America's most alarming writer : essays on the life and work of Charles Bowden / edited by Bill Broyles and Bruce J. Dinges.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Broyles, Bill, 1944 July 9- editor.

Dinges, Bruce J., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bowden, Charles, 1945-2014.

Bowden, Charles.

Authors, American--20th century.

Authors, American.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2019.

Summary:

The author of more than twenty books and a revered contributor to numerous national publications, Charles Bowden (1945–2014) used his keen storyteller’s eye to reveal both the dark underbelly and the glorious determination of humanity, particularly in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. In America’s Most Alarming Writer, key figures in his life—including his editors, collaborators, and other writers—deliver a literary wake for the man who inspired them throughout his forty-year career. Part revelation, part critical assessment, the fifty essays in this collection span the decades from Bowden’s rise as an investigative journalist through his years as a singular voice of unflinching honesty about natural history, climate change, globalization, drugs, and violence. As the Chicago Tribune noted, “Bowden wrote with the intensity of Joan Didion, the voracious hunger of Henry Miller, the feral intelligence and irony of Hunter Thompson, and the wit and outrage of Edward Abbey.” An evocative complement to The Charles Bowden Reader, the essays and photographs in this homage brilliantly capture the spirit of a great writer with a quintessentially American vision. Bowden is the best writer you’ve (n)ever read.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

BEGINNINGS

Over the Rainbow

On Campus

Taking History Off Campus

Street Signs with Lew Kreinberg and Charles Bowden

Chuck Becomes a Reporter

Let the Tortoises Roll

The Jimi Hendrix of Journalism

BOWDEN’S SOUTHWEST

Stand My Watch

Give Light to the Air

How’s My Government?

Discovering Chuck

Mr. Southwest

Chuck’s Desert Garden

Planting Trees

A Man for All Seasons

Chuck Bowden in the Twilight Zone

The Most Fearless Writer in America

PUBLISHING CHUCK

Writing in the Moment

The Big Kick: Editing Chuck

Of Rock ’n’ Roll and Corn Laws: A Few Words on Charles Bowden

Sketches of Chuck

Assembling a Bowden Bibliography

Lessons from Anger and Love

COLLABORATORS

Interviewing a Tire

Dickens, Melville, and Bowden

Over the Line

Heart’s Desire

White, Red, and Black

Traveling and Not Traveling with Chuck

TRAILING BOWDEN

Bowden’s Need to Walk

Bowden Nails the Door Shut behind Us

Muir, Abbey, Bowden

A Desert Evening with Chuck

The Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop

WRITERS ON BOWDEN

America’s Most Alarming Writer

He Heard the Music

Charles Bowden and La Santa Muerte

The License Plate Said “Hayduke”: Chuck Bowden and the Red Cadillac—A Memory

Scratchboard Opposites

Drawn to the Flames: Bowden and Agee, Expanding the Boundaries of American Nonfiction

Wild Gods of Mexico

Crossing the Line

The Fountain Theatre

Pure Bowden

Street Reporter on La Línea

No One Gets Out Al

CODA

Here Stands a Reporter

Packing Chuck’s Legacy

Mary Martha Miles

I Have Had to Make Up My Life As I Went Along

Acknowledgments

Copyright and Credits

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4773-1992-1

1-4773-1991-3

OCLC:

1269268290