Post Office (novel)

"Post Office" (1971) is a novel written by Charles Bukowski. In the same way that "Ham On Rye" can be said to be an autobiographical account of Bukowski's childhood, "Post Office" may be said to be an autobiographical account of Bukowski's later years.

"Post Office" is the first novel by Bukowski to feature his autobiographical anti-hero, Henry Chinaski. It covers the period of Bukowski's life from about 1952 to his resignation from the United States Postal Service three years later, to his return in 1958 and then to his final resignation in 1969. During this time, Chinaski/Bukowski worked as a mail carrier for a number of years. After a brief hiatus, in which he supported himself by gambling at horse races, he returned to the Post Office to work as a sorter.

According to "Born into This", a documentary on Bukowski's life, Black Sparrow Press founder and owner, John Martin, offered Bukowski 100 dollars per month for life on condition that Bukowski would quit working for the post office and write full time. He agreed and "Post Office" was written within a month. "Post Office" was Bukowski's first foray into writing a novel. All of his earlier work had been poetry. Martin was actually a little worried that Bukowski would not be able to make the transition to prose. However, the fear turned out to be quite unfounded as Bukowski had no trouble writing stories about his life.