Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1973) is a raw, unfiltered collection of Charles Bukowski’s underground newspaper columns originally published in Open City and the Los Angeles Free Press between 1967–1969. Compiled and released by Essex House Press, this volume captures Bukowski at his most viciously honest—chronicling drunken benders, violent lovers, and the grotesque poetry of skid row life with gallows humor and unflinching self-loathing.
The 1973 first edition (softcover with its iconic grungy typesetting) is a counterculture relic, though later City Lights and Black Sparrow Press editions expanded the content. Bukowski’s columns blur fiction and autobiography, laying bare his “dirty old man” persona—equal parts misanthrope and romantic.
For devotees of Bukowski’s outlaw prose:
- Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions (1972) – Earlier Essex House collection.
- Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983) – More transgressive shorts.
- Ham on Rye (1982) – His semi-autobiographical novel.
