New Bukowski anthology to reveal his love of practical cats

For many he was the “laureate of American low life” known for his writing on poverty, alcohol, terrible jobs and even worse relationships.

Yet three new books of unpublished work by Charles Bukowski will show another side to the late writer, including a surprising love of cats, which he described as “my teachers”.

The author of novels such as Factotum and Women wrote about his love of all things feline in various poems, including “My Cats” and “The History of One Tough Motherfucker”. Later this year, previously unseen material will be collected in a volume called On Cats.

“If you’re feeling bad, you just look at the cats; you’ll feel better, because they know everything is, just as it is,” he once said, adding: “The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you’ll live 10 times longer than if you have 10. Someday this will be discovered, and people will have a thousand cats and live forever.”

Howard Sounes, author of Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, explained: “He became sentimental about cats in his old age. When he made a bit of money, he lived the suburban life with his wife Linda Lee and they had a lot of cats. He got a bit soppy about them.” In “The History of One Tough Motherfucker”, Bukowski describes showing journalists a cat who defied veterinary predictions and recovered after being run over; he cited the creature’s defiance as his inspiration.