Paul Bowles

When The Sheltering Sky was first published in 1949, it established Paul Bowles as one of the most singular and promising writers of the postwar generation. Its startlingly original vision has withstood the test of time and confirmed Tennessee Williams's early estimation: "The Sheltering Sky alone of the books that I have . . . read by American authors appears to bear the spiritual imprint of recent history in the western world." In this classic work...

Set in Fez, Morocco, during that country's 1954 nationalist uprising, The Spider's House is perhaps Paul Bowles's most beautifully subtle novel, richly descriptive of its setting and uncompromising in its characterizations. Exploring once again the dilemma of the outsider in an alien society, and the gap in understanding between cultures-recurrent themes of Paul Bowles's writings-The Spider's House is dramatic, brutally honest, and shockingly relevant...

In the nineteenth century there flourished a peculiar breed of Englishmen-often the second sons of the aristocracy, or ambitious men from a lower class-who as soldiers, consuls and tea planters, were largely responsible for making England a great colonial power. Save for the fact that he is a staunch anticolonialist, Paul Bowles resembles these men in many respects. Like them, he appears to be happiest away from civilization as we know it; like them,...

Travels is a thrilling anthology of the travel writings of Paul Bowles, author of the era-defining post-war novel The Sheltering Sky. The acclaimed essays in Travel-never before collected in a single volume-span more than sixty years and range from Bowles's early days in Paris to his time spent in Ceylon, Thailand, Kenya, and his expatriate life in Morocco. Insightful, exciting, and evocative, featuring original photographs throughout, Travels is...

Between 1987 and 1989, Paul Bowles, at the suggestion of a friend, kept a journal to record the daily events of his life. What emerges is not only just a record of the meals, conversations, and health concerns of the author of The Sheltering Sky but also a fascinating look at an artist at work in a new medium. Characterized by a refreshing informality, clear-sightedness, and passages of exquisite prose, this work records with equal fascination the...

On the terrace of an elaborate hilltop apartment overlooking a Central American capital, four people sit making polite conversation. The American couple - an elderly physician and his young wife - are tourists. Their host, whom they have just met, is a young man of striking good looks and charm. The girl, his mistress, is very young and very beautiful. Sitting there, watching the sunset, the Slades seem to be enjoying the sort of fortunate chance...

Exemplary stories that reveal the bizarre, the disturbing, the perilous, and the wise in other civilizations - from one of America's most important writers of the twentieth century.

This extraordinary collection of correspondence by Paul Bowles spans eight decades and provides an evolving portrait of an artist renowned for his privacy. From his earliest extant letter, written at the age of four, to his precocious effusions to Aaron Copeland and to Gertrude Stein, from his meditations on mescaline as relayed to Ned Rorem, to his intensely moving letters to Jane Bowles during her illness, In Touch fills in the lacunae left by previous...

One of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century, writer, composer and wanderer Paul Bowles (1910–1999) is profiled by a filmmaker who has been obsessed with his genius since age nineteen. Set against the dramatic landscape of North Africa, the mystery of Bowles begins to unravel in this poetic and moving documentary. Rare, candid interviews with the reclusive Bowles—at home in Tangier, as well as in New York during an extraordinary final...