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paul bowles by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - December 20, 2000 |
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| Although not strictly a 'Beat Generation' icon, the enigmatic writer and composer Paul Frederic Bowles (1910-1999) absorbed many of the same influences, and was at the vanguard of the movement. Bowles is best known for his oblique novel 'The Sheltering Sky' (written in 1947 and published to immediate critical acclaim and best-seller status in 1949) is a complex existentialist allegory interpreted by many as representative of his own troubled life as a Literary Outsider. The complex mythology and unusual exotic locales became integral themes throughout his subsequent work. The novel was filmed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1990, to a mixed critical reception. Born December 30, 1910, Bowles spent his childhood in New York under a father reported to be brutally patriarchal. Bowles wrote his first opera at nine, and studied briefly at the University of Virginia before fleeing to Paris to study with poet Gertrude Stein. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Bowles composed many operas, chamber works and Broadway musical pieces (the latter for friends Orson Welles, William Saroyan and Tennessee Williams). Stein suggested that Bowles concentrate on composing music rather than surrealist poetry, so Bowles studied closely with Aaron Copland, meeting Ezra Pound, Jean Cocteau, Alice B. Tolkas and other European intellectuals, and becoming involved with early Marxism. At Stein's suggestion, Copland and Bowles visited Tangier in 1931. A liberal cosmpolitan sea-port, Tangier formed the basis for William S. Burrough's mythical 'Interzone', and was to be Bowles' home in self-exile for over six decades. Together with Burroughs, Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, Tennessee Williams and Jack Kerouac, Bowles gained a reputation for shamanic experimentation with psychedelics. The combination of drugs and Tangier's fragmented atmosphere influenced his explorations of inner space, and the short stories and novels that Bowles began to write in the late 1940s. The trigger for Bowles' transition from music composing to writing was his wife Jane Bowles, an accomplished author. Married in 1938, their relationship was punctuated by Jane's lesbian affairs and his exploration of bi-sexuality, but they had a strong intellectual bond which lasted until her death in 1973. The pressures of the unconventional relationship combined with an agnostic nihilistic outlook to form dark visions. In later years, Bowles concentrated on photographing Morocco and continuing to explore personal interests in Yoga, Transcendental Meditation and Theosophy. Although isolated and increasingly frail, Bowles welcomed visitors, and collaborated on several exhibitions and spoken word albums. He narrated the film 'Halfmoon' (1996), based on three of his short stories, and was the subject of several critical biographies and documentaries throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. His death from a heart attack on November 18, 1999 was unexpected, and robbed the world of a creative force. Bowles remained truly individual in the face of post-World War II modernisation, cultivating an alluring and oblique mystique. Bowles bridged Gertrude Stein's 'Lost Generation' with Jack Kerouac's 'Beat Generation'. The world is a more trivial place with his absence. |
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Let It Come Down: The Life Of Paul Bowles Modern Library Top 100 Paul Frederic Bowles Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles Morocco First Run Features: Half Moon The Sheltering Sky: A Review Distant Episode Paul Bowles: Baptism Of Solitude Beat Places: Tangier The Sheltering Sky: Research Paul Bowles Morocco: Sounds Of The Maghreb Sleeping With Camels Manuscript Tomes: A Picnic Cantata Paul Bowles And The Beat Generation Black Sparrow Press America's Existentialist Author Dies Paul Bowles: Book Talk Forum Frigate Lit Kicks: Paul Bowles The Sheltering Sky A Paul Bowles Site Paul Bowles: An Interview With Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno Paul Bowles: In The Red Room The Master Musicians Of Jajouka Paul Bowles: An Interview Cadmus Editions Bill's Paul Bowles Page University of Delaware: Paul Bowles Archives |
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