The Sheltering Sky
The Sahara of "Baptism of Solitude", turned into a novel four years earlier.
Read our take
Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue
by Paul Bowles
Nine travel essays from Morocco, Algeria, Ceylon, South India and Istanbul, written by a man who had already decided the places he loved were going.
- 1963
- Elegiac
- Atmospheric
- reportage
- voice-driven
- political
About Paul Bowles
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freePaul Bowles collected nine travel pieces here, written across the 1950s for magazines and published by Random House in 1963. They run from the Sahara to Ceylon to Istanbul. Two of them — "The Rif, to Music" and "The Route to Tassemsit" — come out of the twenty-five thousand miles he covered in Morocco in 1959, recording music for the Library of Congress on a Rockefeller Foundation grant. The book is not a guide and offers no advice. Bowles is interested in how places work before outside money and outside government reach them, and in what is lost at the moment they do.
The story, in more detail
The nine essays were written for magazines between roughly 1953 and 1964 and gathered in 1963. The copyright page credits Curtis publications, the Zero Press and Kulchur. The subtitle Bowles gave the book — Scenes from the Non-Christian World — is the clearest statement of what links them.
The title comes from Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Jumblies", where the Jumblies' heads are green and their hands are blue. Bowles never explained the borrowing in print, and no published source connects the two, so the resemblance is left as it stands.
"Baptism of Solitude" is the essay people quote. Bowles wrote it in 1953, after several weeks in the Sahara the previous year, and it is the closest he came to stating directly what the desert did to him.
Why we recommend it
It contains the record of the recording trip
"The Rif, to Music" and "The Route to Tassemsit" describe portions of the twenty-five thousand miles Bowles covered in Morocco in 1959, taping music for the Library of Congress. It is his own account of the work the archive now holds.
"Baptism of Solitude"
Written in 1953 after several weeks in the Sahara, it is the most quoted thing Bowles wrote outside the novels, and the plainest statement of what the desert meant to him.
The novels read differently afterwards
The Sheltering Sky and The Spider's House are built from the same observation, without the essayist's willingness to say what he thinks.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- Bowles writes about places he believes are about to be spoiled. Does the book acknowledge his own part in that?
- "Baptism of Solitude" describes the Sahara as doing something to a person. What, exactly, and do you believe it?
- The subtitle is Scenes from the Non-Christian World. Who is that phrase written for?
- Two essays come from the 1959 recording trip. How does writing about music change how Bowles writes about place?
- Which of the nine essays would you give to someone who had never read him?
Timeline
1952
Bowles spends several weeks in the Sahara, the journey behind "Baptism of Solitude".
1959
Travels roughly twenty-five thousand miles through Morocco recording music for the Library of Congress on a Rockefeller Foundation grant. "The Rif, to Music" and "The Route to Tassemsit" come out of it.
1963
Random House publishes the collection in New York, subtitled Scenes from the Non-Christian World. Peter Owen publishes it in London the same year under the shortened title Their Heads Are Green.
1963
Kirkus calls the essays "sometimes exceptional, sometimes only dimly diverting", written with Bowles's "customary cool, crisp romanticism", and singles out his "inventory of Istanbul" as "a small, sparkling joy".
1989
Reviewing Bowles in The New York Review of Books, Robert Craft calls it "this charming book, so 'normal,' sane, and sensible", and says its description of a dying civilisation is "central to understanding his work".
2002
The Library of America collects it complete in Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Random House
- 1963
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Peter Owen
- 1963
- Paperback
- Ecco
- 1984
- 9780880010436
- Paperback
- Peter Owen Modern Classic
- 2000
- 9780720610772
- Paperback
- Harper Perennial
- 2006
- 9780061137372
- Hardcover
- Library of America
- 2002
- 9781931082204
Reader reviews
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Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: frequently asked questions
What is Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue?
A collection of nine travel essays by Paul Bowles, published by Random House in 1963 and subtitled Scenes from the Non-Christian World. They were written for magazines across the 1950s and cover Ceylon, North Africa, South India, Istanbul, Morocco and Algeria.
What are the nine essays?
Fish Traps and Private Business (Ceylon), Africa Minor, and Notes Mailed at Nagercoil (South India). Then Mustapha and His Friends, A Man Must Not Be Very Moslem (Istanbul), and The Rif, to Music (Morocco). The last three are Baptism of Solitude (Algeria), All Parrots Speak, and The Route to Tassemsit (Morocco). A glossary follows them.
Where does the title come from?
The words appear in Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Jumblies", whose Jumblies have green heads and blue hands. Bowles never explained the choice in print and no published source connects the two directly.
Does it describe the Moroccan music recordings?
Yes. "The Rif, to Music" and "The Route to Tassemsit" describe parts of the roughly twenty-five thousand miles Bowles travelled in Morocco in 1959, recording music for the Library of Congress under a Rockefeller Foundation grant. The recordings are now held by the American Folklife Center.
What is "Baptism of Solitude"?
The best-known essay in the book. Bowles wrote it in 1953, after several weeks in the Sahara the year before, and it is his most direct account of what the desert did to him.
Is the British edition the same book?
Peter Owen published it in London in 1963 under the shortened title Their Heads Are Green, at 169 pages against the American edition's 206. What the shorter British text omits is not established here.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Paul Bowles: Collected Stories & Later Writings
Official recordLibrary of AmericaUsed forThe Library of America volume that reprints the collection complete, and the authority for its contents list.
2Paul Bowles
Official recordLibrary of AmericaUsed forThe Library of America's author record.
3Paul Bowles Moroccan Music Collection (AFC 1960/001) — Guides to the Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
ArchiveAmerican Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 1994Used forThe Library of Congress finding aid for the 1959 recordings that two of these essays describe; it cites "The Rif, to Music" directly.
4Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue — review
PeriodicalKirkus Reviews, 1963Used forThe 1963 Kirkus notice, quoted in the timeline.
5Pipe Dreams
PeriodicalThe New York Review of Books, 23 November 1989, 1989Used forRobert Craft's 1989 New York Review of Books essay on Bowles, which places this book at the centre of his work.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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