BOWLES, JANE (1917-1973), U.S. Writer

Though in terms of quantity, her literary production was quite limited, Jane Bowles has been called "one of the finest writers of modern fiction in any language." She wrote one novel, Two Serious Ladies; one play, In The Summer House; and six short stories, all of which she completed by her early thirties. Bowles was born Jane Auer in New York. She met writer- composer Paul Bowles in 1937 and went to Mexico with him. The following year they were married and spent the next few years traveling in Central America and France. In 1948, they went to Morocco, where Jane Bowles spent much of the rest of her life. In 1957 she suffered a stroke, and her health gradually declined thereafter. She was institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital in Spain in 1967 and died there in 1973. From her early childhood, Jane Bowles was considered to be different, even odd. When she was twelve, she wrote in a friend's autograph book:

You asked me to write in youre book

I scarcely know how to begin

For there's nothing orriginal about me

But a little orriginal Sin.

As a young, unmarried woman, Jane lived what was thought at the time to be an unconventional and highly adventurous lifestyle for a woman. She associated with bohemians and intellectuals and spent a great deal of time in Greenwich Village bars. On more than one occasion during that period of her life, she was involved sexually with another woman.