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Copyright
Notice
This review ©The
International Paul Bowles Society, 2003
Book
Review: 'Paul Bowles on Music'
edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann
Includes the last interview with Paul Bowles
University of California Press, September 2003
ISBN: 0-520-23655-6 Hardcover 292 pages First Edition
Timothy
Mangan opens the book with an eleven page introduction which covers
Paul Bowles's musical background before he became the author of the
best-known novel 'The Sheltering Sky' in 1949. He explores the
relationship
that Paul had with Aaron Copland, who was writing articles for a small
publication called 'Modern Music'.
In 1932 Paul also began to write for 'Modern Music', and there are 22
reprints of his contributions to the magazine recorded here in this
book.
(For aficionados they are the 'C' category of Jeffrey Miller's book 'A
Descriptive Bibliography' which is the accepted standard work for
cataloging Paul Bowles's books and music). They are (all 'C'):
86, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109,
110, 111, 134, 135, 279, 350 and 549.
There is also a reprint of one article from Charles Henri Ford's 'View'
magazine called 'The Jazz Ear' (C194) and two reprints from the
magazine 'Mademoiselle' (C193 and C561).
The majority
of the reprint content in this book is from Paul's theatre reviews
during
the four years from 1942 when he worked as a theatre critic for the New
York Herald Tribune; a post that he took on the recommendation of
Virgil Thomson. and which he held until 1946. Bowles last review for
the newspaper was in January 1946 (not in this volume).
Bowles reviewed more than 400 theatre productions for the New York
Herald Tribune during that time,
of which 141 are reprinted in this volume. They are:
112, 117, 119, 121, 123, 124, 130, 131, 132, 137, 140, 141, 144, 148,
152, 153, 156, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165, 166, 168, 171, 174, 182, 185,
186, 188, 192, 210, 215, 217, 218, 220, 223, 228, 231, 232, 240, 248,
250, 252, 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 261, 265, 270, 274, 275, 281, 282,
285, 286, 287, 289, 293, 295, 298, 304, 305, 306, 308, 309, 310, 312,
314, 315, 318, 319, 323, 324, 327, 331, 332, 334, 336, 338, 341, 342,
345, 347, 349, 357, 358, 360, 363, 364, 365, 370, 372, 375, 382, 387
(incorrect date in volume), 388, 391, 396, 397, 399, 401, 402, 403,
407, 411, 413, 414, 416, 418, 429, 433, 435, 442, 446, 448, 449, 467,
468, 473, 486, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 494, 503, 514, 515, 519, 521,
526, 538, 539, 543, 547, 552 and 557.
There is also a detailed account of the last interview
with Paul Bowles which took place in Tangier on 6th June 1999.
We hope that we will see further publications of review reprints like
these.
We are very
happy to have access at last to Paul's thoughts
on music during the 1940's
and eagerly anticipate that more volumes like this
will be forthcoming in the future.
