The poems in What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire, written between 1970 and 1990, are part of an archive that Charles Bukowski left behind to be published after his death (in 1994). They were published by Black Sparrow Press, which was founded in 1966 by John Martin of Santa Rosa, California. Martin founded this company in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski and other avant-garde authors.

Black Sparrow Press books were printed on acid-free paper.