Life and Death in the Charity Ward (Unabridged)

A short story from The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories

"In 1955, at the age of 35, Bukowski was rushed to the charity ward of the Los Angeles County hospital, hemorrhaging at the bright red climax to a 10-year drinking bout. He was 'dying, hemorrhaging out of my mouth and ass continually...all that cheap wine and hard living coming through and out - fountains of blood.' Bukowski's experience in the cold-hearted, bureaucratic charity ward, the dumping ground for the Underground, would inexorably begin the alteration of his life's path, if indeed it can be said that he was following a well-charted path to begin with." (Pop Matters)

Upon his survival and recovery, Bukowski began a writing career that would change American poetry and prose as we know it. This is the story of the moment when his life hung by a thread, but spun something else quite unexpected.

OBIE winner Will Patton (Remember the Titans, The Good Wife, Armageddon) recreates Bukowski in his visceral prime, along with every eye-popping character in his life, each adversary, lover, and stranger in a lost city.