Signed by Linda King: Loving & Hating Charles Bukowski

Published in June 2014, Loving & Hating Charles Bukowski was the long-awaited memoir of Kinda King’s relationship with Charles Bukowski. She had written it years before after Bukowski’s novel Women was published. Like many women who have written memories about their relationship with Bukowski, this book was a meant as a direct response to his characterization of her as a fictional character in the novel.

Bukowski’s relationship with King was the most high-profile of his life. Their constant fighting and Bukowski’s jealous nature was captured famously in Taylor Hackford's documentary, Bukowski.

Bukowski met King in a chance meeting in 1970 and was attracted to her immediately. They had a friendly relationship for some time when King moved into the same complex as Bukowski’s apartment on DeLongpre. What sparked the relationship between them was King’s offer to sculpture Bukowski’s haed. During the long hours it took for King to study Bukowski’s face and create the sculpture, Bukowski slowly seduced King, who was 20 years younger.

Thus began their years-long tumultuous relationship. Public fights and Bukowski’s jealous streak led to several break ups and reconciliations. He had an affair with Liza Williams and finally left King for good when he began sleeping with Pamela "Cupcakes" Miller in 1975.

This book is in Mint condition and is signed by Linda King on the title page.

From the Publisher:
There are many books about Charles Bukowski, but none like this one. Linda King's LOVING & HATING CHARLES BUKOWSKI looks at Bukowski from the other side of the mirror. It is raw, it is raucous, it is a no-holds-barred account of their five-year, on- again off-again relationship, a relationship so intense and passionate, so deep and so tender, that it makes your heart ache to watch it flame up and then flame out. This is not a scholarly examination of Bukowski but it deepens and enriches our understanding of the man and his world, written from the heart with love. It is funny, it is tragic, it is exuberant, it is heartbreaking, it is an important addition to our knowledge not only of the poet laureate of the underclass, but of the whole underground literary scene in LA and elsewhere in the 1970s, told from the perspective of a strong, liberated woman, an artist in her own right, who gave as good as she got.

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