Jonathan Bowden's Early Writing (1989–95)

This list is based on details gleaned from online catalogues (mainly Amazon’s Good Reads website, which seems even more comprehensive than Google Books) and from the catalogues of the six Legal Deposit Libraries of Ireland and the UK (the Bodleian in Oxford, the British Library in London, the Cambridge University Library, Trinity College Library in Dublin and the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales). I have also examined the six-volume Collected Works at the British Library and the Cambridge University Library.

Jonathan Bowden on Jonathan Bowden

I just returned from the library, where I was inspecting vol. 3 of Jonathan Bowden’s very rare Collected Works, 6 vols. (London: Avant-Garde, 1995). I examined the first two volumes a couple of years ago. I will look at the remaining three as soon as time permits.

The Collected Works mark the transition, in my view, from the first to the second period in Bowden’s writing life. This was a transition of which Bowden was himself aware. Below are gathered a few snippets of ‘Bowden on Bowden’ from vol. 3. I hope this will be of all the more interest given how vanishingly rare and difficult to access texts from this period are, especially these Collected volumes.

Library Journal Reviews Tito Perdue's Lee (1991)

[This brief review of Tito Perdue’s Lee is reproduced for the benefit of enthusiasts and bibliomanes. By Janet Ingraham for Library Journal, 15 September 1991. I copied the text from Amazon and trusted the date from encyclopedia.com.]

Library Journal Reviews Tito Perdue's Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture (1994)

[This brief review of Tito Perdue’s Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture is reproduced for the benefit of enthusiasts and bibliomanes. By Robert Jordan for Library Journal, 1 November 1994. I copied the text from the Barnes and Noble website and trusted the date from encyclopedia.com.]

Library Journal Reviews Tito Perdue's Fields of Asphodel (2007)

[This brief review of Tito Perdue’s Fields of Asphodel is reproduced for the benefit of enthusiasts and bibliomanes. By Jim Dwyer for Library Journal, 15 June 2007. I copied the text from the Barnes and Noble website and trusted the date from encyclopedia.com.]

Library Journal Reviews Tito Perdue's New Austerities (1994)

[This brief review of Tito Perdue’s New Austerities is reproduced for the benefit of enthusiasts and bibliomanes. By Harold Augenbraum for Library Journal, 1 May 1994. I copied the text from the Barnes and Noble website and trusted the date from encyclopedia.com.]

Robert Nye on Tito Perdue's Lee (1991)

[Robert Nye gives Tito Perdue’s Lee a bad review. An interesting exercise in missing the point. Nye notices the absence of plot and spends a lot of ink on it. But this does not seem to have reminded him to attend to the book’s other riches. From ‘Read between the Lines and Find a Full Stop,’ The Guardian (7 November 1991), p. 28. Excerpted here for enthusiasts and the bibliographically curious.]