John Bowers (writer)
Encyclopedia
John Bowers is an American writer.
Bowers was born and raised in Johnson City, Tennessee
, during the Great Depression and World War II era. He graduated from Science Hill High School in 1947 and from the University of Tennessee
in 1952. From there he attended the Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, Illinois
, founded by Lowney Turner Handy and her husband, Harry Handy, along with her student, the best-selling novelist James Jones
. An autobiographical and perhaps slightly fictionalized account of this adventure is Bowers’s first major novel, The Colony, published in 1971.
During the 1960s, Bowers published numerous interviews and articles in major magazines, including The New York Times
, Playboy
, Sports Illustrated
, New York
, Cosmopolitan
, and Harper's
, some of which were collected in paperback under the title The Golden Bowers in the early 1970s. His second novel, No More Reunions (1973), about his teen years in Johnson City, was optioned for film but the movie was never made. A third novel of that period, Helene (1976), is a Lolita
-like tale set in 1950s America with college-age males and a young teenage girl.
In the Land of Nyx: Night and Its Inhabitants (1984), Bowers's next novel, was a study of the subculture of people who live their lives at night rather than during the daylight. Probably inspired by his father, who was night manager at the local railroad station during John’s childhood, this book is difficult to classify in any standard genre, and languished somewhat after its release because bookstores and libraries did not know quite what to do with it.
Turning his attention to historical examination of the Civil War, Bowers wrote Stonewall Jackson: Portrait of a Soldier (1990) and Chickamauga and Chattanooga: The Battles That Doomed the Confederacy (2000), which mix fact, fiction, and anecdotes.
For over two decades he has been an Associate Professor in the Writing Program at Columbia University
. His play Remembrance of Things Present has been produced twice Off-Broadway.
Bowers was born and raised in Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City is a city in Carter, Sullivan, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, with most of the city being in Washington County...
, during the Great Depression and World War II era. He graduated from Science Hill High School in 1947 and from the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
in 1952. From there he attended the Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, Illinois
Marshall, Illinois
Marshall is a city in Clark County, Illinois, United States, locatedabout west of Terre Haute, Indiana. The population was 3,771 at the 2000 census...
, founded by Lowney Turner Handy and her husband, Harry Handy, along with her student, the best-selling novelist James Jones
James Jones (author)
James Jones was an American author known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath.-Life and work:...
. An autobiographical and perhaps slightly fictionalized account of this adventure is Bowers’s first major novel, The Colony, published in 1971.
During the 1960s, Bowers published numerous interviews and articles in major magazines, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, and Harper's
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, some of which were collected in paperback under the title The Golden Bowers in the early 1970s. His second novel, No More Reunions (1973), about his teen years in Johnson City, was optioned for film but the movie was never made. A third novel of that period, Helene (1976), is a Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
-like tale set in 1950s America with college-age males and a young teenage girl.
In the Land of Nyx: Night and Its Inhabitants (1984), Bowers's next novel, was a study of the subculture of people who live their lives at night rather than during the daylight. Probably inspired by his father, who was night manager at the local railroad station during John’s childhood, this book is difficult to classify in any standard genre, and languished somewhat after its release because bookstores and libraries did not know quite what to do with it.
Turning his attention to historical examination of the Civil War, Bowers wrote Stonewall Jackson: Portrait of a Soldier (1990) and Chickamauga and Chattanooga: The Battles That Doomed the Confederacy (2000), which mix fact, fiction, and anecdotes.
For over two decades he has been an Associate Professor in the Writing Program at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. His play Remembrance of Things Present has been produced twice Off-Broadway.