Paul Bowles is one of this century's most enigmatic and intriguing
writers. Best known for his novel The Sheltering Sky, he has for over
forty-five years worked in a variety of genres, writing novels, stories,
travel accounts, essays, poetry, journals, and autobiography, each
distinctively shaped by his arresting vision and style. Since 1947 he
has lived as an American expatriate in Tangier, Morocco, and his
groundbreaking work has formed an important departure point for an
international array of writers - most notably the Beats, whose
literature and lifestyle he influenced greatly. Long heralded as a
writer's writer and once considered primarily a literary cult figure,
Bowles has in recent years been recognized as an original - an enduring
visionary whose stark, often violent tales and dispassionate objectivity
prefigured and shaped much of our current literary landscape. This
striking and comprehensive collection documents the range of his
influence and highlights his remarkable virtuosity, what Joyce Carol
Oates calls "the rich and unexpectedly variegated achievement of a major
American writer." First published in 1949 and included here in its
entirety, The Sheltering Sky established Bowles as one of the most
singular and promising of an extraordinary post-war generation of
writers. His first collection of stories, The Delicate Prey, published
in 1950, solidified that reputation. Too Far from Home: The Selected
Writing of Paul Bowles is a testament to how forcefully and brilliantly
he delivered on that early promise. Taking its title from a new novella
published here for the first time, this volume also brings together a
dozen of Bowles's best stories; excerpts from his three othernovels, Let
It Come Down, The Spider's House, and Up Above the World; excerpts from
Points in Time, Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue, Days,
and Without Stopping; as well as a group of poems, a selection of
previously unpublished letters, and an interview conducted by
