The author Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) is notoriously infamous for his blunt descriptions of American lowlife on the edge of society, preferably told from the “I”-perspective of an alter ego named Henry Chinaski. The fashion of his writing is deliberately set to indicate authentic autobiography rather than literary fiction.
Since this includes not only the happenings in his work, but also the character of his protagonist, there appears to be some difficulty to separate the real person of the author from his made-up persona. I am going to show that in Bukowski’s case a strict distinction of the two would even mean an unsuitable assumption.
Scholarly research has revealed the close resemblance of Bukowski's writing and living. The same applies to his person and his persona.