constantly to the editors who printed him. The letters are the record of a career being built by mail: submissions, arguments about poetry, complaints about work, and the correspondence with John Martin that ended with Martin offering him a hundred dollars a month to quit his job. Because Bukowski wrote letters the way he wrote everything else, the volume also reads as autobiography for a decade he never wrote a memoir about.
The volume, in more detail
The correspondence matters for a plain reason: almost nothing else documents these years from inside. The novels came later and fictionalized them; the poems compress them. In the letters Bukowski is writing to particular people about particular things on the day it happened, which makes this the closest thing to a primary record of the decade before he became famous. The first edition included 300 signed copies with an original silkscreen print, alongside the trade printing.
Themes and analysis
The first chapbook arrives
The Griffith correspondence turns publication into a reversal of roles. In the excerpts quoted by George Anderson, Bukowski first accuses his publisher of indifference and incompetence, then celebrates the arriving chapbook through a childbirth metaphor that makes Griffith its doctor. The apology matters as much as the celebration: the outsider who seemed ready to denounce literary gatekeeping suddenly acknowledges another person's labor. His extravagant language survives the change of mood, but its target changes. The letters expose the dependence and embarrassment behind an apparently self-sufficient poetic persona.
A ride through rain-slick streets
In the February 1968 letter to the Webbs, the rain-soaked ride is already filtered through literary fame: Bukowski identifies Cassady as the figure behind On the Road, making an encounter at Open City part of an existing legend. Kallisto J. Vimr compares the quoted letter with the newspaper version and identifies both shared wording and differences in what gets told. That comparison complicates any simple opposition between private truth and public performance. Even correspondence selects and arranges experience for a particular audience; it is not an unmediated transcript of the journey.
Why we recommend it
The life before the books
The decade of the post office and the little magazines, recorded as it happened rather than remembered afterward.
The hundred-dollar offer
The correspondence that ends with John Martin's proposal — the moment the whole career turns.
Editors as part of a writing life
The correspondence makes submissions and arguments with magazines visible as ongoing work rather than background to the published poems.
What this book explores
Timeline
1960–1970
The years the letters cover: the post office, the little magazines, and the correspondence with John Martin.
1993
Black Sparrow Press publishes the volume, edited by Seamus Cooney.
1995
Living on Luck follows, carrying the selected correspondence into Bukowski’s years as a full-time writer.
Book editions
- Paperback
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1993
- 9780876859148
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills
The poems of the same decade, including the elegies for Jane Cooney Baker.
Read our takeScreams from the Balcony: frequently asked questions
What is Screams from the Balcony?
The first of three volumes of Charles Bukowski's selected letters, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1993 and edited by Seamus Cooney. It covers 1960 to 1970.
Why read the letters rather than the novels?
The novels fictionalize the same years. These letters were written to particular people on the day things happened, so they are the closest thing to a direct record of the decade Bukowski spent at the post office.
Does the John Martin offer appear in it?
Yes. The correspondence with Martin runs through the volume and reaches the offer of a hundred dollars a month that let Bukowski quit his job in 1970.
How many volumes of letters are there?
Three from Black Sparrow, all edited by Seamus Cooney: this one, Living on Luck (1995), and Reach for the Sun (1999). Other volumes collect specific correspondences.
What is the title?
Bukowski's phrase. The letters were written from cheap apartments in Los Angeles, and the title describes the noise coming off them.
How was the selection made?
Seamus Cooney arranged the letters chronologically and used roughly half the contents of each, cutting repetition to keep the volume readable. He states the method rather than concealing it.
Who did Bukowski write to?
About twenty-five correspondents across the decade — mostly editors, publishers and other poets, including the artist Sheri Martinelli and the poet then known as Neeli Cherry.
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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 Screams from the Balcony, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Screams from the Balcony
LettersCharles Bukowski, 1993Used 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 post-office decade and the correspondence with John Martin in the career narrative.
3Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication year, editor, and the chronology the letters cover.
4Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forEdition details, including the signed silkscreen issue.
5Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960–1970 — edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
6Screams from the Balcony — review with quoted Griffith letters
WebsiteBold Monkey Review, 2013Used forPrimary letter excerpts quoted in the review, not its erroneous publication chronology.
7Genre and Gender in Charles Bukowski's Notes of a Dirty Old Man
EssaysCleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2009Used forPages 41–42: the Cassady letter excerpt and comparison with the column; not independent verification of the narrated events.
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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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