Paul Bowles letters to John B. L. Goodwin

In these eighteen letters, written between 1957 and 1991, American novelist Paul Bowles (1910-1999) corresponded with his longtime friend American novelist, poet, and painter John B. L. Goodwin (1912-1994).

For over thirty years, Bowles revealed his thoughts to Goodwin on his professional literary endeavors and personal aspects of his life. His letters are addressed from many far-reaching locales, including Mombasa, India; the Canary Islands; Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Bangkok, Thailand; Lisbon, Spain; Northridge, California; New York City; and Tangier in Morocco.

Until Jane Bowles's death in 1973, Bowles often mentioned his wife, in his letters to Goodwin, noting, over time, the deterioration in her health, his relationship to her family, and quirks in her personality. In a letter dated May 13, 1958, Bowles admitted that at the request of Jane's father, he had written and signed letters in Jane’s name to Jane's mother. Bowles remarked of this practice, "I loathe the idea of perpetrating such a hoax." In another letter, Bowles wrote of Jane: "some day I shall have to accept the fact that she is an exceedingly social creature" (May 17, 1965). And later, in a poignant letter written ten days after his wife’s death, Bowles would lament, "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" (May 13, 1973).

Bowles also referred to many of his and Goodwin’s notable acquaintances, including Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Lillian Hellman, Francis Bacon, Howard Griffin, Gavin Lambert, and William Burroughs. Of Bernado Bertolucci's film adaptation of his book, The Sheltering Sky, Bowles expressed his disappointment; articulating in a letter dated June 12, 1991: "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."

Bowles also wrote of everyday life: leaking roofs, health issues, what he was reading (or about to read, as in the case with Burroughs’s The Naked Lunch), the Gulf War’s effect on mail, and the vagaries of travel. Particularly, Bowles acknowledged his current literary work, from teaching in the English Department at San Fernando Valley State College in Northridge, California, to traveling to Thailand to gather information for a book he was writing, to correcting the page proofs for the Gallimard edition of A Life Full of Holes. Bowles also wrote philosophically of his novels, saying: "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" (May 13, 1958).

Bowles and Goodwin shared a friendship which allowed Bowles to write in an unguarded and frank manner. These letters not only chronicle the travels, life, and literary work of Bowles, but occasionally reveal his thought processes and feelings, which are not often expressed in his letters.