OF JANE:“I AM SAD, BUT ONLY FORTHE FIRST STROKE
ANDTHEYEARS OF SUFFERING...”
13
BOWLES, PAUL.
Archive of Signed Correspondence to John B.L.
Goodwin.
13 Typed Letters Signed, 8vo, most one page, rectos only; 4 Autograph Letters
Signed; 1 Autograph Postcard Signed; few pieces of unsigned ephemeral matter, else Signed
“Paul” or “Paul B.”
Vp, 1957-91
[3,000/4,000]
John Goodwin was an American novelist, poet, painter and collector.This archive gives a compelling
glimpse into Bowles’s personal and professional life over the course of thirty-plus years and is a moving
testament to the long term, firm friendship between the two. Bowles’s peripatetic inclinations are well
known, and the letters bear addresses from such far-flung locales as Mombasa, the Canary Islands,
Ceylon [Sri Lanka], Bangkok, Fez, California (during a short-lived teaching stint he found unsatis-
factory), and his long time home base inTangier.
In one letter, Bowles discusses his loving but often difficult marriage with Jane Bowles, including her
deteriorating health and his relationship with her family, and admits to forging letters in Jane’s name to
her mother at her father’s repeated requests (“I loathe the idea of perpetrating such a hoax”). Also in
this letter is a rumination about his endeavors as a creative writer and the subconscious: “And novels,
of course, are also dreams, the stretch nylon
sort that can be extended and
extended in time without
breaking, (I think the
longer they stretch the
stronger they get) but
still dreams, where one
has the freedom one can
never have in actuality, and
for that reason infinitely
preferable to live in.”TLS: 13
May 1958.
About Jane’s death (ten days ear-
lier) in Spain he writes: “When I
arrived she was in a coma. I spent
the afternoon with her and went back
to the hotel. As I was getting ready to
to go out for dinner the telephone rang; it was the Mother Superior, to say that Jane had just died. It
was Friday night, and she had been unconscious since Monday night, when the stroke had come. I am
sad, but only for the first stroke and the years of suffering it brought her. If only the last one had come
several years ago when she wanted it so badly.”TLS, 13 May 1973.
Many notable personalities are mentioned in these letters, including Tennessee Williams, Malcolm
Forbes, Gore Vidal, Lillian Hellman, Francis Bacon, William Burroughs (“Have you read The
Naked Lunch? Ahmed brought me a copy Burroughs had given him in Paris.” ALS: 28 January
1960), and many others. A later note references the Bernardo Bertolucci film adaptation of his novel
The Sheltering Sky, wherein Bowles attempts to articulate his disappointment: “I’m not sure what
single fact I objected to most. Probably Malkovitch [sic]. But there were so many faults that it’s hard to
choose.”ALS: 6 June 1991.
It seems clear from these letters that Bowles had no professional rivalry with Goodwin that allowed his
famous reserve to be diminished somewhat and conveys a not often seen vulnerability.An evocative col-
lection of Bowles’s unguarded letters to a dear friend, that includes frank accounts of his experiences
with drugs (“Finally discovered kif in Bangkok...of Madras strength”), his wife Jane, the pains and
pleasures of travel, later health complaints, and his all-consuming work as a creative writer. An excel-
lent sampling of letters by a significant, and somewhat furtive, post-war American novelist, poet and
cultural avatar.
