Charles Bowden

Chuck Bowden
Born	(1945-07-20)July 20, 1945 Joliet, Illinois, U.S.
Died	August 30, 2014(2014-08-30) (aged 69) Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, journalist
Awards	Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction

Charles Clyde Bowden (July 20, 1945 – August 30, 2014) was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.^[1]

He attended the University of Arizona and then the University of Wisconsin, where he obtained his master's degree in American intellectual history; while there he walked out as he was defending his dissertation for his doctorate, annoyed by the questions asked him by the review committee.^[2] He was a writer for the Tucson Citizen and often wrote about the American Southwest. He was a contributing editor of GQ and Mother Jones magazine,^[3] and wrote for other periodicals including Harper's Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Esquire , High Country News, and Aperture.

Bowden was the winner of the 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction,^[4] and a 2010 award from United States Artists.^[5][6] He grew up in Chicago but lived most of his life in Tucson, Arizona.^[7] He was known for his writings on the situation at the US-Mexico border and wrote often about the effects of the War on Drugs on the lives of the people in that region.^[2]

He died in Las Cruces, New Mexico on August 30, 2014 after a brief illness. He was survived by his son and two siblings.^[2]

Selected works

• The Impact of Energy Development on Water Resources in Arid Lands: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography (Tucson: University of Arizona, Office of Arid Lands Studies, 1975)
• Killing the Hidden Waters (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977)
• Street Signs Chicago: Neighborhood and Other Illusions of Big City Life / by Charles Bowden and Lew Kreinberg; photographs by Richard Younker; foreword by William Appleman Williams (Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 1981)
• Blue Desert (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1986)
• Frog Mountain Blues photographs by Jack W. Dykinga. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987)
• Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions (1988) with Michael Binstein
• Mezcal (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988)
• Red Line (New York: Norton, 1989)
• Desierto: Memories of the Future (1991)
• The Sonoran Desert / photographs by Jack W. Dykinga; text by Charles Bowden. (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1992)
• The Secret Forest / text by Charles Bowden; photographs by Jack W. Dykinga; introduction by Paul S. Martin (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993)
• Seasons of the Coyote: the Legend and Lore of an American Icon / essays by Charles Bowden et al. (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins West, 1994)
• Frog Mountain Blues ; photographs by Jack W. Dykinga; with a new afterword by the author (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994)
• Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America (1995)
• Chihuahua: Pictures From the Edge / photographs by Virgil Hancock; essay by Charles Bowden (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996)
• Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau / photographs by Jack W. Dykinga; text by Charles Bowden (New York: Abrams, 1996)
• The Sierra Pinacate / Julian D. Hayden; photographs by Jack Dykinga; with essays by Charles Bowden & Bernard L. Fontana (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998)
• Juárez: The Laboratory of our Future, preface by Noam Chomsky; afterword by Eduardo Galeano (1998)
• Torch Song (essay) 1999
• Paul Dickerson, 1961-1997 (essay by Charles Bowden; New York: American Fine Art Co., 2000)
• Eugene Richards (New York, NY: Phaidon, 2001)
• Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family (2002)
• Blues for Cannibals (2002)
• Killing the Hidden Waters [with a new introduction by the author] (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003)
• A Shadow in the City : Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior (2005)
• Inferno (photographs by Michael P. Berman; Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006)(winner of the Border Regional Library Association's Southwest Book Award)
• Exodus/Éxodo (text by Charles Bowden, photographs by Julián Cardona) (2008)
• Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb by Nick Schou; preface by Charles Bowden (2006)
• Some of the Dead are Still Breathing: Living in the Future (2009)
• Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields (2010)
• Dreamland: The Way Out of Juarez (2010); with illustrations by Alice Leora Briggs
• El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin (2011) by Molly Molloy (Editor), Charles Bowden (Editor)
• Dead When I Got Here: Asylum from the madness (2014); Executive Producer of Documentary in collaboration with Director/Producer Mark Aitken - deadwhenigothere.org

References

Archival sources

• The Charles Bowden Papers 1947-2007 (50 linear feet) are housed at the Wittliff Collections, Texas State University in San Marcos.

External links

• Charles Bowden at the Internet Movie Database
• A review of Blues for Cannibals - From The New York Times
• Entrance Wound - An excerpt from Blues for Cannibals
• An Interview with Charles Bowden
• Charles Bowden articles at Byliner
• An audio interview with Charles Bowden - From American Public Media's Marketplace
• Works by or about Charles Bowden in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Charles Bowden on "The War Next Door" - video by Democracy Now!
• Charles Bowden on “Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields” - A live interview with Charles Bowden on Democracy Now! April 14, 2010
• NPR interview with Bowden about "Shadow in the City" on NPR's Day to Day July 5, 2005
• "Charles Bowden on The War Next Door", High Country News, March 1, 2010
• Bowden, Charles (November 2012). "Arkansas Delta, 40 Years Later". National Geographic. 222 (5): 125–139. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2012. 
• Obituary in The Guardian September 8, 2014