Travels: Collected Writings, 1950-1993

“His work is art. At his best, Bowles has no peer.”

Travels is a thrilling anthology of the travel writings of Paul Bowles, author of the era-defining post-war novel The Sheltering Sky. The acclaimed essays in Travel—never before collected in a single volume—span more than sixty years and range from Bowles’s early days in Paris to his time spent in Ceylon, Thailand, Kenya, and his expatriate life in Morocco. Insightful, exciting, and evocative, featuring original photographs throughout, Travels is a stunning collection of rarely seen shorter works—a showcase of the literary artistry of one of the truly great American writers of the twentieth century.

What happens when one of the 20th century’s most enigmatic writers turns his unflinching gaze upon the world?

• A Sixty-Year Journey: Follow Bowles from his early days in 1930s Paris with Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, through the post-war decades, to his final reflections in the 1990s.
• The World of Tangier: Go beyond the myth with these dispatches from his famous expatriate life in Morocco, including intimate journals from Tangier and unforgettable essays on Fez.
• Baptism of Solitude: Journey into the heart of the Sahara Desert and across the remote landscapes of Ceylon, Thailand, and Kenya through Bowles’s sharp, unsentimental prose.
• A Post-Colonial Perspective: Witness the end of an era through Bowles’s keen, anti-colonial observations, complemented by a new introduction from fellow travel writer Paul Theroux.