Chuck Darwin on Nostr: Paul Bowles and Ira Cohen first met in the 1960s while both were living in Tangier, ...
Paul Bowles and Ira Cohen first met in the 1960s while both were living in Tangier, Morocco, along with William S. Burroughs and Gysin.
Bowles had come to Tangier earlier, in 1947, on the advice of Gertrude Stein
- and he would remain there for the next fifty-two years.
Cohen arrived in 1961, though he stayed for only a few years.
Upon arriving, he fell in with Bowles' group of ex-patriate avant-garde writers,
and published his magazine, Gnaoua, before returning to New York.
The two became close friends and maintained an extensive correspondence across continents for the rest of their lives
- spanning Cohen's travels in Kathmandu, San Francisco, Amsterdam, and elsewhere.
The letters are replete with details on each other's publications, comments on their friends* lives and works
(including Burroughs, Charles Henri Ford, Ahmed Yacoubi, Jack Smith. among others),
and ideas for forthcoming projects
- along with everyday details of their lives.
Throughout the collection, they reveal not only the writers' literary relationship,
but also illuminate the intimacy of their friendship.
In a wistful 1970 letter from Cohen, he fondly remembers his time in Morocco:
"Wondering how you are, how Morocco would be to visit once again, & your last cryptic words as you descended into the subway at East Bway telling me to be ready to move at a moments notice.
I would love to get a letter from you with some news of Morocco & the whereabouts of old friends like Brion & Bill …"
https://c.im/@didgebaba/113829100225176566
Bowles had come to Tangier earlier, in 1947, on the advice of Gertrude Stein
- and he would remain there for the next fifty-two years.
Cohen arrived in 1961, though he stayed for only a few years.
Upon arriving, he fell in with Bowles' group of ex-patriate avant-garde writers,
and published his magazine, Gnaoua, before returning to New York.
The two became close friends and maintained an extensive correspondence across continents for the rest of their lives
- spanning Cohen's travels in Kathmandu, San Francisco, Amsterdam, and elsewhere.
The letters are replete with details on each other's publications, comments on their friends* lives and works
(including Burroughs, Charles Henri Ford, Ahmed Yacoubi, Jack Smith. among others),
and ideas for forthcoming projects
- along with everyday details of their lives.
Throughout the collection, they reveal not only the writers' literary relationship,
but also illuminate the intimacy of their friendship.
In a wistful 1970 letter from Cohen, he fondly remembers his time in Morocco:
"Wondering how you are, how Morocco would be to visit once again, & your last cryptic words as you descended into the subway at East Bway telling me to be ready to move at a moments notice.
I would love to get a letter from you with some news of Morocco & the whereabouts of old friends like Brion & Bill …"
https://c.im/@didgebaba/113829100225176566