The American composer and author Paul Frederic Bowles was born in New York City on December 30, 1910.
In 1938, Paul Bowles married the aspiring writer Jane Auer. Inspired by his wife's success and her dedication to writing, Bowles began his own career as an author, eventually surpassing his already successful reputation as a composer. After the 1940s, he produced numerous works of fiction, essays, travel writing, poems, autobiographical pieces, and other works.
Miller, Jeffrey. Paul Bowles: A Descriptive Bibliography. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, 1986.
Sawyer-Laucanno, Christopher. An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989.
Michael Fordyce was a friend of Bowles in Morocco. Fordyce is mentioned in a March 23, 1956, letter written by Paul Bowles to Rena Bowles, which was published in In Touch: the Letters of Paul Bowles.
In this handwritten letter, Paul Bowles wrote Michael Fordyce to inform him that Brion Gysin's apartment in Tangier was available for rent.
Bowles wrote that Gysin was leaving for London tomorrow, enclosed Gysin's telephone number, and suggested that Michael call Gysin that night.