Edited by John Martin, the legendary publisher of Black Sparrow Press and a clos
e friend of Bukowski's, The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best w
orks from Bukowski's long poetic career, including the last of his never-before-
collected poems. Celebrating the full range of the poet's extra-ordinary and sur
prising sensibility, and his uncompromising linguistic brilliance, these poems c
over a rich lifetime of experiences and speak to Bukowski's "immense intelligenc
e, the caring heart that saw through the sham of our pretenses and had pity on o
ur human condition" (The New York Quarterly).
