Why a Shop Devoted to a Single Writer?

Because no one but Charles Bukowski could fill one.

I'm Mike Sharon, and I've been collecting Bukowski for years — long before it occurred to me to sell anything. It started with a girlfriend who gave me a signed first edition and an original manuscript. She found a trusted dealer and got lucky. I didn't know how lucky until years later. That gift started everything.

The Buk Shop reflects what I actually care about as a collector. I've always been more interested in what got Bukowski to Black Sparrow than in the Black Sparrow editions themselves — the magazines, the broadsides, the manuscripts, the early chapbooks. The catalog runs from 1944 to 1994 and beyond, and includes over 400 magazines that published him. On the conservative side, that's probably 20 percent of the magazines that actually did.

I don't wear tweed. I'm not behind a velvet rope. If you have a question — whether you're a serious collector or buying your first Bukowski gift — just ask. I answer every message myself.

I'm just as enthusiastic now as the day I first held that signed book.

Mike Sharon

Buk Seller