University of Texas Press plans to publish a complete library of the late iconic author and chronicler of the Southwest, Charles Bowden. This edition of Southern 蜜柚直播 Authors focuses on a recently released tribute to Bowden and one of his previously unpublished works.
鈥淎merica鈥檚 Most Alarming Writer: Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden鈥 Edited by Bill Broyles and Bruce Dinges.
University of Texas Press. $29.95 print and Kindle.
Charles Bowden inspired his friends and colleagues in many ways. To poet and novelist Leslie Marmon Silko, Bowden was 鈥淐B,鈥 a man who 鈥渆mbraced Santa Muerta鈥 and 鈥渓ived in defiance of borders;鈥 to 蜜柚直播 environmental reporter Tony Davis he was the 鈥淛imi Hendrix of journalists鈥; former Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll called Bowden 鈥渁 thorn in the side of injustice,鈥 and the late author Jim Harrison, whose Patagonia home Bowden used as a refuge, believed he was 鈥淎merica鈥檚 most alarming writer.鈥 Bowden鈥檚 impact, both on Southwest letters and on the national conversation about the borderlands, is clearly evident in this collection of 50 essays, written by key figures in his life and compiled by the book鈥檚 editors as a literary homage to a writer with a uniquely America vision.
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Bowden gained national fame for his hard-hitting journalism about the Southwest, a landscape that he loved as much as he despised the forces that threaten to undermine it. With a distinctive voice and unblinking honesty, Bowden wrote with passion and urgency about the natural world, urban sprawl, greed, brutality, and politics.
鈥淚 鈥 believe with every bit of my being,鈥 he said in Credo, a talk he presented at the Pima County Public Library, 鈥渢hat the future is going to be a collision between limited resources and unlimited human appetites.鈥
A vivid stylist with a reputation for disdaining convention and the status quo, Bowden began his award-winning journalism career as a reporter for the 蜜柚直播 Citizen, where his coverage of sexual abuse and border crossing made him a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He went on to launch 蜜柚直播鈥檚 short-lived but highly regarded City Magazine and was a frequent contributor to national publications such as Esquire, GQ, National Geographic, Harper鈥檚 and Mother Jones, assignments he accepted because they paid the bills and allowed him to concentrate on writing books.
When not off on assignment, Bowden was at home in 蜜柚直播. He wrote obsessively, rising at 3 a.m. to head to his 鈥渨riting shack鈥 with a cup of coffee, emerging late in the afternoon to drink red wine and hold court with visitors. When he passed away in 2014, Bowden had published more than two dozen books, including 鈥淜illing the Hidden Waters,鈥 鈥淔rog Mountain Blues鈥 and 鈥淒own by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family.鈥 His literary legacy continues to inform the way we think about the desert鈥檚 fragile environment and borderland violence.
These 50 essays by Bowden鈥檚 friends, colleagues, and fellow desert rats make for thought-provoking and lively reading, as well as providing insights into the career of a consequential American writer. But 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Most Alarming Writer鈥 is not simply a recounting of shared incidents in an eventful life, nor is it just an assessment of a remarkable body of work. Importantly, it is a revealing document about a fiercely driven investigative journalist鈥檚 relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of a society too willing to look the other way.
The collection is the brainchild of editors Bill Broyles and Bruce Dinges, longtime friends of Bowden鈥檚 and themselves prominent figures on the Southwest literary scene. Broyles has authored several books including 鈥淎mong Unknown Tribes,鈥 鈥淒esert Duty鈥 and 鈥淪unshot鈥 and is a research associate at the University of 蜜柚直播鈥檚 Southwest Center.
Dinges, the retired director of publications and the editor of the 蜜柚直播 Historical Society鈥檚 Journal of 蜜柚直播 History, has authored numerous articles and edited several books on Southwest history. They were well-positioned to reach out to contributors for chapters to the book. 鈥淪ure, I鈥檒l do it for Chuck,鈥 was the response they heard most often.
The list of contributors reads like a 鈥渨ho鈥檚 who鈥 of notable authors and includes Luis Alberto Urrea, Richard Grant, William DuBuys and Philip Caputo. Jim Harrison whose 鈥渁larming writer鈥 characterization inspired the book鈥檚 title, also compared reading Bowden to riding in a Ferrari without brakes. 鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of oxygen,鈥 he observed, 鈥渂ut no safe way to stop.鈥
A number of familiar 蜜柚直播 names also grace the contributors list 鈥 from Gary Paul Nabhan and Katie Lee to Tom Sheridan and Francisco Cantu, to name just a few 鈥 and their essays will have special resonance for readers in the Old Pueblo. The book鈥檚 concluding essay is by Bowden himself, from a letter dated 2013鈥攁nd it seems fitting that he gets to have the last word.
When he passed away, Bowden left behind several unpublished manuscripts, including 鈥淭he Red Caddy: Into the Unknown with Edward Abbey鈥 (2018) and the recently released 鈥淒akotah: The Return of the Future,鈥 the fourth volume in the author鈥檚 鈥淯nnatural History of America鈥 sextet. Both of these titles have been published by the University of Texas Press, which will be bringing out more original works by Bowden as well as reprints of previous works.
鈥 Helene Woodhams
鈥淒akotah: The Return of the Future鈥 by Charles Bowden, with foreword by Terry Tempest Williams
University of Texas Press. $24.95.
鈥淚 was born to be erased,鈥 writes Charles Bowden in the first chapter of this posthumous memoir. 鈥淎nd accept the fact.鈥
鈥淒akotah,鈥 the fourth installment of Bowden鈥檚 鈥淯nnatural History of America鈥 series (following 鈥淏lood Orchid,鈥 鈥淏lues for Cannibals鈥 and 鈥淪ome of the Dead Are Still Breathing鈥), is a collage of personal memory and impressions, fragments of family history, surveys of prehistoric geological and human migratory movement, accounts of racist violence, vignettes of famous and infamous historic characters, and records of the struggles of and depredations by settlers in the American heartland. That鈥檚 not an unambitious 169 pages.
In her foreword, essayist Terry Tempest Williams suggests that 鈥淒akotah鈥 might be an unfinished manuscript. She says it鈥檚 written in 鈥渟horthand; a prairie haiku.鈥 But it鈥檚 a rich haiku. It鈥檚 the conversation she says she would have had with Bowden: where did he come from? Who were his people? What kind of child was he? How did he come to 鈥渦nderstand the world as, at once, a place of tender beauty and injustices?鈥 She points out that this chronicler of violence and sex writes here that he is torn by two worlds 鈥 鈥渢he living one moving in the day and night through the grass and forest, cruising the rivers, coursing the seas. 鈥 And, the world of noise talking money 鈥 and patriotism 鈥 and hundreds of other lies.鈥
Sparked by finally opening packets of love letters between his parents and fueled by a profound hunger to find 鈥減lace,鈥 investigative journalist Bowden went on a search to investigate himself. Writing that he 鈥渘ever belonged,鈥 Bowden instead describes a place where he would belong 鈥 an ideal place, a piece of ground: 鈥淚 will see it off to the side. I will know the feel of this place: the leaves stir softly on the trees, dry air smells like dust, birds dart and the trails are made by beasts living free. 鈥 I have never belonged to a place or movement or belief. But I still look. 鈥 I will see it.鈥
His 鈥渞oots鈥 search took him to his family鈥檚 home 鈥 the Dakotas, Iowa, and Minnesota. He interviews family there, but also residents of ghosts of communities 鈥 towns settled in the last centuries that couldn鈥檛 survive the brutal weather, the endless winds, the 鈥渄usters鈥 of the prairie. This book is about hope, disappointment, impermanence and erasure.
Bowden threads historic figures through the text. He follows Lewis and Clark as they encounter Sioux as they cross what is now North Dakota. He relates the erratic life story of Daniel Boone and corrects myths about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane (his dime-novel myth fared better for his early murder than hers, who resorted to Wild West shows and a ghost-written autobiography to stay in the public eye.) Bowden cites 20th century figures who needed to escape the heartland to make their ways in the world: Walt Disney, Peggy Lee, Laurence Welk, Frank L. Baum, who escaped the plains but immortalized it in 鈥淭he Wizard of Oz.鈥
Central, though, are Bowden鈥檚 parents. As revealed in the letters, the courtship of Bowden鈥檚 father 鈥 a 41-year-old, educated city man who liked good suits and new cars 鈥 and Bowden鈥檚 mother 鈥 a 21-year-old, uneducated, small-town shop girl 鈥 is in part predicated on the dream of land: property to which they could escape. And they achieved it with an Illinois farm they called Rest Haven. There, on pungent grasses and in black dirt, among the chickens and pigs, beer-drinking men, and a dog named Dick, young Bowden came alive. When his father abruptly sold the land and moved the family to Chicago, Bowden was shattered. He writes as if seeking to reconnect with land was a constant in his life.
Bowden presents the natural world as a dearest companion (鈥淣o meeting of my kind has ever mattered to me,鈥 he writes, 鈥渁s much as a tree on a hillside in the grey light of dawn as the leaves go from black to green with the soft brushstrokes of the light.鈥) There is no small measure of literary resonance in Bowden鈥檚 prose. While his expository style is clear Bowden journalistic, his descriptions of nature are lyrical and evocative. There鈥檚 a whiff of James Joyce in a child鈥檚 pre-verbal love for nature and the sensory impressions of a busy farm; a nod to Walt Whitman in a 鈥渟ong鈥 of the catalog of American things and people he feels part of.
Even though he denounces European invasion of America and describes the struggles of his family, you don鈥檛 see a sharp-edged Bowden in this book. Perhaps that鈥檚 due to the millennia-long view in which he sets his personal life. Perhaps it鈥檚 tempered by his child鈥檚 longing for nature. Perhaps it鈥檚 his acceptance that all life 鈥 grand or modest 鈥 was born to be erased. In any case, this is a meditation Bowden fans will not want to miss. To quote Terry Tempest Williams, it will make your 鈥渉eart hurt.鈥
鈥 Christine Wald-Hopkins
Helene Woodhams retired from Pima County Public Library, where she was literary arts librarian and coordinator of Southwest Books of the Year, the library鈥檚 annual literature review.
Christine Wald-Hopkins is a former educator and occasional essayist. Wald-Hopkins has long been a book critic for national, regional and local newspapers.
If you are a Southern 蜜柚直播 author and would like your book to be considered for this column, send a copy to: Sara Brown, 4850 S. Park Ave., 蜜柚直播, AZ 85714. Give the price and a contact name. Books must have been published within a year.
