i had the pleasure of sharing a few emails with chuck; he was as blunt and serious in his daily communications as he was in his work. i'd say he was an influence on my writing, but only the need to be fearless and diligent; no one wrote quite like him. i wonder what he would have made of our current times. i don't think he'd be happy with us at all.
I lived in Tucson for nearly a quarter decade and worked as a freelance writer during the last few years of Bowden's active writing life. I encountered him a few times at events he was required to attend in order to market his books. There, he was quiet, polite, handsome, congenial and all-together self-possessed. He was an utterly revered symbol of the literary Wild West.
Thanks Erik. I was familiar with his name but unaware of his story and the raw power of his writing. It speaks to that feeling many of us have of living in a manufactured lie with our screens. The writing you highlighted reaches for a feeling of spiritual immolation. I need to read him.
Powerful! We need truth tellers who are not afraid. I think it was Churchill who said, Your destiny is in the desert. We have to face reality as it is.
“I am part of a species where many find it forbidden to cross religious lines. Or race lines. I want to cross bloodlines. I want to risk my life for another organism, I want to shed my culture and join another culture, to meld with the beasts.” Words needed today more than ever.
Thank you for introducing me to Charles Bowden. Off the order “Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing.”
Thanks for writing about Bowden. I was recently introduced to him in “A Race to the Bottom of Crazy: Dispatches from Arizona” by Richard Grant, which I found illuminating about the history of the region, the people who inhabit it, and Grant’s relationships with Bowden and others.
i had the pleasure of sharing a few emails with chuck; he was as blunt and serious in his daily communications as he was in his work. i'd say he was an influence on my writing, but only the need to be fearless and diligent; no one wrote quite like him. i wonder what he would have made of our current times. i don't think he'd be happy with us at all.
I lived in Tucson for nearly a quarter decade and worked as a freelance writer during the last few years of Bowden's active writing life. I encountered him a few times at events he was required to attend in order to market his books. There, he was quiet, polite, handsome, congenial and all-together self-possessed. He was an utterly revered symbol of the literary Wild West.
Thanks Erik. I was familiar with his name but unaware of his story and the raw power of his writing. It speaks to that feeling many of us have of living in a manufactured lie with our screens. The writing you highlighted reaches for a feeling of spiritual immolation. I need to read him.
I bought his book just now.
Powerful! We need truth tellers who are not afraid. I think it was Churchill who said, Your destiny is in the desert. We have to face reality as it is.
Charles Bowden is new to me, but I intend to seek out some of his writing. Thanks for sharing with us cheap subscribers.
Gorgeous grit
wowsers! thank you
Thank you for sharing this amazing writer, talent, and wild spirit.
“I am part of a species where many find it forbidden to cross religious lines. Or race lines. I want to cross bloodlines. I want to risk my life for another organism, I want to shed my culture and join another culture, to meld with the beasts.” Words needed today more than ever.
Thank you for introducing me to Charles Bowden. Off the order “Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing.”
Wonderful article, Erik.
IT's ALWAYS AGAIN, THAT I SAY TO YOU, ERIK -- I LOVE YOUR WORDS, YOUR POSTS, AND YOUR INNER BEING.
THANKS ONE MORE TIME!!! ☮️❤️
Bowden, thanks for the “taste.” I never read his work. Cowboy western guy. Reminds me of Shepard a little. The plays, like ballads of wastelands.
Chuck was a friend. I always have with me some of his "scribbling. "
Daily I read something again from Dakotah. The Return of the Future.
The Future is Past.
Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks for writing about Bowden. I was recently introduced to him in “A Race to the Bottom of Crazy: Dispatches from Arizona” by Richard Grant, which I found illuminating about the history of the region, the people who inhabit it, and Grant’s relationships with Bowden and others.