Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles is one of those rare figures who refused to pick a lane. Composer, novelist, translator, photographer, music critic, he did all of it, and a 1941 Guggenheim Fellowship suggests the establishment took the music seriously before the books. But what fascinates me most is the leap: a New Yorker from Queens who settled in Tangier in 1947 and stayed 52 years. That kind of permanent self-exile says something about an artist who needed distance from his own culture to see it clearly. The Sheltering Sky still reads like a man writing from the edge of the known world, which, geographically and artistically, he was.

Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999) was an American composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Name (English)

Paul Bowles

Name (Japanese)

ポール・ボウルズ

Reading

ぽーる・ぼうるず

Born

December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Dog

Origin

Queens, New York, United States

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

writer / composer / translator / music critic / photographer

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Jamaica High School

University

University of Virginia

Awards & achievements

• 1941 Guggenheim Fellowship

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.paulbowles.org/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9C%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA

Tags

• New York
• writer
• composer
• translator

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.