
America's Most Alarming Writer
Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden
University of Texas Press
Will be published approx. on 15. November 2019
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-4773-1990-1 (ISBN)
Description
The author of more than twenty books and a revered contributor to numerous national publications, Charles Bowden (1945-2014) used his keen storyteller's eye to reveal both the dark underbelly and the glorious determination of humanity, particularly in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. In America's Most Alarming Writer, key figures in his life-including his editors, collaborators, and other writers-deliver a literary wake for the man who inspired them throughout his forty-year career.
Part revelation, part critical assessment, the fifty essays in this collection span the decades from Bowden's rise as an investigative journalist through his years as a singular voice of unflinching honesty about natural history, climate change, globalization, drugs, and violence. As the Chicago Tribune noted, "Bowden wrote with the intensity of Joan Didion, the voracious hunger of Henry Miller, the feral intelligence and irony of Hunter Thompson, and the wit and outrage of Edward Abbey." An evocative complement to The Charles Bowden Reader, the essays and photographs in this homage brilliantly capture the spirit of a great writer with a quintessentially American vision. Bowden is the best writer you've (n)ever read.
Part revelation, part critical assessment, the fifty essays in this collection span the decades from Bowden's rise as an investigative journalist through his years as a singular voice of unflinching honesty about natural history, climate change, globalization, drugs, and violence. As the Chicago Tribune noted, "Bowden wrote with the intensity of Joan Didion, the voracious hunger of Henry Miller, the feral intelligence and irony of Hunter Thompson, and the wit and outrage of Edward Abbey." An evocative complement to The Charles Bowden Reader, the essays and photographs in this homage brilliantly capture the spirit of a great writer with a quintessentially American vision. Bowden is the best writer you've (n)ever read.
Reviews / Votes
[Charles Bowden's] life and work are celebrated in this essential collection of 50 reflections and appraisals contributed by writers, collaborators and fellow desert rats whose lives were changed when they intersected with his...Dip in anywhere, at your leisure; you cannot fail but to come away inspired. (Pima County Public Library, "Southwest Books of the Year") Bowden's impact, both on Southwest letters and on the national conversation about the borderlands, is clearly evident in this collection of 50 essays...[America's Most Alarming Writer] is not simply a recounting of shared incidents in an eventful life, nor is it just an assessment of a remarkable body of work. Importantly, it is a revealing document about a fiercely driven investigative journalist's relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of a society too willing to look the other way. (Arizona Daily Star) In America's Most Alarming Writer, the best essays are those that don't idolize or indulge our compulsion to honor the dead. (High Country News)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Illustrations
44 b&w photos
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-1990-1 (9781477319901)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Bill Broyles | Bruce J. Dinges
America's Most Alarming Writer
Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden
E-Book
11/2019
1st Edition
University of Texas Press
€36.99
Available for download
Persons
Bill Broyles, a research associate at the University of Arizona's Southwest Center, is coauthor of Among Unknown Tribes, Desert Duty, and Sunshot. Bruce J. Dinges is retired director of publications and editor of the Arizona Historical Society's Journal of Arizona History. He is the author of numerous articles and editor of several books on southwestern and Civil War history.
Content
Introduction, Bill Broyles and Bruce J. Dinges
Beginnings
Over the Rainbow, Peg Bowden
On Campus, David F. Allmendinger
Taking History Off Campus, Charles Bowden letter
Street Signs with Lew Kreinberg and Charles Bowden, Barbara Houlberg
Chuck Becomes a Reporter, Kathleen Dannreuther
Let the Tortoises Roll, Norma Coile
The Jimi Hendrix of Journalism, Tony Davis
Bowden's Southwest
Stand My Watch, Katie Lee
Give Light to the Air, Molly McKasson
How's My Government?, Ray Carroll
Discovering Chuck, Winifred J. Bundy
Mr. Southwest, Joseph C. Wilder
Chuck's Desert Garden, Kasey Anderson
Planting Trees, Kim Sanders
A Man for All Seasons, Phil Jordan
Chuck Bowden in the Twilight Zone, Cal Lash
The Most Fearless Writer in America, Ken Sanders
Publishing Chuck
Writing in the Moment, Melissa Harris
The Big Kick: Editing Chuck, Rebecca Saletan
Of Rock 'n' Roll and Corn Laws: A Few Words on Charles Bowden, Gregory McNamee
Sketches of Chuck, Tim Schaffner
Assembling a Bowden Bibliography, Walt Bartholomew
Lessons from Anger and Love, Clara Jeffery
Collaborators
Interviewing a Tire, Jack Dykinga
Dickens, Melville, and Bowden, Michael P. Berman
Over the Line, Alice Leora Briggs
Heart's Desire, Molly Molloy
White, Red, and Black, JuliAn Cardona
Traveling and Not Traveling with Chuck, Eugene Richards
Trailing Bowden
Bowden's Need to Walk, Judy Nolte Temple
Bowden Nails the Door Shut behind Us, Todd Schack
Muir, Abbey, Bowden, Mike Evans
A Desert Evening with Chuck, Michael Lundgren
The Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop, Tom Sheridan
Writers on Bowden
America's Most Alarming Writer, Jim Harrison
He Heard the Music, Scott Carrier
Charles Bowden and La Santa Muerte, Leslie Marmon Silko
The License Plate Said "Hayduke": Chuck Bowden and the Red Cadillac--A Memory, Luis Alberto Urrea
Scratchboard Opposites, Gary Paul Nabhan
Drawn to the Flames: Bowden and Agee, Expanding the Boundaries of American Nonfiction, William deBuys
Wild Gods of Mexico, Don Henry Ford Jr.
Crossing the Line, James Galvin
The Fountain Theatre, Francisco CantU
Pure Bowden, William Langewiesche
Street Reporter on La LInea, Philip Caputo
No One Gets Out Alive, Richard Grant
Coda
Here Stands a Reporter, Tom Zoellner
Packing Chuck's Legacy, Mary Martha Miles
Why We Carry On, Alan Weisman
I Have Had to Make Up My Life As I Went Along, Charles Bowden
Acknowledgments
Copyright and Credits
Index
Beginnings
Over the Rainbow, Peg Bowden
On Campus, David F. Allmendinger
Taking History Off Campus, Charles Bowden letter
Street Signs with Lew Kreinberg and Charles Bowden, Barbara Houlberg
Chuck Becomes a Reporter, Kathleen Dannreuther
Let the Tortoises Roll, Norma Coile
The Jimi Hendrix of Journalism, Tony Davis
Bowden's Southwest
Stand My Watch, Katie Lee
Give Light to the Air, Molly McKasson
How's My Government?, Ray Carroll
Discovering Chuck, Winifred J. Bundy
Mr. Southwest, Joseph C. Wilder
Chuck's Desert Garden, Kasey Anderson
Planting Trees, Kim Sanders
A Man for All Seasons, Phil Jordan
Chuck Bowden in the Twilight Zone, Cal Lash
The Most Fearless Writer in America, Ken Sanders
Publishing Chuck
Writing in the Moment, Melissa Harris
The Big Kick: Editing Chuck, Rebecca Saletan
Of Rock 'n' Roll and Corn Laws: A Few Words on Charles Bowden, Gregory McNamee
Sketches of Chuck, Tim Schaffner
Assembling a Bowden Bibliography, Walt Bartholomew
Lessons from Anger and Love, Clara Jeffery
Collaborators
Interviewing a Tire, Jack Dykinga
Dickens, Melville, and Bowden, Michael P. Berman
Over the Line, Alice Leora Briggs
Heart's Desire, Molly Molloy
White, Red, and Black, JuliAn Cardona
Traveling and Not Traveling with Chuck, Eugene Richards
Trailing Bowden
Bowden's Need to Walk, Judy Nolte Temple
Bowden Nails the Door Shut behind Us, Todd Schack
Muir, Abbey, Bowden, Mike Evans
A Desert Evening with Chuck, Michael Lundgren
The Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop, Tom Sheridan
Writers on Bowden
America's Most Alarming Writer, Jim Harrison
He Heard the Music, Scott Carrier
Charles Bowden and La Santa Muerte, Leslie Marmon Silko
The License Plate Said "Hayduke": Chuck Bowden and the Red Cadillac--A Memory, Luis Alberto Urrea
Scratchboard Opposites, Gary Paul Nabhan
Drawn to the Flames: Bowden and Agee, Expanding the Boundaries of American Nonfiction, William deBuys
Wild Gods of Mexico, Don Henry Ford Jr.
Crossing the Line, James Galvin
The Fountain Theatre, Francisco CantU
Pure Bowden, William Langewiesche
Street Reporter on La LInea, Philip Caputo
No One Gets Out Alive, Richard Grant
Coda
Here Stands a Reporter, Tom Zoellner
Packing Chuck's Legacy, Mary Martha Miles
Why We Carry On, Alan Weisman
I Have Had to Make Up My Life As I Went Along, Charles Bowden
Acknowledgments
Copyright and Credits
Index