‘The Road to the Isles’ is a critical review of James Pope-Hennessy’s biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, published in The Times Literary Supplement, 25 October 1974, pp. 1195—6.
‘Variations on an Idée Fixe’ is a review of Konrad Lorenz’s The Year of the Greylag Goose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/a Helen and Kurt Wolff book), published in the New York Review of Books, 6 December 1979, pp. 8—9. Later, Chatwin was to discuss Lorenz’s behaviourist ideas at length in the ‘Notebooks’ section of The Songlines, presenting them as an antithesis to his own theory of nomadism.
V ART AND THE IMAGE-BREAKER
Chatwin came closest to formulating a comprehensive statement of his aesthetics when writing about the fine arts. The following texts discuss the decadence of Western art, and in doing so mark a vigorous counterpoint to the author’s previous career as art expert and collector.
With its pantheon of extravagant characters, finely wrought descriptive passages and irreverent humour, ‘Among the Ruins’ is a characteristically ‘Chatwinian’ tale of modem decadence, originally published in Vanity Fair, April 1984, pp. 46—60, under the fuller – and more explicit – title: ‘Self-Love Among the Ruins’.
‘The Morality of Things’, originally sub-titled ‘A Talk by Bruce Chatwin’, is the typescript of a speech that Chatwin gave at a Red Cross charitable art auction in 1973. It was published posthumously, in a limited private press edition, by Robert Risk (Typographeum, New Hampshire) in 1993. The text explores the philosophical and psychological implications of possession, a subject Chatwin was to return to in narrative form in his last novel, Utz.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRINCIPAL WORKS
In Patagonia, London: Jonathan Cape, 1977, 204 pp. (Paperback edition—London: Picador, 1979, 189 pp.)
The Viceroy of Ouidah, London: Jonathan Cape, 1980, 155 pp. (Paperback edition – London: Picador, 1982, 126 pp.)
On the Black Hill, London: Jonathan Cape, 1982, 284 pp. (Paperback edition—London: Picador, 1983, 249 pp.)
Patagonia Revisited (text by Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux; illustrations by Kyffin Williams), Salisbury: Michael Russel, 1985, 62 pp. (Reprinted by Jonathan Cape, London, 1992, 62 pp.) (U.S. edition: Nowhere is a place: travels in Patagonia [text by Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux; photographs by Jeff Gnass; introduction by Paul Theroux], San Francisco: Yolla Bolly Press book, published by Sierra Club Books, 1992, 109 pp.)
The Songlines, London: Jonathan Cape, 1987, 293 pp. (Paperback edition—London: Picador, 1988, 327 pp.)
Utz, London: Jonathan Cape, 1988, 154 PP. (Paperback edition—London: Picador, 1988, 154 pp.)
What Am I Doing Here, London: Jonathan Cape, 1989, 367 pp. (Paperback edition – London: Pan Books, 1990, 367 pp.)
Photographs and Notebooks, London: Jonathan Cape, 1993, 160 pp.
LIMITED EDITIONS, CATALOGUES AND ANTHOLOGIES
Animal Style (Art from East to West) (Bruce Chatwin with Emma Bunker & Ann Farkas), New York: The Asia Society Inc., 1970, 185 pp.51
Great American Families (Bruce Chatwin & various authors), New York, Times Books, 1978, 192 pep.52
Cobra Verde: Filmbuch (Wemer Herzog). Fotografien von Beat Presser, Tagebuch von Bruce Chatwin, Gespräche mit Werner Herzog von Steff Gruber, Geschichte des Films und Dialoge von Werner Herzog. Schaffhausen: Edition Stemmle, 1987, 152 pp.
John Pawson (Bruce Chatwin & various authors; tr. fr. Spanish by E. Bonet), Spain: Gustavo Gili, 1992, 94 pp.53
The Morality of Things—A Talk by Bruce Chatwin, Francestown, New Hampshire: Typographeum, 1993, 26 pp.54
The Attractions of France, London: Colophon Press, 1993, 17PP.
Prague, edited by John and Kirsten Miller, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.55
PREFACES, POSTSCRIPTS, ARTICLES AND STORIES
‘The Bust of Sekhmet’. In Ivory Hammer 4: The Year at Sotheby’s & Parke-Bernet 1965—66, London: Longman, 1966, pp. 302—3.56
‘The Nomadic Alternative’. In Emma Bunker, Bruce Chatwin & Ann Farkas, Animal Style (Art from East to West), New York: The Asia Society Inc., 1970, pp. 173—183.
‘Museums’. In Robert Allen & Quentin Guirdham (eds), The London Spy—a discreet guide to the city’s pleasures, London: Blond, 1971, pp. 95—109.57
‘The Estate of Maximilian Tod’. In Emma Tennant (ed.), Saturday Night Reader, London: W. H. Allen, 1979, pp. 25—37.58
‘Foreword’. In Lorenzo Ricciardi, The Voyage of the Mir-el-lah, London: Collins, 1980, p. 6.
‘Introduction’. In Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Pan Books, 1981. pp. 9—15.59
‘Howard Hodgkin’. In Michael Compton, Howard Hodgkin’s Indian Leaves, London: Tate Gallery catalogue, 1982.60
‘Body and Eyes’. In Robert Mapplethorpe, Lady: Lisa Lyon, New York: Viking Press, 1983, pp. 11—15.61
‘Introduction’. In Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia, London: Redstone Press, 1989, pp.4—7.
‘Introduction’. In Sybil Bedford, A Visit to Don Otavio, London: Folio Society, 1990, pp. 11—12.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICALS
‘Gone to Timbuctoo’. In Vogue, July 1970, pp. 20, 22, 25.62
‘It’s a Nomad Nomad Nomad NOMAD world’. In Vogue, December 1970, pp. 124—5.
‘The Mechanics of Nomad Invasions’. In History Today, 22 May 1972, pp. 329-37 + bibliography, p. 382.63
‘Surviving in Style’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 4 March 1973, pp. 42—54.64
‘Moscow’s Unofficial Art’. In the Sunday Times magazine, May 6 1973, pp. 36—54.65
‘Postscript to a Thousand Pictures’, the Sunday Times magazine, 26 August 1973, pp. 48—51.66
‘Heavenly Horses’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 9 September 1973, pp. 56—61.67
‘Fatal Journey to Marseilles – North Africans in France’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 6 January 1974, pp. 22—45.68
‘The Oracle’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 17 March 1974, pp. 20—34.69
‘The Witness’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 9 June 1974, pp. 52—9.70
‘The Road to the Isles’. In The Times Literary Supplement, no. 3790, 25 October 1974, pp. 1195—6.
‘Man the Aggressor’. In the Sunday Times magazine, I December 1974, pp. 28—41, 85—7.71
‘The Riddle of the Pampa’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 26 October 1975, pp. 52—67.72
‘The Guggenheim Saga’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 23 November 1975, pp. 34—67.
‘The Anarchists of Patagonia’. In The Times Literary Supplement, no. 3903, 31 December 1976, pp. 1635—6.
‘Milk’. In London Magazine, August-September 1977, pp. 40—8.73
‘Until My Blood Is Pure’. In Bananas, no.9, Winter 1977, pp. 10—11.
‘Perils of the Israeli Settlement’. In the Spectator, 8 April 1978, pp. 8—9.
‘Western Approaches’. In the Radio Times, 22 June 1978, p. 70.
‘A Memory of Nadezhda Mandelstam’ and ‘An Introduction to Journey to Armenia’. In Bananas, no.11, Summer 1978, p. 5.74
‘The Quest for the Wolf Children’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 30 July 1978, pp. 10—13.75
‘On the Road with Mrs Gandhi’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 27 August 1978, pp. 20-34.76
‘Bedouins’. In London Magazine, November 1978, pp. 58-9.
‘The Estate of Maximilian Tod’. In Triquarterly n° 46, Fall 1979, pp. 143-56.
‘Abel the Nomad’. In the New York Review of Books, 22 November 1979, p. 9.
‘Variations on an Idée Fixe’. In the New York Review of Books, 6 December 1979, pp. 8-9
‘An Aesthete at War’. In the New York Review of Books, 5 March 1981, pp. 21-5.77
‘Von Rezzori’. In Vogue, May 1981, pp. 277, 328.
‘Donald Evans’. In the New York Review of Books, 14 May 1981, pp. 14-16.
‘On the Black Hill’. In Harpers & Queen, October 1982, pp. 164, 166, 168.78
‘A Visit to Wiesenthal’. In the Observer magazine, 7 November 1982, pp. 51, 53.
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sp; ‘On Yeti Tracks’. In Esquire, 1983.
‘Explorations of the Heart’. In Vogue, January 1983, pp. 220-1.79
‘Body Building Beautiful – Lisa Lyons and Robert Mapplethorpe’. In the Sunday Times magazine, 17 April 1983, pp. 30-4.
‘I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia – The Making of a Writer’. In the New York Times Book Review, 2 August 1983, pp. 6, 34-6.
‘A Coup’. In Granta no. 10: ‘Travel Writing’, Cambridge: Granta Publications Ltd, 1984, pp. 107—26.80
‘Self-Love Among the Ruins’. In Vanity Fair, April 1984, pp. 46-60.
‘A Place to Hang your Hat’. In House & Garden, June 1984, pp. 140—3.
‘Great Rivers of the World: the Volga’. In the Observer magazine, June 1984, pp. 16—26.81
‘Les Apocalypses’. In Lettre Internationale, winter 84/85, pp. 3-5.
‘Where a Wayfarer Halts her Journey: A Welcoming Home for Sally, Duchess of Westminster’. In Architectural Digest, June 1985, pp. 202-9.
‘In China, Rock’s Kingdom’. In the New York Times magazine, 16 March 1986, section 6, part II, pp. 34—47, 104—5, 109.82
‘A Tower in Tuscany’. In House & Garden, January 1987, pp. 78-85.
‘Dreamtime’. In Granta no. 21: ‘The Story-Teller’, Cambridge: Granta Publications Ltd, Spring 1987, pp. 39—79.83
‘The Lizard Man’. In the New York Review of Books, 13 August 1987, pp. 47-8.84
‘In Natasha’s Trunk’. In the New York Review of Books, 24 September 1987, pp. 17—18.85
‘The Albatross’. In Granta no. 24, 1988, pp. 11-13.
‘Chiloe’. In Granta no. 24, 1988, pp. 166—70.
‘When the Revolution Came Home’. In House & Garden, January 1988, pp. 122-5.86
‘On Location. Gone to Ghana: the making of Werner Herzog’s Cobra Verde’. In Interview, March 1988, pp. 82-5.87
‘Excerpts from the Songlines’. In Aperture no. 11, Spring 1988, pp. 58-9.
‘The Seventh Day – a story by Bruce Chatwin’. In London Review of Books, 2 June 1988, p. 13.
‘The Songlines Quartet’. In the New York Review of Books, 19 January 1989, pp. 50-1.88
‘Songs of a Friend for Life’. In The Times, 20 January 1989, p. 16.89
‘The Bey’, ‘Mrs Mandelstam’, 'Konstantin Melnikov: Architect’, Granta no. 26: ‘Travel’, Cambridge: Granta Publications Ltd, Spring 1989, pp. 107—25.90
‘The Duke of M——; My Modi; The Bey’. In the Daily Telegraph (weekend section), 6 May 1989, pp. 1—2.91
‘Your Father’s Eyes Are Blue Again’. In the Observer, 7 May 1989, p. 45.92
‘Brief Interludes’. In Vogue. August 1989, pp. 326—7.93
‘On George Ortiz’. In the New York Review of Books, 28 September 1989, p. 62.94
‘The Road to Ouidah’. In Granta no. 44, Spring 1993, pp. 223—34.95
SELECTED INTERVIEWS
‘Bruce Chatwin: from Patagonia to the slave trade’ (with Mary Blume). In the International Herald Tribune, 1980, p. 7.
‘In search of the giant sloth and other stories’ (with Maureen Cleave). In the Observer magazine, 31 October 1982, pp. 32-3.
‘Bruce Chatwin’ (with Melvyn Bragg). In The South Bank Show, London Weekend Television, 7 November 1982.
‘An interview with Bruce Chatwin’ (with Michael Ignatieff). In Granta no. 21: 'The Story-teller’, Cambridge: Granta publications Ltd, Spring 1987, pp. 23-37.
‘Heard Between the Songlines’ (with Michael Davie). In the Observer, 21 June 1987, p. 18.
‘Songs of the Earth’ (with Lucy Hughes-Hallett). In the London Evening Standard, 24 June 1987, p. 33.
‘Born Under a Wandering Star’ (with Colin Thubron). In the Daily Telegraph (weekend section), 27 June 1987, p. 1.
‘Bruce Chatwin’ (with Michele Field). In Publishers’ Weekly, 7 August 1987, pp. 430-1.
FILMOGRAPHY
Adaptations
On the Black Hill, by Andrew Grieve (director & scriptwriter), British Film Institute/Film Four International, 1987.
Cobra Verde (adapted from The Viceroy of Ouidah), directed & scripted by Werner Herzog, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, 1990.
Utz, directed by George Sluizer & scripted by Hugh Whitemore, Viva Pictures Ltd, 1992.
Documentaries
‘Nach Patagonien (Zu Bruce Chatwins Reise in ein femes Land)’, directed by Jan Schütte, Novoskop Film Jan Schütte, ZDF, 1991.
‘Songlines: sur les traces de Bruce Chatwin en Australie’, directed by Barbara Dickenberger, Arte, 1993.
PROFILES AND CRITICAL STUDIES OF BRUCE CHATWIN
Peter Levi, The Light Garden of the Angel King – Journeys in Afghanistan, London: Collins, 1972, 287 pp .
Nicholas Murray, Bruce Chaturin, Bridgend (Wales): Seren Books, 1993, 140 pp.
Claudine Verley (ed.), B. Chatwin, Poitiers: les Cahiers forell, no. 4, November 1994, 166 pp.
Alessandro Grassi and Neri Torrigiani (eds), Bruce Chatwin: Searching for the Miraculous, Turin: Gruppo GFT, 1995, n. p.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for their help in the preparation of this book:
Pascal Cariss, Susannah Clapp, David Rees, Robert Risk, Francis Wyndham, Cambridge University Library, Jonathan Cape Ltd, la Bibliothèque nationale, The Bodleian Library, The British Council, The British Library, Condé Nast Publications Inc., The Library of Congress.
We are especially grateful to Elizabeth Chatwin and Gillon Aitken for reading and commenting on the manuscript.
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