Linda King (born 1940) is an American

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. She is best known for having been the girlfriend of American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

Charles Bukowski for several years in the early 1970s.Watson, Joe
"Studio Visit"
'' Phoenix New Times'', October 14, 2004. Retrieved May 7, 2010
Archived
May 6, 2010.

Personal life

Born in 1940, King grew up in

Boulder, Utah Boulder is a town in Garfield County, Utah, United States, 27 miles (44 km) northeast of Escalante on Utah Scenic Byway 12 at its intersection with the Burr Trail. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 226, an increase of nearl ...

."Linda King"
, Linda King Arts. Retrieved May 7, 2010; Marrying early in life, the union ended in divorce after 10 years.Malone, Aubrey (2003). ''The Hunchback of East Hollywood: a Biography of Charles Bukowski'', p.85, Critical Vision. , During the 1970s, King edited the

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

, ''Purr''."Tales of Bukowski & the Late 1960s LA Poetry Scene"
, Sfstation. Retrieved May 7, 2010. King was an actress before she became a sculptor and poet. King has two children.

Relationship With Bukowski

In 1970, shortly after the end of her marriage, King met Charles Bukowski and offered to make a sculpture of his head. He accepted her offer, and they soon became romantically involved. King was 30 years old and Bukowski was about 20 years her senior when they started their relationship. The relationship has been documented as volatile, turbulent and even physically abusive. On one occasion in 1971, Bukowski broke her nose during an argument. On another occasion, King and Bukowski were accommodated at the

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...

apartment in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, after a reading at the City Lights Poets Theater.Morgan, Bill (2003). ''The Beat Generation in San Francisco: a Literary Tour'', p.63, City Lights Books. , By the following morning there was a broken window and a panel smashed in the door, and King had disappeared. Bukowski blamed her for the damage. Bukowski's first stage debut was as an actor in King’s play ''Only a Tenant'' in which she and Bukowski stage-read the first act at the Pasadena Museum of the Artist.Bookrags. "Gab Poetry, or Duck vs. Nightingale Music: Charles Bukowski". Asylum Arts. Robert Peters. 1994.
/ref> Bukowski and King finally split up for good in 1975, when one night an intoxicated King threw Bukowski's typewriter and books onto the street, angry at his infidelities. The incident is detailed in Bukowski's novel, ''

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

'', whose leading character, Lydia Vance, is based on King. The same year, King left Los Angeles for Phoenix, because of what she described as "one extended nervous breakdown". She said of their relationship:

After Bukowski

King remarried and had a third child. The marriage also ended in divorce. She worked as a bartender, waitress, and, as a part-time care-giver for the elderly. She sold her own traditional portrait busts in clay, and published poems. One in particular, printed in 1997, references Bukowski: "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, Phoenix's Paper Heart Gallery featured her paintings, busts and poems, along with documentary films about Bukowski, in a show entitled, ''Friends and Foes of Charles Bukowski''. In 2009, she sold 60 love letters written to her by Bukowski at auction in San Francisco's PBA Galleries. The same year, in order to be nearer to her grandchildren, King moved from Phoenix into an apartment in the Sunset District of San Francisco.Berton, Justin
"Charles Bukowski love letters sold, maybe more"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'', September 8, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2010. 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 bust of Bukowski, King also sculpted busts of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Micheline,

Harold Norse Harold Norse (July 6, 1916, New York City – June 8, 2009, San Francisco) 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 w ...

, and A. D. Winans. Her play, ''Singing Bullets'', was staged as part of a showcase by Phoenix's Metro Arts Institute. King has also sold an edition of at least 15 bronzes of Bukowski.

Bibliography

King wrote a book ''Loving and Hating Bukowski''. She also has written seven collections of poetry: *''Curled Inside the Curve of His Body…'' *''I Danced With a Man Last Night'' *''The Elephant Chronicles'' *''Exposed'' *''The Savageness of My Discontent'' *''Sweet and Dirty'' *''The World is Not What I Thought'' Her poetry has been published in a wide variety of magazines, including ''The Bukowski Review'' and ''

Wormwood Review The ''Wormwood Review'' was a literary magazine published from Fall 1959 to April 1999. Alan Kaufman (writer), Alan Kaufman considered the magazine to be "the greatest little magazine of all time." History and profile The ''Wormwood Review'' was f ...

''.

References

External links

Linda King Arts Web SiteKing reviews ''Barfly''
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Linda American sculptors People from Garfield County, Utah 1940 births Living people American women poets American women sculptors 21st-century American women artists Poets from Utah Sculptors from Utah