The Sheltering Sky
The novel that made him, written in Tangier three years after he settled there.
Read our take
Without Stopping
by Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles wrote his autobiography at fifty-nine and told almost nothing. William S. Burroughs called it Without Telling.
- 1972
About Paul Bowles
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freePutnam published Paul Bowles's autobiography in 1972, when he was sixty-one and had lived in Tangier for a quarter of a century. It moves at speed from a childhood near the Finger Lakes in upstate New York through Paris, Berlin, Mexico, Ceylon and Morocco. Gertrude Stein, Aaron Copland, Jean Cocteau, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Peggy Guggenheim, Christopher Isherwood and Allen Ginsberg all pass through it. What it does not do is disclose anything. His own sexuality, his wife's, the shape of their marriage, what he felt about any of it — none of that is in the book. Reviewers noticed immediately, and the nickname stuck.
The story, in more detail
The title was not new. Bowles had used Without Stopping in 1929 for an unfinished book of fiction, and reused it forty years later for the autobiography.
The reticence is the book's defining quality and was read that way from the start. Virgil Thomson, who had taught Bowles composition and knew him for decades, reviewed it in The New York Review of Books and wrote that the stories simply do not get told: Bowles "hints at their existence; that is all". Thomson added that "his reticence covers also himself. No friendship is declared, no love admitted."
One thing does come close to the surface. Jane Bowles had suffered a stroke in 1957 and was in decline; she died the year after the book appeared. Thomson thought the despair of that approaching loss was the single emotion the book almost admits, and that the rest, family matters aside, is "one long in-color newsreel".
Why we recommend it
It is the source for the Paris years
Bowles's own telling of arriving at eighteen, meeting Gertrude Stein, and being sent to Tangier on her advice — including Stein's verdict that he was "a manufactured savage".
The omissions are the interest
Burroughs called it Without Telling. Virgil Thomson, who had known Bowles for forty years, wrote that he "hints at their existence; that is all". A memoir this evasive is a document about evasion.
The childhood is the best writing in it
Thomson, no easy reviewer, called the account of Bowles's forebears and his boyhood near the Finger Lakes "utterly charming", and thought the book never matched it again.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- Burroughs called the book Without Telling. After reading it, is that a complaint or a description?
- Virgil Thomson thought the childhood chapters were the best thing in it. Why might the early material be the only part Bowles writes warmly?
- Gertrude Stein told the eighteen-year-old Bowles he was "a manufactured savage". He reprints the insult himself. What is he doing by including it?
- The book is crowded with famous people and empty of intimacy. What kind of self-portrait does that produce?
- Jane Bowles was gravely ill while this was being written and died the following year. Where, if anywhere, do you feel that in the book?
Timeline
1929
Bowles uses the title Without Stopping for an unfinished book of fiction. He reuses it for the autobiography forty-three years later.
1972
G. P. Putnam's Sons publishes Without Stopping in New York; Peter Owen publishes it in London the same year.
1972
Virgil Thomson reviews it in The New York Review of Books under the title "Untold Tales", writing that Bowles "simply declines to tell them" and that "no friendship is declared, no love admitted".
1973
Jane Bowles dies in Málaga, a year after the book appears.
1989
In the Times Literary Supplement, John Ryle records that Bowles is "perhaps the only autobiographer whose friends have complained not of what he wrote about them, but of his lack of indiscretion", and that William Burroughs called the book "Without Telling".
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- G. P. Putnam's Sons
- 1972
- Hardcover
- Peter Owen
- 1972
- 9780720604023
- Paperback
- Ecco
- 1985
- 9780880010610
- Paperback
- Harper Perennial
- 1999
- 9780880016759
- Paperback
- Peter Owen
- 2004
- 9780720612370
- Paperback
- Harper Perennial
- 2006
- 9780061137419
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue
The travel essays, which say more about what Bowles thought than the autobiography does.
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The Spider’s House
Fez in 1954, which he was living through while the autobiography's middle chapters take place.
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Without Stopping: frequently asked questions
What is Without Stopping?
Paul Bowles's autobiography, published by Putnam in New York in 1972. It runs from his childhood in upstate New York through Paris, Berlin, Mexico, Ceylon and Morocco, and ends with him long settled in Tangier.
Why did Burroughs call it "Without Telling"?
Because it discloses almost nothing. Bowles leaves out his own sexuality, his wife Jane's, and the nature of their marriage, and declares no friendships or loves. John Ryle recorded the nickname in the Times Literary Supplement in 1989, noting that Bowles's friends complained not about what he wrote but about his lack of indiscretion.
Does it cover the Paris years and Gertrude Stein?
Yes, and it is the primary source for them. Bowles reached Paris at eighteen, met Stein on a later visit, and went to Tangier on her advice. He reprints her verdict on him: that he was the most spoiled and self-indulgent young man she had ever seen, and "a manufactured savage".
What did reviewers say at the time?
Virgil Thomson, who had taught Bowles composition, reviewed it in The New York Review of Books and called it a travelogue whose stories never get told. Kirkus found it "unexpectedly low-toned and matter-of-fact" and concluded that "the man — and surely he exists — is altogether impermeable".
How long is it and which edition should I read?
The 1972 first edition runs to 379 pages. The current American paperback is the Harper Perennial edition of 2006; Peter Owen's 2004 paperback is the British one. The Ecco editions from 1985 onward add a plate section and an index.
Is Without Stopping in the Library of America Bowles volumes?
No. The Library of America published two Bowles volumes — the three early novels, and the collected stories with the travel writing and Up Above the World. The autobiography is in neither.
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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 Without Stopping, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Untold Tales
PeriodicalThe New York Review of Books, 18 May 1972, 1972Used forVirgil Thomson's 1972 review, the fullest contemporary account of what the book withholds.
2Without Stopping: An Autobiography — review
PeriodicalKirkus Reviews, 1972Used forThe Kirkus notice, quoted on the book's tone.
3The Last of the Bohemians
PeriodicalThe Times Literary Supplement, 15 September 1989, 1989Used forJohn Ryle in the Times Literary Supplement, the source for Burroughs's nickname for the book.
4Paul Bowles
Official recordLibrary of AmericaUsed forThe Library of America's author record, which confirms the autobiography is in neither LOA volume.
5Pipe Dreams
PeriodicalThe New York Review of Books, 23 November 1989, 1989Used forRobert Craft's 1989 essay, which compares the memoir with Sawyer-Laucanno's biography.
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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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