CHARLES Bukowski, the prolific writer who turned his experiences as a

hard-drinking womanizer into a welter of poems, novels, and a film, has

died in California at the age of 73.

A spokeswoman for San Pedro Peninsular Hospital said the family had

asked the hospital not to release any details of his death.

Bukowski's wife, Linda, told the Los Angeles Times her husband died on

Wednesday of leukemia, after suffering from the disease for a year.

Bukowski, who became known as the unofficial poet laureate of Los

Angeles's underground press in the 1950s, became a cult favourite in

Europe before he achieved nationwide recognition in the United States.

His gritty, no-nonsense writings touched on subjects that were still

considered taboo at the time: alcohol abuse, sex, violence, and the low

life of Los Angeles's Skid Row.

They were, he once said, autobiographical.

0 Although his works received critical acclaim, he did not become

known to the general US public until he wrote the original screenplay

for the 1987 movie, Barfly. The film portrayed three days in Bukowski's

own life at the age of 24.

Bukowski was born

in Andernach, Germany, in 1920, and moved to the US with his family as

a child.