Jane Bowles

Jane Bowles (/boʊls/; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright.

Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917 to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane Bowles spent her childhood in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. She developed tuberculous arthritis of the knee as a teenager, and her mother took her to Switzerland for treatment, where she attended boarding school. At this point in her life, she developed a passion for literature coupled with insecurities. As a teenager she returned to New York, where she gravitated to the intellectual bohemia of Greenwich Village.

She married composer and writer Paul Bowles in 1938. The location of the honeymoon inspired the setting for her novel Two Serious Ladies.

Bowles had a rich love life. In 1937, she met Paul Bowles and in following year (1938), they were married and went to a honeymoon in Central America. She visited lesbian bars while they traveled together in Paris. The marriage was a sexual marriage for about a year and a half. After the initial year, Jane and Paul were platonic companions. They both were bisexual, and mainly preferred to have sex outside of their marriage. They were unashamed of their bisexuality and marriage allowed them to express it.

After this, Jane and Paul went to Mexico where Jane later met Helvetia Perkins, who became her lover.

In 1943 her novel Two Serious Ladies was published. The Bowleses lived in New York until 1947, when Paul moved to Tangier, Morocco; Jane followed him in 1948. While in Morocco, Jane had an intense and complicated relationship with a Moroccan woman named Cherifa. She also had a close relationship with torch singer Libby Holman.

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