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Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American
expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life. Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
before making several trips to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in the 1930s. He studied music with
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
, and in New York wrote music for theatrical productions, as well as other compositions. He achieved critical and popular success with his first novel ''
The Sheltering Sky ''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles. Plot The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'' (1949), set in
French North Africa French North Africa (french: Afrique du Nord française, sometimes abbreviated to ANF) is the term often applied to the territories controlled by France in the North African Maghreb during the colonial era, namely Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In ...
, which he had visited in 1931. In 1947, Bowles settled in
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
, at that time in the
Tangier International Zone The Tangier International Zone ( ''Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Dawliyya'', , es, Zona Internacional de Tánger) was a international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1924 until its reintegration into independent Moroc ...
, and his wife
Jane Bowles Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright. Early life Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane ...
followed in 1948. Except for winters spent in
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
during the early 1950s, Tangier was Bowles's home for the remainder of his life. He came to symbolize American immigrants in the city. Bowles died in 1999 at the age of 88. His ashes are buried near family graves in Lakemont Cemetery, in
upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
.


Life


1910–1930: Family and education

Paul Bowles was born in
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
,
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York City, as the only child of Rena (née Winnewisser) and Claude Dietz Bowles, a dentist. His childhood was materially comfortable, but his father was a cold and domineering parent, opposed to any form of play or entertainment, and feared by both his son and wife. According to family legend, Claude had tried to kill his newborn son by leaving him exposed on a window-ledge during a snowstorm. The story may not be true, but Bowles believed it was and that it encapsulated his relationship with his father. Warmth in his childhood was provided by his mother, who read
Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
and
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
to him – it was to the latter that he later attributed his own desire to write stories, such as "The Delicate Prey", " A Distant Episode", and "Pages from Cold Point". Bowles could read at age 3 and was writing stories by age 4. Soon, he wrote
surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
poetry and music. In 1922, at age 11, he bought his first book of poetry,
Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were ...
's ''A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems''. At age 17, he had a poem, "Spire Song", accepted for publication in the literary journal '' transition''. This Paris-based publication served as a forum for leading proponents of
modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
 –
Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist liter ...
,
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
,
Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
,
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
and others. Bowles's interest in music also dated from his childhood, when his father bought a
phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
and classical records. (Bowles was interested in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, but such records were forbidden by his father.) His family bought a
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, and the young Bowles studied musical theory, singing, and piano. When he was 15, he attended a performance of
Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
's ''
The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev' ...
'' at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, which made a profound impression: "Hearing ''The Firebird'' made me determined to continue improvising on the piano when my father was out of the house, and to notate my own music with an increasing degree of knowing that I had happened upon a new and exciting mode of expression." Bowles entered the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
in 1928, where his interests included T. S. Eliot's ''
The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
'',
Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
,
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
,
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...
, and
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
. He also heard music by
George Antheil George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
and
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...
. In April 1929, he dropped out without informing his parents, and sailed with a one-way ticket for Paris and no intention of returning – not, he said later, running away, but "running toward something, although I didn't know what at the time." Bowles spent the next months working for the ''
Paris Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compete ...
'' and developing a friendship with
Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
. By July, he returned to New York and worked at Duttons Bookshop in Manhattan, where he began work on an unfinished book of fiction, ''Without Stopping'' (not to be confused with his later autobiography of the same title). At the insistence of his parents, Bowles returned to studies at the University of Virginia but left after one semester to return to Paris with
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
, with whom he had been studying composition in New York. Copland was a lover as well as mentor to Bowles, who would later state that he was "other than Jane the most important person in my life": when their affair concluded, they remained friends for life. It was during the autumn of 1930 in Paris that Bowles began work on his own first musical composition, the ''Sonata for Oboe and Clarinet'', which he finished the following year. It premiered in New York at the Aeolian Hall on Wigmore Street, 16 December 1931. The entire concert (which also included work by Copland and
Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
) was panned by New York critics. (Bowles's first-known composition was completed earlier in Berlin: an adaptation as piano music of some vocal pieces by
Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...
.)


1931–1946: France and New York

In Paris, Bowles became a part of
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
's literary and artistic circle. On her advice, he made his first visit to
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
with
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
in the summer of 1931. They took a house on the mountain above
Tangier Bay The Bay of Tangier is a bay around Tangier on the Mediterranean in northern Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Se ...
. Bowles later made Morocco his full-time home, and it inspired many of his short stories. From Tangier he returned to Berlin, where he met British writers
Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the ...
and Christopher Isherwood. (Isherwood was reportedly so taken with him that he named a character
Sally Bowles Sally Bowles () is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'' published by Hogarth Press ...
in his novel after him.) The next year, Bowles returned to North Africa, traveling throughout other parts of Morocco, the
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
,
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
, and
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
. In 1937, Bowles returned to New York. Over the next decade, he established a solid reputation as a composer, collaborating with
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
,
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
, and others on music for stage productions, as well as orchestral pieces. In 1938, he married Jane Auer, an author and playwright. It was an unconventional marriage; their intimate relationships were reportedly with people of their own sex, but the couple maintained close personal ties with each other. During this time the couple joined the Communist Party of USA but soon left the organization after Bowles was ejected from the party. Bowles has frequently been featured in anthologies as a gay writer, although he regarded such categories as both absurd and irrelevant. After a brief sojourn in France, the couple were prominent among the literary figures of New York throughout the 1940s. Bowles also worked under
Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
as a music critic at the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
''. His zarzuela, ''The Wind Remains'', based on a poem by
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
, was performed in 1943 with choreography by
Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...
and conducted by
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
. His translation of
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
's play ''
Huis Clos ''No Exit'' (french: Huis clos, links=no, ) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944. The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting ...
'' (''No Exit''), directed by
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
, won a Drama Critic's Award in 1943. In 1945, Bowles began writing prose again, beginning with a few short stories including " A Distant Episode". His wife Jane, he said, was the main influence upon his taking up fiction as an adult, when she published her first novel ''Two Serious Ladies'' (1943).


1947–1956: Early years in Tangier

In 1947, Bowles received a contract for a novel from Doubleday; with the advance, he moved permanently to
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
. Jane joined him there the following year. Bowles commented: Bowles traveled alone into the Algerian
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
to work on the novel. He later said, "I wrote in bed in hotels in the desert." He drew inspiration from personal experience, noting years later that, "Whatever one writes is in a sense autobiographical, of course. Not factually so, but poetically so." He titled the novel ''
The Sheltering Sky ''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles. Plot The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'', from a song, "Down Among the Sheltering Palms", which he had heard every summer as a child.. It was first published by John Lehmann Limited in England, in September 1949, after Doubleday rejected the manuscript. Bowles recalled:
I sent it out to Doubleday and they refused it. They said, "We asked for a novel." They didn't consider it a novel. I had to give back my advance. My agent told me later they called the editor on the carpet for having refused the book – only after they saw that it was selling fast. It only had to do with sales. They didn't bother to read it.
A first American edition, by
New Directions Publishing New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin and incorporated in 1964. Its offices are located at 80 Eighth Avenue in New York City. History New Directions was born in 193 ...
, appeared the following month. The plot follows three Americans: Port, his wife Kit, and their friend, Tunner, as they journey through the Algerian desert. The reviewer for ''
TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine commented that the ends visited upon the two main characters "seem appropriate but by no means tragic", but that "Bowles scores cleanly with his minor characters: Arab pimps and prostitutes, French officers in garrison towns, nda stupidly tiresome pair of tourists—mother & son." In ''The New York Times'', playwright and critic
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
commented that the book was like a summer thunderstorm, "pulsing with interior flashes of fire". The book quickly rose to the ''New York Times'' best-seller list, going through three printings in two months. In 1950, Bowles published his first collection of short stories. Titled ''A Little Stone'' (John Lehmann, London, August 1950), it omitted two of Bowles's most famous short stories, "Pages From Cold Point" and "The Delicate Prey". British critic
Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine '' Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which comb ...
and writer
Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
had advised him that if they were included in the collection, distribution and/or censorship difficulties might ensue. The American edition by
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, ''The Delicate Prey and Other Stories'' (November 1950), did include these two stories. In an interview 30 years later, Bowles responded to an observation that almost all of the characters in "The Delicate Prey" were victimized by either physical or psychological violence. He said:
Yes, I suppose. The violence served a therapeutic purpose. It's unsettling to think that at any moment life can flare up into senseless violence. But it can and does, and people need to be ready for it. What you make for others is first of all what you make for yourself. If I'm persuaded that our life is predicated upon violence, that the entire structure of what we call civilization, the scaffolding that we've built up over the millennia, can collapse at any moment, then whatever I write is going to be affected by that assumption. The process of life presupposes violence, in the plant world the same as the animal world. But among the animals only man can conceptualize violence. Only man can enjoy the idea of destruction.
He set his second novel, ''Let It Come Down'' (John Lehmann, London, February 1952), in North Africa, specifically Tangier. It explored the disintegration of an American (Nelson Dyar) who was unprepared for the encounter with an alien culture. The first American edition by Random House was published later that same month. Bowles set his third novel, ''The Spider's House'' (Random House, New York, November 1955), in
Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...
, immediately prior to Morocco's gaining independence and sovereignty in 1956. In it, he charted the relationships among three immigrants and a young Moroccan: John Stenham, Alain Moss, Lee Veyron, and Amar. Reviewers noted that the novel marked a departure from Bowles's earlier fiction in that it introduced a contemporary political theme, the conflict between Moroccan nationalism and French colonialism. The UK edition (Macdonald) was published in January 1957. While Bowles was concentrating on his career as a writer, he composed incidental music for nine plays presented by the
American School of Tangier American School of Tangier (AST; ar, المدرسة الأمریکیة بطنجة) is an American international school in Tangier, Morocco, serving preschool through grade 12. In Morocco it is considered a non-profit organization, and AST is incorp ...
. The Bowles couple became fixtures of the American and European immigrant scene in Tangier. Visitors included
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
, Tennessee Williams and
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and ...
.
William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
, and the
Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...
writers
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
and
Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrou ...
followed in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. In 1951, Bowles was introduced to the
Master Musicians of Jajouka The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (sometimes written as ...featuring Bachir Attar) are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective includes ...
, having first heard the musicians when he and Brion Gysin attended a festival, or ''moussem'', at
Sidi Kacem Sidi Kacem ( Berber: ⵙⵉⴷⵉ ⵇⴰⵙⴰⵎ, ary, سيدي قاسم, sidi qasəm) is a city in Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Morocco. It is the capital of Sidi Kacem Province. History During the French period the city was called Petitjean, in ...
. Bowles described his continued association with the Master Musicians of Jajouka and their hereditary leader Bachir Attar in his book, ''Days: A Tangier Journal''. In 1952, Bowles bought the tiny island of Taprobane, off the coast of
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. There, he wrote much of his novel ''The Spider's House'' and returned to Tangier in the warmer months. He stayed in Sri Lanka most winters.


1957–1973: Moroccan music and translation

In 1957, Jane Bowles suffered a mild stroke, which marked the beginning of a long and painful decline in her health. Her condition preoccupied Paul Bowles until Jane's death in 1973. During the late 1950s, Morocco achieved independence. With a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
and sponsorship from the
US Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...
, Bowles spent the months of August to September 1959 traveling throughout Morocco with Christopher Wanklyn and Mohammed Larbi, recording traditional Moroccan music. From 1959 to 1961, Bowles recorded a wide variety of music from the different ethnic groups in Morocco, including the Sephardic Jewish communities of
Meknes Meknes ( ar, مكناس, maknās, ; ber, ⴰⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ, amknas; french: Meknès) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th c ...
and Essaouira. During these years, Bowles also worked at translating Moroccan authors and story-tellers, including
Mohamed Choukri Mohamed Choukri (Arabic: محمد شكري, Berber languages, Berber: ⵎⵓⵃⴰⵎⵎⴻⴷ ⵛⵓⴽⵔⵉ) (15 July 193515November 2003, was a Moroccan author and novelist who is best known for his internationally acclaimed autobiography ''Fo ...
,
Ahmed Yacoubi Ahmed ben Driss el Yacoubi (1928–1985) was a Moroccan painter and storyteller. He was born in Fez, Morocco. Career Yacoubi met the American composer and writer Paul Bowles in Fez in 1947, and later in Tangier. Yacoubi then began doing tran ...
,
Larbi Layachi Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (1937–1986) is the alias for Larbi Layachi, a Moroccan story-teller, some of whose stories have been translated by Paul Bowles from Moroccan Arabic to English. His book, '' A Life Full of Holes'' was tape-recorded and t ...
(under the pseudonym Driss ben Hamed Charhadi), and
Mohammed Mrabet Mohammed Mrabet (real name ''Mohammed ben Chaib el Hajam''; born March 8, 1936) is a Moroccan author, artist and storyteller of the Ait Ouriaghel tribe in the Rif region. Mrabet, mostly known in the West through his association with Paul Bowles ...
. In the autumn of 1968, invited by friend Oliver Evans, Bowles was a visiting scholar for one semester at the English Department of the San Fernando Valley State College, (now
California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...
). He taught "Advanced Narrative Writing and the Modern European Novel." In 1970, Bowles and
Daniel Halpern Daniel Halpern (born September 11, 1945) is the founder of Ecco Press, an imprint of the publisher HarperCollins. He is also the author of nine books of poetry, as well as the co-founder, along with Paul Bowles, of the literary magazine ''Antaeus'' ...
founded the literary magazine ''
Antaeus Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part ...
,'' based in Tangier. It featured many new, as well as established authors. Bowles's work was also represented, including his story "Afternoon with Antaeus."


1974–1995: Later years

After his wife's death, on 4 May 1973 in
Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...
, Spain, Bowles continued to live in Tangier. He wrote regularly and received many visitors to his modest apartment. In the summers of 1980 and 1982, Bowles conducted writing workshops in Morocco, at the American School of Tangier (under the auspices of the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...
in New York). These were considered successful. Among several students who have become successful authors are
Rodrigo Rey Rosa Rodrigo Rey Rosa (born November 4, 1958) is a Guatemalan writer. Biography Rey Rosa was born in Guatemala City in 1958 into a middle-class family. He recalled that in his childhood he traveled extensively with his parents throughout Mexico and ...
, the 2004 Winner of the Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature, and
Mark Terrill Mark Terrill is a well-traveled American poet, translator, and prose writer who has resided in Northern Germany since the mid-1980s. Biography Born on July 1, 1953, in Berkeley, California, Mark Terrill grew up in the unincorporated mountain com ...
. Bowles designated Rey Rosa as the literary heir of his and Jane Bowles's estates. In 1982, Bowles published ''Points in Time'', subtitled ''Tales From Morocco'', a collection of stories. Divided into eleven parts, the work consists of untitled story fragments, anecdotes, and travel narratives. These stories are not included in either ''The Stories of Paul Bowles'' (
Ecco Press Ecco is a New York-based publishing imprint of HarperCollins. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company; Publishers Weekly described it as "one of America's best-known literary houses." In 1999 Ecco was acquire ...
) or ''Collected Stories and Later Writings'' (
The Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...
). In 1985, Bowles published his translation of
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
's short story, " The Circular Ruins". It was collected in a book of 16 stories, all translated by Bowles, called ''She Woke Me Up So I Killed Her''. This Borges story had previously been published in translations by the three main Borges translators: Anthony Kerrigan, Anthony Bonner, and James E. Irby. In 1988, when Bowles was asked in an interview about his social life, he replied, "I don't know what a social life is ... My social life is restricted to those who serve me and give me meals, and those who want to interview me." When asked in the same interview how he would summarize his achievement, he said, "I've written some books and some music. That's what I've achieved." Bowles had a cameo appearance at the beginning and end of the film version of ''The Sheltering Sky'' (1990), directed by
Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
. Bowles's music was overlooked and mostly forgotten for more than a generation, but in the 1990s, a new generation of American musicians and singers became interested in his work again. Art song enthusiasts savor what are described as "charming, witty pieces." In 1994, Bowles was visited and interviewed by writer
Paul Theroux Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue, '' The Great Railway Bazaar'' (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He ...
, who featured him in his last chapter of his travel book, '' The Pillars of Hercules''.


1995–1999 : Final years

In 1995, Bowles made his final return to New York, invited to a "Paul Bowles Festival" at
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
celebrating his music. The music was performed by Jonathan Sheffer leading the Eos Orchestra. A related symposium on Bowles's work and interview were held at the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
. A Canadian documentary on his life, '' Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles'' won Best Documentary at the 27th Annual International Emmy Awards in New York City. Visitors in 1998 reported that Bowles's wit and intellect endured. He continued to welcome visitors to his apartment in Tangier but, on the advice of doctors and friends, limited interviews. One of the last was an interview with Stephen Morison, Jr., a friend teaching at the American School of Tangier. It was featured in the July/August 1999 issue of ''
Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...
'' magazine. On June 6, 1999, Irene Herrmann, the executrix of the Paul Bowles Music Estate, interviewed him to focus on his musical career; this was published in September 2003. Bowles died of heart failure on November 18, 1999, at the Italian Hospital in Tangier, aged 88. He had been ill for some time with respiratory problems. His ashes were buried in
Lakemont, New York Lakemont is a hamlet in the town of Starkey, Yates County, New York, United States. It is part of the Finger Lakes region. Lakemont is located several miles north of Glenora. Patrick "Kettle" Johnson is buried in a cemetery near Lakemont. His ...
, next to the graves of his parents and grandparents.


Bowles and Tangier

Paul Bowles lived for 52 of his 88 years in Tangier. He became strongly identified with the city and symbolized American immigrants. Obituary writers typically linked his life to his residency there. When Bowles had first visited Tangier with Aaron Copland in 1931, they were both outsiders to what they perceived as an exotic place of unfamiliar customs. They were not bound by any local rules, which varied among the many ethnic groups. Tangier was a Moroccan and international city, a longtime trading center, with a population made up of Berber, Arab, Spanish, French and other Europeans, speaking Spanish, French, Berber and Arabic, and professing a variety of religions. Politically it was under the control of a consortium of foreign powers, including the United States. Bowles was entranced by the city's culture. By his return in 1947 the city somewhat changed, but he still found it intriguing. In 1955, anti-European riots erupted as Moroccans sought independence. In 1956, the city was returned to full Moroccan control.


Music


Introduction

Paul Bowles first studied music with
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
. In the fall of 1931, following an introduction from Copland, he entered the
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
of
Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
. Thomson, Virgil. ''Virgil Thomson''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966, pp. 206–207. Bowles had thought of himself first as a poet, having published some verse in his brief time at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
in the pages of '' transition''. Unfortunately, the quality of his poetry eluded any of the intellectuals he would later encounter in Paris. Among them was
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
, from whom he received the sobriquet, "the manufactured savage," and who begged him to give up writing poetry.Briatte, Robert. ''An American in Paris'': "Portrait of Paul Bowles". Liner Notes from Koch International (3-1574-2), 1995, pp. 5–6. However, his music of the time, demonstrated by a propensity for
Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
-like piano
improvisations Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, charmed both Copland and Thomson, alike. Copland, Aaron. ''Copland On Music''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1960, pp. 161–162. In his book, ''Copland On Music'' (Doubleday & Company, New York, 1960), Copland remarked: For Copland the allure of Bowles's music would never diminish. In later years he was recorded as having said, "Paul Bowles' music is always fresh; I've never known him to write a dull piece."Lerner, Bennett.
American Piano Music, Volume I
'. Liner Notes from Etcetera Records (KTC 10109), 1984, pp. 2–3.
However, the precocity of Bowles's early musical efforts would later belie a lack of professional training and discipline. Copland had tried in New York to teach him
harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
, but had found him to be a stubborn pupil. In Paris Bowles approached
Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...
for lessons, and Thomson recommended him to
Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His b ...
. In the end, he would work with neither.


Development

Apart from irregular consultation with
Vittorio Rieti Vittorio Rieti (January 28, 1898 – February 19, 1994) was a Jewish- Italian-American composer. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Rieti moved to Milan to study economics. He subsequently studied in Rome under Respighi and Casella, and lived there ...
, Bowles never received any formal instruction in music, despite the best efforts of Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson to persuade him otherwise. However, the self-taught composer, with assistance from Thomson, found success in New York as a producer of incidental music for the theatre. He collaborated with the likes of
George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...
,
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blackliste ...
,
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
,
Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
,
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
,
José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...
,
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
,
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
,
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
and
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he turned his hand to writing as a
reviewer A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...
for the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'', where Thomson then served as music critic. Bowles was well-suited to the work, according to Thomson, "because he wrote clearly and because he had the gift of judgment." Following Virgil Thomson's retirement from his critic's post in 1954, reminiscing on his wish Paul Bowles had taken over the position, Bowles remarked, "I don't think I could have handled it, any more than I could have followed a career in composition. I lacked the musical training that irgiland Aaron had."


A new direction

After the war, eventually settling in
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
,
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, Bowles continued his musical and literary pursuits, gradually letting go of the former and becoming what Virgil Thomson described as, "a novelist and story writer of international repute." Paul Bowles referred to Tangier as "a place where it is still hard to find a piano in tune." Regarding his establishment as an author in Morocco, Bowles said:
Little by little I was aware of there being atmospheres which I could only portray by writing about them. I was unable to express my emotions in their entirety through music. My music was joyful as I was myself. The more nocturnal side to my personality, I managed to express through language.
With the success of the book, ''
The Sheltering Sky ''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles. Plot The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'', Bowles struck his first blow for independence. In time this break from the composition of music would see Bowles's earlier exploits overshadowed completely by his acclaim as a writer of prose.


Recapitulation

Only in the decade before his death was there a renewed interest in his musical output from the 1930s and '40s. This movement may have culminated in May 1994, at the
Théâtre du Rond-Point The Théâtre du Rond-Point is a theatre in Paris, located at 2bis avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt, 8th arrondissement. History The theatre began with an 1838 project of architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff for a rotunda in the Champs Elysees. Inau ...
in Paris, with the presentation of a live concert performance, and at which the then 83-year-old Paul Bowles was in attendance. The program included a number of Bowles's original songs and pieces for piano, plus musical tributes and portraits of the composer by Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein, and
Phillip Ramey Phillip Ramey (born September 12, 1939 in Elmhurst, Illinois, Elmhurst, Illinois, United States) is an American composer, pianist, and writer on music. He studied composition with the Russian-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin from 1959 to 1962, f ...
.Petit de Voize, Yves. ''An American in Paris''. Liner Notes from Koch International (3-1574-2), 1995, pp. 7–8. At least as regards the past neglect of his own catalogue, this ongoing revival may serve as proof of Bowles's own words: "Music only exists when it is played." Renewal of respect for Paul Bowles's music has led to several commercial recording projects. In 2016 the Invencia Piano Duo (
Andrey Kasparov Andrey Rafailovich Kasparov ( hy, Անդրեյ Րաֆաիլի Կասպարով, russian: Андре́й Рафаи́лович Каспа́ров, born 6 April 1966) is an Armenian-American pianist, composer, and professor, who holds both America ...
and Oksana Lutsyshyn), in collaboration with
Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 1 ...
and its American Classics division, released two CDs of Bowles's complete piano works. Volume one opens with pieces inspired by Latin American themes, evocative of the composer's interest in the culture and his fluency in the Spanish language.Bowles, Paul. "On Mexico's Popular Music." '' Modern Music'' 18.4 (1941): 225-230.Distler, Jed
"Sounds of America, Bowles."
'' Gramophone'' July 2016: 1.
de Azúa, Félix. "Praise of lightness" ''
Scherzo A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often ref ...
'' Mar. 2017.
The second of the two volumes closes with arrangements of ''
Blue Mountain Ballads ''Blue Mountain Ballads'' is a song cycle for a voice and piano composed by Paul Bowles in 1946 on poems by Tennessee Williams who was his friend and mentor. The extended harmonic language of the piano part allows a large degree of freedom in all ...
'' (1946), set for piano duet by Dr. Andrey Kasparov, and three miscellaneous pieces, set for two pianos by the American piano duo of Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. The latter three arrangements were uncovered in the Gold and Fizdale Collection, held in the Peter Jay Sharp Special Collections,
Lila Acheson Wallace Lila Bell Wallace (December 25, 1889 – May 8, 1984) was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. Early life and education Born Li ...
Library,
The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
. Dr. Kasparov reconstructed the original manuscripts which permitted these duets to be recorded for the very first time.


Recording of Moroccan music

Paul Bowles was a pioneer in the field of North African
ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
, making field recordings from 1959 to 1961 of traditional Moroccan music for the
US Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...
. The collection includes dance music, secular music, music for
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
and other celebrations, and music for
animistic Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, hum ...
rituals. Bowles realised that modern culture would inevitably change and influence the practice of traditional music, and he wanted to preserve some of it. Bowles commented on the political aspects of the practice of traditional music:
Instrumentalists and singers have come into being in lieu of chroniclers and poets, and even during the most recent chapter in the country's evolution – the war for independence and the setting up of the present regime – each phase of the struggle has been celebrated in song.
The total collection of this recorded music is known as ''The Paul Bowles Collection''; it is archived in the US Library of Congress, Reference No. 72-750123. The Archival Manuscript Material (Collection) contains 97 x 2-track 7" reel-to-reel tapes, containing approximately sixty hours of traditional folk, art and popular music, one box of manuscripts, 18 photographs, and a map, along with the 2-LP recording called ''Music of Morocco'' (AFS L63-64).


Translating other authors

In the 1960s Bowles began translating and collecting stories from the oral tradition of native Moroccan storytellers. His most noteworthy collaborators included
Mohammed Mrabet Mohammed Mrabet (real name ''Mohammed ben Chaib el Hajam''; born March 8, 1936) is a Moroccan author, artist and storyteller of the Ait Ouriaghel tribe in the Rif region. Mrabet, mostly known in the West through his association with Paul Bowles ...
,
Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (1937–1986) is the alias for Larbi Layachi, a Moroccan story-teller, some of whose stories have been translated by Paul Bowles from Moroccan Arabic to English. His book, '' A Life Full of Holes'' was tape-recorded and t ...
(
Larbi Layachi Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (1937–1986) is the alias for Larbi Layachi, a Moroccan story-teller, some of whose stories have been translated by Paul Bowles from Moroccan Arabic to English. His book, '' A Life Full of Holes'' was tape-recorded and t ...
),
Mohamed Choukri Mohamed Choukri (Arabic: محمد شكري, Berber languages, Berber: ⵎⵓⵃⴰⵎⵎⴻⴷ ⵛⵓⴽⵔⵉ) (15 July 193515November 2003, was a Moroccan author and novelist who is best known for his internationally acclaimed autobiography ''Fo ...
,
Abdeslam Boulaich Abdeslam Boulaich ( ar, عبد السلام بولعيش) is a Moroccan story-teller, some of whose stories have been translated by Paul Bowles from Moroccan Arabic to English English usually refers to: * English language * English people ...
, and
Ahmed Yacoubi Ahmed ben Driss el Yacoubi (1928–1985) was a Moroccan painter and storyteller. He was born in Fez, Morocco. Career Yacoubi met the American composer and writer Paul Bowles in Fez in 1947, and later in Tangier. Yacoubi then began doing tran ...
. He also translated writers whose original work was written in Spanish, Portuguese and French:
Rodrigo Rey Rosa Rodrigo Rey Rosa (born November 4, 1958) is a Guatemalan writer. Biography Rey Rosa was born in Guatemala City in 1958 into a middle-class family. He recalled that in his childhood he traveled extensively with his parents throughout Mexico and ...
,
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
,
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
,
Isabelle Eberhardt Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt (17 February 1877 – 21 October 1904) was a Swiss explorer and author. As a teenager, Eberhardt, educated in Switzerland by her father, published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested ...
, Roger Frison-Roche,
André Pieyre de Mandiargues André Pieyre de Mandiargues (14 March 1909 – 13 December 1991) was a French writer born in Paris. He became an associate of the Surrealists and married the Italian painter Bona Tibertelli de Pisis (a niece of the Italian metaphysical pain ...
,
Ramón Gómez de la Serna Ramón Gómez de la Serna y Puig (3 July 1888 in Madrid – 13 January 1963 in Buenos Aires) was a Spanish writer, dramatist and avant-garde agitator. He strongly influenced surrealist film maker Luis Buñuel. Ramón Gómez de la Serna was esp ...
,
Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...
, Si Lakhdar, E. Laoust, Ramon Beteta, Gabino Chan,
Bertrand Flornoy Bertrand Flornoy (27 March 1910 – 25 April 1980) was a French explorer and archaeologist. Flornoy in 1936 became special advisor to the National Museum of Natural History, which sends mission studies and exploration in the Amazon Basin and t ...
,
Jean Ferry Jean Levy, known as Jean Ferry (16 June 1906 – 5 September 1974), was a French writer and screenwriter and follower of the ' pataphysical tradition'. He died in Val-de-Marne, France in 1974. He was described by Raphaël Sorin as "...a little man ...
, Denise Moran, Paul Colinet,
Paul Magritte Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
, Popul Buj,
Francis Ponge Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge (; 27 March 1899 – 6 August 1988) was a French essayist and poet. Influenced by surrealism, he developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects. He was the third recipient of the Neustadt Inter ...
, Bluet d'Acheres and
Ramon Sender Ramón Sender Barayón (born October 29, 1934) is a composer, visual artist and writer. He was the co-founder with Morton Subotnick of the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1962. He is the son of Spanish writer Ramón J. Sender. Education ...
.


Achievement and legacy

Paul Bowles is considered one of the artists to have shaped 20th-century literature and
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
. In his "Introduction" to Bowles's ''Collected Stories'' (1979)
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and ...
ranked the short stories as "among the best ever written by an American", writing: "the floor to this ramshackle civilization that we have built cannot bear much longer our weight. It was Bowles's genius to suggest the horrors which lie beneath that floor, as fragile, in its way, as the sky that shelters us from a devouring vastness". Critics have described his music, in contrast, "as full of light as the fiction sof dark ... almost as if the composer were a totally different person from the writer." During the early 1930s, Bowles studied composition (intermittently) with
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
; his music from this period "is reminiscent of
Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conse ...
and Poulenc." Returning to New York in the mid-30s, Bowles became one of the preeminent composers of American theater music, producing works for
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
,
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
, and others, "show ngexceptional skill and imagination in capturing the mood, emotion, and ambience of each play to which he was assigned." Bowles said that such incidental music allowed him to present "climaxless music, hypnotic music in one of the exact senses of the word, in that it makes its effect without the spectator being made aware of it." At the same time he continued to write concert music, assimilating some of the melodic, rhythmic, and other stylistic elements of
African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
, Mexican, and
Central American music The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporates African music from enslaved African people who wer ...
. In 1991, Bowles was awarded the annual
Rea Award for the Short Story The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living American or Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction. The Award The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea, who was engaged in ...
. The jury gave the following citation: "Paul Bowles is a storyteller of the utmost purity and integrity. He writes of a world before God became man; a world in which men and women in extremis are seen as components in a larger, more elemental drama. His prose is crystalline and his voice unique. Among living American masters of the short story, Paul Bowles is sui generis." The historic building of the American Legation in Tangier includes an entire wing devoted to Paul Bowles. In 2010, they received a donation of furniture, photographs and documents compiled by
Gloria Kirby Gloria Price Kirby, (Nice, France, April 19, 1928 – Tangier, Morocco, 2017) was an American gallerist, art collector and photographer, she founded the Vandrés Gallery in Madrid. Biography Gloria Kirby was the granddaughter of Fred Morgan ...
, a permanent resident of Tanger and friend of Bowles. The
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...
published an edition of Bowles's works in 2002.


Works

In addition to his chamber and stage compositions, Bowles published fourteen short story collections, several novels, three volumes of poetry, numerous translations, numerous travel articles, and an autobiography.


Music


Fiction


Novels


Short fiction

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Short stories (collections)


Poetry


Translations


Travel, autobiography and letters


Editions


Selected discography of musical compositions and readings


Film appearances and interviews


References


Further reading


Biographies and memoirs

*''Paul Bowles: 2117 Tanger Socco'', Robert Briatte (1989), The first biography of Paul Bowles (in French) *''An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles'', Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno (1989) *''You Are Not I: A Portrait of Paul Bowles'', Millicent Dillon (1998) *''Paul Bowles: A Life'', Virginia Spencer Carr (2004), *''Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me'', Lee Prosser (2001), *''Paul Bowles, Magic and Morocco'', Allan Hibbard (2004), *''February House'', Sherill Tippins (2005), *''Paul Bowles by his Friends'', Gary Pulsifer (1992), *''Second Son: an autobiography'', David Herbert (1972), *''The Sheltering Sky'', (movie edition) Bertolucci and Bowles (1990), *''Here to Learn'',
Mark Terrill Mark Terrill is a well-traveled American poet, translator, and prose writer who has resided in Northern Germany since the mid-1980s. Biography Born on July 1, 1953, in Berkeley, California, Mark Terrill grew up in the unincorporated mountain com ...
(2002), *''Yesterday's Perfume'', Cherie Nutting with Paul Bowles (2000), *"Tangier Love Story, Jane Bowles, Paul Bowles and Me", Carol Adman (2014), ASIN B00NMM642G


Literary criticism of Paul Bowles

*''The Short Story in Midcentury America: Countercultural Form in the Work of Bowles, McCarthy, Welty, and Williams'', Sam Reese (2017), *''Paul Bowles: Romantic Savage'', Gena Dagel Caponi (1994), *''Paul Bowles: The Inner Geography'', Wayne Pounds (1985), *''Paul Bowles: The Illumination of North Africa'', Lawrence D. Stewart (1974), *''Paul Bowles: Twayne's Authors Series'', Gena Dagel Caponi (1998), *''The Fiction of Paul Bowles: The Soul is the Weariest Part of the Body'', Hans Bertens (1979),


Published interviews with Bowles

*''Conversations with Paul Bowles'', Gena Dagel Caponi (1993), *''Desultory Correspondence'', Florian Vetsch (1997),


Catalog and archive editions on Bowles

*''Paul Bowles: A Descriptive Bibliography'', Jeffrey Miller (1986), *''Paul Bowles on Music'', edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann (2003),


Other references

* * * * *


External links


Archives


Paul Bowles papersSpecial Collections, University of Delaware LibraryPaul Bowles collectionSpecial Collections, University of Delaware LibraryVirginia Spencer Carr papersSpecial Collections, University of Delaware LibraryPaul Bowles collection
at th
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at AustinPaul Bowles papers
a


Exhibitions


Paul Bowles at 80
(online exhibition)
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library

Paul Bowles, 1910-1990
(online exhibition)
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library


Other links


"The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site"


web published on the
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' utilized the audio cassette medium to distribute no wave downtown music and audio art and was in activity f ...
project archive at
Ubuweb UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Philosop ...

Music of Morocco: The Paul Bowles Recordings for the American Folklife Collection
at archnet.org


Interviews

''More interviews on the official Paul Bowles website'' * *

* ttp://www.bruceduffie.com/bowlesint.html "Paul Bowles, A Conversation with Bruce Duffie" (Bruce Duffie, May 1992)*
"Stranger on a Strange Shore" (Gaither Stewart, ''Critique'' magazine, October 2000)


Assessments




Reviews and obituaries

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070111013131/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805263,00.html?internalid=atb100 Review of "The Sheltering Sky" ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', December 5, 1945
Review of "The Spider's House", New York Times, 1955


''The New York Times'', 1966

''Manchester Guardian'', 19 November 1999
Obituary
BBC World, 19 November 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowles, Paul 1910 births 1999 deaths 20th-century classical composers American agnostics American male classical composers American classical composers American ethnomusicologists American expatriates in Morocco 20th-century American memoirists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Beat Generation writers Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Bisexual writers California State University faculty Existentialists Members of the Communist Party USA Musicians from Queens, New York American opera composers Male opera composers People from Jamaica, Queens People from Tangier School of Visual Arts faculty University of Virginia alumni Writers from Queens, New York American male novelists American male short story writers American short story writers American expatriates in France American translators French–English translators 20th-century translators 20th-century American composers Novelists from New York (state) American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male musicians Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters