The Bukowski/Purdy Letters
The Paget Press book from three years earlier, also carrying Bukowski's drawings.
Read our take
The Day It Snowed in L.A.
One short story published on its own as a book, illustrated throughout by Bukowski, with eleven copies carrying an original drawing done by hand.
- 1986
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe Day It Snowed in L.A. is a single Charles Bukowski short story issued as a book by The Paget Press in 1986, illustrated throughout by Bukowski himself. It is a short book, printed from Sutton West, Ontario and Santa Barbara, California by the same press that had published his correspondence with the Canadian poet Al Purdy three years earlier. The subtitle names the story's character, Clarence Hiram Sweetmeat, who is Bukowski's invention. Alongside the ordinary printing, Paget produced a signed deluxe issue; rare-book listings describe eleven copies of it as carrying an original Bukowski drawing done by hand rather than a printed one.
The story, in more detail
Bukowski's stories normally reached readers in collections of twenty or thirty, or in the magazines before that. Publishing one story on its own, with drawings, is a decision about the book as an object rather than about the writing. The Paget Press had made a similar object out of the Purdy correspondence in 1983, printing those letters as photographs of the original sheets.
Themes and analysis
Clarence’s first snow
A bookseller's transcription of the opening sets Clarence's first sight of snow against his lifelong familiarity with Los Angeles. It then swerves into a crude reference to his mother. The snowfall could have introduced a gentle childhood memory, but Bukowski places an adult shock beside that new sensation. The change in register keeps Clarence's surprise from becoming a sentimental winter scene. Publisher Jim Cory recalls finding a handwritten draft in Bukowski's 1964 notebook that appeared almost unchanged more than twenty years later. Neither that manuscript nor the whole printed story was available to compare here.
The neighborhood snowman
An auction description identifies a page-seven drawing made after Clarence and two companions drive away a gang trying to take their melting snowman. The object is already disappearing, which makes the attempted theft both comic and oddly urgent. In this documented episode, rare Los Angeles snow gives the children something to build and defend together. The snowman is not a durable prize; that briefness sharpens the dispute over who gets to claim it. The auction account locates one scene and one original drawing, not the story's ending or the tone of every page.
Why we recommend it
Bukowski illustrated it
The drawings are his, and eleven deluxe copies carry an original rather than a reproduction.
A one-story book
An unusual shape in the bibliography — a single short story published on its own by a small Canadian press.
A character outside the familiar alter ego
Clarence Hiram Sweetmeat gives readers a fictional lead other than the recurring Henry Chinaski.
What this book explores
Timeline
Circa 1975
Bukowski writes the story before its later appearance as an illustrated small-press book.
1983
The Paget Press publishes The Bukowski/Purdy Letters.
1986
The same press publishes this story on its own, illustrated by Bukowski, with a signed deluxe issue.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- The Paget Press
- 1986
- 9780920348628
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- The Paget Press
- 1986
Reader reviews
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Septuagenarian Stew
The 1990 volume mixing stories and poems, from the same late period.
Read our takeThe Day It Snowed in L.A.: frequently asked questions
What is The Day It Snowed in L.A.?
A single Charles Bukowski short story published as a book by The Paget Press in 1986, illustrated throughout by Bukowski.
Who is Clarence Hiram Sweetmeat?
The character named in the subtitle, The Adventures of Clarence Hiram Sweetmeat. He is a fictional creation of Bukowski's.
How long is it?
Short. It is a single story printed as a book rather than a collection, and the listings that describe it disagree on the exact page count.
What is the deluxe issue?
A signed limited printing. Rare-book listings describe eleven copies of it as containing an original drawing Bukowski made by hand instead of a printed illustration.
Is it worth tracking down?
Only for collectors. The story is a minor one, and the interest is in the object — the illustrations and the signed copies. Readers wanting the stories should start with Hot Water Music or South of No North.
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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 The Day It Snowed in L.A., its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Day It Snowed in L.A.
NovelCharles Bukowski, 1986Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2The Day It Snowed in L.A.: Oshtemo Book Sellers first-edition listing
WebsiteAbeBooksUsed forAn Oshtemo Book Sellers listing on AbeBooks paraphrases the tale's opening and reproduces its abrupt adult joke. The listing was not collated with the Paget Press text.
3Charles Bukowski’s Lost Essay in 4 Poets | A Notebook Discovery
Websitesynaesthesia press, 2007Used forPublisher Jim Cory's first-hand account of seeing a handwritten draft in Bukowski's 1964 notebook; used for draft/publication context, not as a substitute for the printed story.
4Original artwork for The Day It Snowed in L.A.: page seven
WebsiteNate D. Sanders Auctions, 2021Used forThe auction house describes an original drawing for page seven and its position after the melting-snowman confrontation. Only that documented scene, not the complete comic, was used.
5The Day It Snowed in L.A.: The Adventures of Clarence Hiram Sweetmeat — edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forEdition record: publisher, year and ISBN.
6Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details checked against the checklist.
7Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forWhere the book falls in the late chronology.
8Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forThe small-press publishing pattern of the 1980s.
9Bukowski Database — story date
WebsiteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the The Day It Snowed in L.A. page.
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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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