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Chuck and Me: Being Married to Charles Bowden

Lawrence Clark Powell, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona and a well-known Southwest literary critic, introduced me to Chuck Bowden. At the time I was a librarian in charge of writing grants for special projects for the Tucson Public Library (now the Pima County Public Library). Chuck was unemployed and down to his last few dollars. I was looking for a humanities scholar as consultant for my grant project “What Price Growth?” funded by the Arizona Humanities Council. Powell told me that Chuck had a master’s degree in history, had just written a study of water in the Southwest, and desperately needed the $400 honorarium. So I invited Chuck for an interview. At the time, library offices were located in the basement of City Hall Annex where I shared space with Mary Cannon, who was in charge of ordering books for the library system. Chuck strolled in smoking a Camel. I noticed that he wasn’t dressed in anything close to business, or even clean casual, attire. Because he was at the end of his smoke, he immediately asked Mary, who also smoked, “can I bum a cigarette?” I was appalled. Of course, he passed our “interview” with flying colors. Afterward, I turned to Mary with a sidelong look and, shaking my head, said: “I don’t know about him—he’s kinda strange.” Mary, an older woman whom I admired, poo-pooed my hesitancy. “He’s so handsome,” she responded. “You have to hire him!” In the end, Chuck was selected because of his expansive knowledge of Arizona politics, economics, and you name it. I scheduled a meeting at my apartment so that he and other staff on the project could get to