Brushing aside allegations that Charles Bukowski was a Nazi sympathizer, the Los Angeles City Council approved the designation of Buk's former bungalow on De Longpre Avenue as a cultural landmark on Tuesday -- sparing it from demolition. Though the effort to save the house was successful, Buk's legacy took its share of hits in the process. In her fight against the cultural landmark designation, the bungalow's current owner, Victoria Gureyeva, called Bukowski "Hitler number two," and threated to "bring the whole Jewish Westside into the debate" against Bukowski. Gureyeva's Nazi charges stemmed from a 2003 article in the Hollywood Investigator by former Bukowski acquaintance Ben Pleasants, which claimed, among other things, that “the idea that [Bukowski] could betray Hitler by being Jewish was too much for him to bear.”
You can read more about the Nazi charges and the effort to save the bungalow in the Weekly's story "Bukowski's Ruin?"
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Comments
There are 2 comments posted for this article.
This is great news -- L.A. is saving some of its history for a change-- bravo. And congrats to the people who made it happen... I happened to notice something going on at that site in 2006, and began to try to save it, contacting the poet Neeli Cherkovski... I was working on a book, soon out, called Bukowski's LA -- for info contact me at dukesart@gmail.com Also, here's more about it:
http://bukowskila.wordpress.com/
Here's an article I wrote about the Buk preservation effort:
http://getunderground.com/underground/columns/article.cfm?Article_ID=2238
and my blog:
Posted on February 28, 2008 9:34 AM by matt dukes jordan
Bukowski added something near great to our culture. And what he added, as everyone familiar with his writing knows, is definitely married to a bungalow that looks like it wants to be demolished. Good job, Council.
Posted on February 28, 2008 9:56 AM by hotspur