The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
Bukowski's last journals, 1991 to 1993, with twelve drawings by Robert Crumb.
- 1998
- Wry
- Melancholy
- Savage
- autobiographical
- voice-driven
- funny
- intimate
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship collects extracts from Charles Bukowski's journals between 1991 and 1993, the final years of his life. Black Sparrow Press first issued it in 1997 through its Graphic Arts imprint and followed with the trade edition in 1998. Robert Crumb, the underground comics artist, supplied twelve full-page black-and-white drawings. The entries are short and dated, and they record what the last years actually consisted of: the racetrack most afternoons, the computer he had started writing on, the cats, his health, and his opinions of other writers. A limited issue of 426 copies carries an original signed colour serigraph portrait of Bukowski by Crumb.
The story, in more detail
Bukowski published novels, poems, stories, columns, screenplays and letters, but this is his only book in the form of a dated diary. The entries are short and undecorated, with none of the performance the interviews and readings carried. Crumb's drawings match that: he draws faces without flattering them, which is close to what the prose does with a sentence. The book is also a document of the very end. Bukowski was diagnosed with leukemia the year after the last entry.
Themes and analysis
The freeway lights
The August 29, 1991 entry moves from irritation at the racetrack to pleasure in writing and listening to Mahler. The distant freeway interrupts that private absorption: the passing lights suggest people whose thoughts the diarist cannot know. Awareness of shared mortality briefly produces a wish for mutual kindness, followed by frustration that this knowledge changes so little. The closing appeal to the music sustains the evening without solving that contradiction. The scene makes solitude porous, admitting other lives through the balcony door even as the writer remains apart.
The old typewriter waits
In the September 13 entry, the repaired computer introduces a fresh anxiety: its spelling function has disappeared, and seeking technical help might mean losing the work. Bukowski gives the waiting typewriter a voice, making equipment sound like a dependable companion. Yet he keeps addressing the screen; the joke does not amount to a rejection of the newer tool. Later reflections on aging and the next blank page place this small breakdown within a larger uncertainty about continuing to write. The instrument can change while the risk of beginning again remains.
Why we recommend it
The one journal
The only book Bukowski published in diary form — dated, short and unperformed.
Crumb and Bukowski together
Twelve full-page drawings by the underground comics artist, plus a signed serigraph portrait in the limited issue.
The structure of a dated journal
Short entries keep changing health and ordinary routines in a sequence that differs from a retrospective memoir.
What this book explores
Timeline
1991–1993
The years the journal entries cover.
1994
Bukowski dies in March, months after the last entry.
1997
Black Sparrow Graphic Arts publishes the book, with the trade edition following in 1998.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1997
- 9780964411524
- Paperback
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1998
- 9781574230598
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
The Last Night of the Earth Poems
The 1992 collection published in the middle of the period the journals cover.
Read our take
The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship: frequently asked questions
What is The Captain Is Out to Lunch?
Extracts from Charles Bukowski's journals between 1991 and 1993, published by Black Sparrow Press with twelve full-page drawings by Robert Crumb.
Why are there two dates on it?
Black Sparrow Graphic Arts issued it in 1997; the trade edition followed in 1998. The text is the same.
Who is Robert Crumb?
The underground comics artist, best known for his work in the 1960s counterculture. He illustrated this book and drew the serigraph portrait in its limited issue.
What do the entries cover?
The racetrack most afternoons, the computer Bukowski had started writing on, his cats, his health, and running opinions on other writers.
How close to the end is it?
Very. The last entries are from 1993; Bukowski was diagnosed with leukemia and died in March 1994.
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
Henry Miller
The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.
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
References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
MemoirCharles Bukowski, 1998Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication history of both issues and the Crumb illustrations.
3Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details including the limited serigraph issue.
4Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forThe final years the journals record.
6The Captain Is Out to Lunch — selected diary entry transcriptions
WebsiteZanotowane.pl (third-party ebook transcription)Used forComplete displayed entries for August 29 and September 13, 1991, in a public HTML transcription identifying the 2007 HarperCollins ebook (pp. 9–10 and 15–18). Selected entries only; not a full-diary reading or collation against the 1997/1998 editions.
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