In Touch: The Letters of Paul Bowles by Paul Bowles

Author:Paul Bowles [Bowles, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2014-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

TO JAMES MICHIE,

WILLIAM HEINEMANN, LONDON

September 18, 1958

New York City

Your letter was read over the ‘phone to me this morning by Miss Strauss, and I hasten to reply.

The matter of the photograph is not immediately soluble, inasmuch as all my papers and documents are in Tangier, whence I was chased, back in February, by the local authorities, who appeared to be intent upon clapping both me and Mrs. Bowles into a concentration camp. Accordingly, it has since seemed the better part of valor to remain outside of Morocco. I have specific plans, however, for recovering whatever of my property is transportable, without returning there. But this isn’t of much interest as far as getting hold of a photograph is concerned. It may be that William Morris has some photos somewhere, or Random House. I’ll get on the wire and try to discover one somewhere in this city.

The two hundred words of biography. I was born in New York City and brought up here during the age of Prohibition. When I had completed secondary school at sixteen, I enrolled in an art school. At the end of the first term painting seemed silly, so I went to the University of Virginia because Poe had gone there. When the first year was half finished, I went off to Paris, where I’d already published in various so-called avant-garde magazines, including transition and This Quarter. Paris also palled, so I started walking around Western Europe. Eventually I returned to the United States and the University, only to escape again, this time to Berlin (where I first met Isherwood and Spender). Then Gertrude Stein suggested I go to Morocco, so I did, immediately deciding to remain in North Africa. I wandered about Morocco, Algeria, the Sahara and Tunisia for four years, then went to the West Indies. After that, South America and Central America. Then Mexico for four and a half years. In between I came back here to write scores for Broadway shows, of which I have done about two dozen, including among others the first William Saroyan play and the first Tennessee Williams play. When the war finished I went back to Morocco where I bought a small house, in order to feel settled. Then I went down to the Sahara and wrote The Sheltering Sky. After that I went to India, where I began Let It Come Down, then to Ceylon, where I saw a little island I liked, off the south coast. It wasn’t for sale. I went back to Morocco, returning the next year to Ceylon, where the island was still not on the market. However, I laid the groundwork for an eventual purchase, and heard in Madrid the following autumn that I could at last buy it, which I did that very day. Again I went out to Ceylon, lived in it and wrote The Spider’s House. Then I went to Japan. Back to Morocco eventually, where I put together the book called Yallah (no edition in England: only a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.