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Paul Bowles Collection, Accession #10501, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
These items were purchased by the Library from Barry Scott, a bookseller in New York.
All of these letters pertain to Bowles' travels through Panama, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, Portugal, and several other countries. Bowles does describe the settings of his foreign sojourns, but his letters are primarily concerned with business and personal matters with Mrabet, a Moroccan writer living in Tangier.
In particular, these letters contain many references to Bowles' and Mrabet's early collaborations in fiction, Love With Few [Some] Hairs and The Lemon. The creative process of these collaborations is explicated: Bowles tapes Mrabet's voice and translates the oral narrator's stories from the Moghrebi into English. Bowles writes a great deal about finding a publisher for Mrabet's first(?) book and its proofing, about the publication of The Lemon, and about the quirks of tape recorders. Other subjects discussed are the problems involved in getting Mrabet to America and Bowles' ill health.
In addition, one letter refers to an incident regarding Tennessee Williams in a Japanese restaurant, and another mentions a meeting between Bowles and American film director Elia Kazan.
This material is arranged chronologically.