Welcome

Why a book shop devoted to a single writer? Well, for one thing, no one but Charles Bukowski could fill an entire shop. In addition to dozens of books, there are Bukowski broadsides, chapbooks, drawings, paintings, films, readings and magazines to collect.

That last category is a huge part of our catalog, with over 400 magazines that Bukowski appeared in. And on the conservative side, that probably represents only 20 percent of the magazines who published him.

The Buk Shop catalog reflects our own interest as collectors, with less emphasis on the Black Sparrow Press editions in favor of what got him there. After all, the Black Sparrow books are not made up of poems Bukowski wrote specifically for a particular title. Rather, most Black Sparrow poetry and short story books are simply collections of works that were previously published elsewhere.

This should by no means take away from the beautiful books Black Sparrow Press created, not only for Bukowski but many other writers as well. Rather, we constructed our catalog to provide a broader view of Bukowski’s work stretching from 1944-1994 and beyond.

We're glad you’re here and we hope you’ll visit regularly. We’ve done our best to describe the history of every Bukowski item in our catalog. Even if you have no intention of purchasing, we hope you’ll find the descriptions and photographs valuable enough to come back.

Even after all these years of collecting, we are just as enthusiastic now as we were the day we first held a signed Bukowski book -- and there is nothing more we enjoy than sharing that enthusiasm with others.

Best,
Mike Sharon
Buk Seller