Paul Bowles correspondence with Tom Christie

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0861

Staff Only

Content Description

This collection consists of forty-four letters, most of which are correspondence between American expatriate author and composer Paul Bowles and Tom Christie, an American writer and admirer of Bowles. The letters were written between April 1981 and March 1985, and in them, Bowles and Christie discuss Christie’s efforts to adapt Bowles’s writings, especially his short story "The Hours After Noon," into screenplays. Bowles also mentions other proposals to adapt his work into film. In several letters, Christie explains various film and television topics to Bowles. In later letters, the discussion broadens to include other topics related to writing and favorite writers.

Seventeen of the letters are from Bowles to Christie, all but one with their original mailing envelopes, and sent from Bowles’s home in Tangier, Morocco. Twenty of the letters are Christie’s carbon copies of his letters to Bowles. Most of Christie’s letters are sent from his home in Los Angeles, California. Five of the letters are correspondence between Tom Christie and Paul Bowles’s literary agent, Ned Leavitt. One additional photocopy of a letter from Lindsay Law, an executive producer at Playhouse, is included in the collection, informing Tom Christie that they have received his screenplay for Bowles’s "The Frozen Fields." Enclosed with Bowles’s letter from November 24, 1981, is a short letter from Marie Inness, a friend of Christie in London.

Dates

Creation: 1981-1985

Creator

Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999 (Person)
Christie, Tom (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Information

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec

Tom Christie

American writer and editor Tom Christie studied film at UCLA. He corresponded with Paul Bowles while he was in his 20s, between 1981 and 1985. During this time, Christie wrote for several different publications and worked on screenplays based on Bowles’s writings. Christie also worked as an assistant editor at the L.A. Reader for a brief period from 1984 through 1985 and as an editor at L.A. Weekly from 1995 through 2010.

Christie, Tom. "'No Films Are Ever Made': A Correspondence with Paul Bowles." Los Angeles Review of Books, August 20, 2018. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/no-films-are-ever-made-a-correspondence-with-paul-bowles/ (accessed April 16, 2021).Other biographical information derived from the collection.

Paul Bowles

The American composer and author Paul Frederic Bowles (1910-1999) produced numerous works of fiction, essays, travel writing, poems, autobiographical pieces, and other works.

Paul Bowles married the aspiring writer Jane Auer in 1938. Inspired by his wife's success and her dedication to writing, Bowles began his own career as an author, eventually surpassing his already successful reputation as a composer.

In 1947, Paul and Jane Bowles made Tangier, Morocco, their permanent home. During this time, Paul Bowles was the so-called “dean of American expatriate writers,” and many major figures in the world of letters and the arts frequently visited the Bowleses in Tangier. Jane Bowles died in 1973, and Paul Bowles continued to reside in Tangier until his death on November 18, 1999.

Miller, Jeffrey. Paul Bowles: A Descriptive Bibliography. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, 1986.Sawyer-Laucanno, Christopher. An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989.

Extent

0.3 linear foot (1 box)

Additional Description

Abstract

American writer and composer Paul Bowles corresponded with writer Tom Christie from 1981 through 1985. Letters in the collection discuss Christie’s ideas and progress on turning stories by Bowles into screenplays, especially “The Hours After Noon” and “The Frozen Fields.”

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchase, 2018

Condition Description

Contents in good condition.

Rights Statement

The text of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)