Synopses & Reviews
Tennessee Williams called Jane Bowles "the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters". John Ashbery said she was "one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language", consistently producing "the surprise that is the one essential ingredient of great art". Here, available again, is the only biography of this powerful writer.
"A compassionate account of Jane Bowles's life and an engrossing history of her milieu. Dillon seems to have tracked down just about everyone who knew Paul and Jane ... Ned Rorem, Edwin Denby, Tennessee Williams, Peggy Guggenheim, Dione Lewis, and scores of others contribute richly to the tapestry. Paul (Bowles) supported Dillon's effort, and his commentary is especially incisive". -- Laurie Stone, Village Voice
"A thorough biography of Jane Bowles, a book that never cheaply psychoanalyzes its subject but rather presents the woman and her work with sensitivity and admiration.... Grim as (Jane Bowles's) personal story may be, the luminous pages she left behind comprise some of the best American fiction we have. She is far more genuine and original than many other more celebrated writers. Among American women writers she must rank in the small, select company of Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Willa Cather, and Jean Stafford". -- Edmund White, Chicago Tribune
"(This book) has resurrected Jane Bowles and her gorgeously offbeat work for a long time to come. And that is a bright flower to see on what only yesterday was her unmarked grave in a Malaga cemetery". -- Seymour Krim, Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
Tennessee Williams called Jane Bowles "the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters." John Ashbery said she was "one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language," consistently producing "the surprise that is the one essential ingredient of great art." Here, available again, is the only biography of this powerful writer.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 433-447) and index.
About the Author
Millicent Dillon is a novelist and a biographer. She is the author of You Are Not I: A Portrait of Paul Bowles and other works including The Dance of the Mothers and After Egypt: Isadora Duncan and Mary Cassatt. She lives in San Francisco.