Charles Bowden | Author

About the Author

Charles Bowden is a journalist. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. Charles Bowden was born in Joliet, Illinois on July 20, 1945. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona and a master's degree in American intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin. He completed work show more toward his doctorate there but walked out while defending his dissertation, because he was frustrated with what he felt were uninformed questions from his review committee. He was a reporter for The Tucson Citizen in the early 1980s. He wrote several books during his lifetime including Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family, Juárez: The Laboratory of Our Future, A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior, Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, and Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America. He died on August 30, 2014 at the age of 69. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Charles Bowden

Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family (2002) 162 copies, 1 review

Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America (1995) 99 copies

Blue Desert (1986) 86 copies, 2 reviews

Eugene Richards (1997) 79 copies

Blues for Cannibals: The Notes from Underground (2002) 67 copies

Juarez: The Laboratory of Our Future (1998) 52 copies, 1 review

Killing the Hidden Waters (1985) 49 copies

Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing: Living in the Future (2009) 48 copies, 2 reviews

Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez (2010) 47 copies

A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior (2005) 41 copies

Desierto: Memories of the Future (1991) 40 copies, 1 review

Frog Mountain Blues (1987) 36 copies, 1 review

The Sonoran Desert (1992) 23 copies

Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Billions (1993) — Author — 23 copies, 1 review

The Charles Bowden Reader (2010) 18 copies, 1 review

Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau (2001) 15 copies

Mezcal (1988) 14 copies

Red Line (1989) 14 copies

Exodus/Éxodo (Bill and Alice Wright Photography Series) (2008) 14 copies

Street signs Chicago : neighborhood and other illusions of big city life (1981) 12 copies

Trinity (2009) 11 copies

The Secret Forest (A University of Arizona Southwest Center Book) (1993) 10 copies

Images: Jack Dykinga's Grand Canyon (2008) 10 copies

Inferno (2006) 9 copies

Wojny narkotykowe : doniesienia z pola walki (2011) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Best American Essays 2001 (2001) — Contributor — 239 copies

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contributor — 203 copies, 2 reviews

The Best American Essays 1999 (The Best American Essays) (1999) — Contributor — 190 copies, 1 review

Travelers' Tales MEXICO : True Stories (1994) — Contributor — 61 copies, 1 review

The Best American Crime Reporting 2010 (2011) — Contributor — 58 copies, 1 review

Night: A Literary Companion (2009) — Contributor — 8 copies

Tagged

American Southwest (8) American West (8) Arizona (7) Charles Bowden (11) Ciudad Juárez (20) conservation (6) crime (37) current affairs (7) desert (15) drug traffic (10) drug war (6) drugs (20) ecology (12) economics (11) El Paso (7) environment (16) essays (16) fiction (5) globalization (6) gonzo (6) history (21) journalism (13) Juarez (10) Latin America (6) memoir (6) Mexico (68) murder (10) natural history (19) nature (13) non-fiction (106) photography (41) politics (17) read (9) Southwest (15) to-read (81) travel (6) true crime (16) unread (11) US-Mexico border (8) water (6)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Bowden, Charles Clyde
Birthdate: 1945-07-20
Date of death: 2014-08-30
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Country (for map): USA
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Place of death: Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA
Places of residence: Tucson, Arizona, USA
Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA
Education: University of Arizona
University of Wisconsin (MA|History)
Occupations: reporter
Awards and honors: Lannan Literary Award (Nonfiction,1996)

Members

Reviews

Down by the River : Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family by Charles Bowden

I'm probably just not cool enough, but I couldn't stand the writing in this book. The story seemed interesting, but I didn't want to spend the time slogging through the extraneous detail and half of the time I felt like I didn't know what was going on.

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kevinnewman16 | Nov 16, 2024 |

The Charles Bowden Reader by Charles Bowden

I was a bit disappointed in this book because I thought the writing would be more engaging, but after reading quite a few of his stories it seems like he just had a template he wrote them from. I guess you have to do that if you are writing for news publication, but it doesn't make the best collection.

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kerryp | Jul 4, 2020 |