Paul Bowles Magic and Morocco

This concise book examines the interaction between earlier and other writers,
painters (and anthropologists) and Morocco, and then examines the effects of this
culture and its magical practices upon the person, psyche and writings of Paul
Bowles.

Interwoven into this work is a memoir, the author''s friendship with Bowles,
his visits to Tangier, residence there, correspondence with the writer, the
lessons which were encoded in almost all his interactions with Bowles.

The fulcrum upon which this book rests is to ask a question, the influence of
the magical practices of Morocco upon Bowles, a question which could not be
legitimately asked of any other American writer.

Paul Bowles (1910–1999) was one of the most paradoxical literary talents of his century, a sophisticated New York writer and composer who lived a half-century in Morocco, a man who fled the western world that acclaimed him. Paul Bowles, Magic and Morocco is an extended homage, a memoir of a friendship, and an examination of more than a half-century''s influence of North African magic on Bowles''s sensibilities and fictions. Allen Hibbard, a scholar and close friend, situates Bowles with others like Conrad and Lawrence who lived a split existence, literally and metaphorically, divided between the modern and the primitive. With an extensive knowledge of the Middle East and North Africa, Hibbard weaves literary analysis and personal insight, thereby yielding a unique understanding of the effects of Moroccan culture upon Bowles''s sensibility.