What do Francis Bacon, William Burroughs, John Cage, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Patricia Highsmith, Peter Owen, James Purdy, Ned Rorem, Maria St. Just, Sir Stephen Spender and Gore Vidal have in common? Paul Bowles, apparently. Whether in Berlin in the ‘30s, New York in the ‘40s or the years since in Tangiers, Bowles has known a veritable who’s who of writers, painters, journalists and publishers. Offering a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences, this work presents a composite portrait of this complex yet reticent figure. Whether through Cage’s word puzzle, or Bacon’s and Burroughs’ conversational remarks about Jane Bowles’ electro-shock treatments, a fuller portrait of Paul Bowles emerges while the contributors offer glimpses of themselves. In describing Bowles, Patricia Highsmith relates: “One has the feeling that Paul Bowles sees life as it is: meaningless in the long run, sees humans as indifferent to suffering and death as is mother nature herself. Paul looks at it steadily and tells it simply.” An intriguing addition to the writings of and about Bowles, this book provides an interestingly oblique overview of this legendary figure. JAT

Publisher: Peter Owen
Paperback: 160 pages
Illustrated

“To live alone is to live free. I no longer want to care about anything. Over the course of months I will place my soul apart. I have known so many days when I lived like a stray dog. Those days are far off, behind vast solitudes, behind crushing mountains, beyond the arid high plateau and the cultivated Tell, anguished nights in town where worries tumbled behind my eyes, where my heart ached with pity and impotence. Now I have won back my pride, and friendly faces are kinder to me. I will suffer no more from anyone.” In the Shadow of Islam recounts Eberhardt's journey to and stay at the remote desert zawiya, or religious establishment, of Kenadsa. Written shortly before her death, it is in some senses a travel journal; but it is most distinctive for what is omitted. Writing of her journey, Eberhardt never reveals her destination until her actual arrival. While in Kenadsa for Islamic training, she is required by tradition to remain silent about her instruction. Instead, she writes of the surrounding landscape and the activities around Kenadsa not forbidden to tell. These observations display a heightened sensitivity to their details and their significance in a compelling narrative. JAT

Publisher: Peter Owen
Hardback: 120 pages
Illustrated

“There are so many miserable people, hopelessly besmirched by their daily grind, who spend life’s brief hours in useless, absurd recriminations against everyone and everything. They are blind to the ineffable beauty of things, to the sad splendor of suffering humanity. Happy is he for whom nothing proceeds bestially and cruelly by chance, to whom all earth’s treasures are familiar, for whom all does not end foolishly in the darkness of the grave!” The vignettes and stories which make up Prisoner of Dunes span the years of Eberhardt’s life in North Africa and her period of exile in Marseilles. Most of these selections were either written in El Oued, the “town of a thousand domes,” or Marseilles, where she recalled El Oued. El Oued was the center of Eberhardt’s Saharan adventure and was the one place she dreamed of one day settling. Expressing the tensions that drove her and the strands of magical beauty she sought, Prisoner of Dunes evocatively captures this life. JAT

Publisher: Peter Owen
Paperback: 127 pages

Celebrates male sexuality in a series of bawdy sketches. “The penis occupies the central place in this graphic universe with its widely varying moods, its unexpected fantasy, its humor, its sadness and its unspoken commentary on Cocteau’s life and work.” Or, as a magazine reviewer put it more bluntly: “Putting the cock in Cocteau is this new book of erotic drawings from the French Renaissance man. Long before Tom of Finland, Jean Cocteau was doodling young studs dressed as chefs, sailors and ruffians with dicks like rolling pins and some pretty bad attitudes.” GR

Publisher: Peter Owen
Hardback: 110 pages
Illustrated