Call Number:

MSS 0861

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

0.3 linear foot (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0861, Paul Bowles correspondence with Tom Christie, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1981-1985 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999 and Christie, Tom

Form:

correspondence

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."

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

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.

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.

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.