America's Most Alarming Writer
Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden
Book - 2019
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.
Baker & Taylor
Key figures in the life of borderlands chronicler Charles Bowden—including his editors, collaborators and other writers—deliver a literary wake for the man who inspired them throughout his 40-year career.



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From Library Staff
In a prize-winning career that spanned 40 years, Charles Bowden gained national fame and some notoriety for his chronicles of the Southwest and his hard-hitting investigative journalism that celebrated the stark landscape he loved while exposing the human-caused fault lines undermining it. When h... Read More »
In a prize-winning career that spanned 40 years, Charles Bowden gained national fame and some notoriety for his chronicles of the Southwest and his hard-hitting investigative journalism that celebrated the stark landscape he loved while exposing the human-caused fault lines undermining it. When h... Read More »
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Add a CommentBowden is required reading if you care about the Southwest. You follow?
In a prize-winning career that spanned 40 years, Charles Bowden gained national fame and some notoriety for his chronicles of the Southwest and his hard-hitting investigative journalism that celebrated the stark landscape he loved while exposing the human-caused fault lines undermining it. When he died in 2014, Bowden's riveting prose and relentless pursuit of the truth became a literary legacy that continues to inform our thinking about the fragile environment, borderland violence and the possibility for redemption in the face of it all. His 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. Editors Broyles and Dinges, who assembled this tribute, provide a revealing and insightful introduction. Dip in anywhere, at your leisure; you cannot fail but to come away inspired. - Helene Woodhams, Southwest Books of the Year 2019, Pima County Public Library