Linda King
Encyclopedia
Linda King is an American sculptor and poet. She was the girlfriend of American writer Charles Bukowski
for several years in the early 1970s.
Linda King is a poet, playwright, and artist working in painting and sculpture who was immortalized in the poetry and prose of her former love Charles Bukowski
. During the 1970s, King edited the little magazine, Purr.
Born in 1940, she was brought up in Boulder, Utah
. She was divorced after a marriage for ten years to an Italian with a traditional outlook. They had two children, a boy and a girl. She was an actress before she become a sculptor and poet. If Bukowski's autobiographical writings are to be believed, King had a large ego and a flair for self-dramatization.
She was 30 and Bukowski was 20 years her senior when they started their relationship. Their relationship was passionate and turbulent; on one occasion in 1971, Bukowski broke her nose in an argument. One night, King and Bukowski were accommodated in the City Lights
apartment in San Francisco, after a reading at the City Lights Poets Theater. By the morning there was a broken window and a panel smashed in the door, and King had disappeared; Bukowksi blamed her for the damage.
They split up after three years, when one night King threw his typewriter and books onto the street in a drunken spree, angry at his infidelities. The incident is detailed in Bukowski's novel, omen (novel)|Women, whose leading character, Lydia Vance, is based on King.
Critic Robert Peters
viewed the debut of Linda King’s play The Tenant in which she and Bukowski performed in the 70's in Los Angeles. The play ran for only one night in a seedy club, was viewed by fewer than a dozen people and was more of an ad-libbed conversational rant than an actual play.Their relationship was on-off; in 1975 she finally left him and Los Angeles for Phoenix
, because of what she described as "one extended nervous breakdown".
She said of their relationship:
In his writings, such as the autobiographical novel Women, Bukowski characterized King as extremely competitive and burdened by his burgeoning fame.
In 2004, the art Phoenix gallery The Paper Heart featured her paintings, busts and poems, along with documentary films about Bukowski, in a show, Friends and Foes of Charles Bukowski.
In 2009, she sold 60 love letters written to her by Bukowski for $69,000 at auction in San Francisco's PBA Galleries, receiving less than half of that amount after paying listing and other fees. That same year, in order to be nearer to her grandchildren, she moved from Phoenix into an apartment in the Sunset District of San Francisco. In September 2009, she was one of the three poets in the presentation, Tales of Bukowski & the Late 1960s LA Poetry Scene: a reading & report by key poet/participants at Bird & Beckett Books & Records in San Francisco.
In addition to her head of Bukowski, King also sculpted busts of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, Jack Micheline
, Harold Norse
, and A.D. Winans. A play she wrote, Singing Bullets, was staged as part of a showcase by Phoenix's Metro Arts Institute.
She has also sculpted a head of Bukowski and sold an edition of at least 15 bronzes for in the region of $5,000 each.
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
for several years in the early 1970s.
Linda King is a poet, playwright, and artist working in painting and sculpture who was immortalized in the poetry and prose of her former love Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
. During the 1970s, King edited the little magazine, Purr.
Born in 1940, she was brought up in Boulder, Utah
Boulder, Utah
Boulder is a town in Garfield County, Utah, United States, 27 miles northeast of Escalante on Utah Scenic Byway 12 at its intersection with the Burr Trail...
. She was divorced after a marriage for ten years to an Italian with a traditional outlook. They had two children, a boy and a girl. She was an actress before she become a sculptor and poet. If Bukowski's autobiographical writings are to be believed, King had a large ego and a flair for self-dramatization.
Relationship With Bukowski
In 1970, shortly after the end of her marriage, she met Charles Bukowski, danced for him, and offered to make a sculpture of his head. He accepted her offer, and they soon had an affair. (The couple frequently broke up, and when they were parted, Bukowski would give her back the bust of him she had sculpted.)She was 30 and Bukowski was 20 years her senior when they started their relationship. Their relationship was passionate and turbulent; on one occasion in 1971, Bukowski broke her nose in an argument. One night, King and Bukowski were accommodated in the City Lights
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
apartment in San Francisco, after a reading at the City Lights Poets Theater. By the morning there was a broken window and a panel smashed in the door, and King had disappeared; Bukowksi blamed her for the damage.
They split up after three years, when one night King threw his typewriter and books onto the street in a drunken spree, angry at his infidelities. The incident is detailed in Bukowski's novel, omen (novel)|Women, whose leading character, Lydia Vance, is based on King.
Critic Robert Peters
Robert Peters
Robert Louis Peters is a poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924. He holds a Ph.D in Victorian literature. His poetry career began in 1967 when his young son Richard died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis...
viewed the debut of Linda King’s play The Tenant in which she and Bukowski performed in the 70's in Los Angeles. The play ran for only one night in a seedy club, was viewed by fewer than a dozen people and was more of an ad-libbed conversational rant than an actual play.Their relationship was on-off; in 1975 she finally left him and Los Angeles for Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, because of what she described as "one extended nervous breakdown".
She said of their relationship:
In his writings, such as the autobiographical novel Women, Bukowski characterized King as extremely competitive and burdened by his burgeoning fame.
After Bukowski
She remarried and had a second son; the marriage ended in divorce. She made her way as a bartender, waitress, and, more recently, part-time care giver for old people. She sold her own traditional portrait busts in clay, and published poems, one in 1997 beginning, "I am the woman who knows for sure that Bukowski's balls were bigger I am the woman who knows that he liked hot chilies in his stew".In 2004, the art Phoenix gallery The Paper Heart featured her paintings, busts and poems, along with documentary films about Bukowski, in a show, Friends and Foes of Charles Bukowski.
In 2009, she sold 60 love letters written to her by Bukowski for $69,000 at auction in San Francisco's PBA Galleries, receiving less than half of that amount after paying listing and other fees. That same year, in order to be nearer to her grandchildren, she moved from Phoenix into an apartment in the Sunset District of San Francisco. In September 2009, she was one of the three poets in the presentation, Tales of Bukowski & the Late 1960s LA Poetry Scene: a reading & report by key poet/participants at Bird & Beckett Books & Records in San Francisco.
In addition to her head of Bukowski, King also sculpted busts of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline , born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. His name is synonymous with street artists, underground writers, and "outlaw" poets...
, Harold Norse
Harold Norse
Harold Norse was an American writer who created a body of work using the American idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate artists of the Beat generation, Norse was widely published and anthologized.- Life :Born Harold Rosen to an unmarried Lithuanian Jewish immigrant in Brooklyn...
, and A.D. Winans. A play she wrote, Singing Bullets, was staged as part of a showcase by Phoenix's Metro Arts Institute.
She has also sculpted a head of Bukowski and sold an edition of at least 15 bronzes for in the region of $5,000 each.