America's Most Alarming Writer

Bill Broyles, a research associate at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, is coauthor of Among Unknown Tribes, Desert Duty, and Sunshot. Bruce J. Dinges is retired director of publications and editor of the Arizona Historical Society’s Journal of Arizona History. He is the author of numerous articles and editor of several books on southwestern and Civil War history.

[Charles Bowden's] life and work are celebrated in this essential collection of 50 reflections and appraisals contributed by writers, collaborators and fellow desert rats whose lives were changed when they intersected with his…Dip in anywhere, at your leisure; you cannot fail but to come away inspired. (Pima County Public Library, "Southwest Books of the Year") Bowden's impact, both on Southwest letters and on the national conversation about the borderlands, is clearly evident in this collection of 50 essays…[America's Most Alarming Writer] is not simply a recounting of shared incidents in an eventful life, nor is it just an assessment of a remarkable body of work. Importantly, it is a revealing document about a fiercely driven investigative journalist's relentless pursuit of the truth in the face of a society too willing to look the other way. (Arizona Daily Star) In America's Most Alarming Writer, the best essays are those that don't idolize or indulge our compulsion to honor the dead. (High Country News)

• Introduction, Bill Broyles and Bruce J. DingesBeginnings Over the Rainbow, Peg BowdenOn Campus, David F. AllmendingerTaking History Off Campus, Charles Bowden letterStreet Signs with Lew Kreinberg and Charles Bowden, Barbara HoulbergChuck Becomes a Reporter, Kathleen DannreutherLet the Tortoises Roll, Norma CoileThe Jimi Hendrix of Journalism, Tony DavisBowden’s Southwest Stand My Watch, Katie LeeGive Light to the Air, Molly McKassonHow’s My Government?, Ray CarrollDiscovering Chuck, Winifred J. BundyMr. Southwest, Joseph C. WilderChuck’s Desert Garden, Kasey AndersonPlanting Trees, Kim SandersA Man for All Seasons, Phil JordanChuck Bowden in the Twilight Zone, Cal LashThe Most Fearless Writer in America, Ken SandersPublishing Chuck Writing in the Moment, Melissa HarrisThe Big Kick: Editing Chuck, Rebecca SaletanOf Rock ’n’ Roll and Corn Laws: A Few Words on Charles Bowden, Gregory McNameeSketches of Chuck, Tim SchaffnerAssembling a Bowden Bibliography, Walt BartholomewLessons from Anger and Love, Clara JefferyCollaborators Interviewing a Tire, Jack DykingaDickens, Melville, and Bowden, Michael P. BermanOver the Line, Alice Leora BriggsHeart’s Desire, Molly MolloyWhite, Red, and Black, JuliÁn CardonaTraveling and Not Traveling with Chuck, Eugene RichardsTrailing Bowden Bowden’s Need to Walk, Judy Nolte TempleBowden Nails the Door Shut behind Us, Todd SchackMuir, Abbey, Bowden, Mike EvansA Desert Evening with Chuck, Michael LundgrenThe Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop, Tom SheridanWriters on Bowden America’s Most Alarming Writer, Jim HarrisonHe Heard the Music, Scott CarrierCharles Bowden and La Santa Muerte, Leslie Marmon SilkoThe License Plate Said “Hayduke”: Chuck Bowden and the Red Cadillac--A Memory, Luis Alberto UrreaScratchboard Opposites, Gary Paul NabhanDrawn to the Flames: Bowden and Agee, Expanding the Boundaries of American Nonfiction, William deBuysWild Gods of Mexico, Don Henry Ford Jr.Crossing the Line, James GalvinThe Fountain Theatre, Francisco CantÚPure Bowden, William LangewiescheStreet Reporter on La LÍnea, Philip CaputoNo One Gets Out Alive, Richard GrantCoda Here Stands a Reporter, Tom ZoellnerPacking Chuck’s Legacy, Mary Martha MilesWhy We Carry On, Alan WeismanI Have Had to Make Up My Life As I Went Along, Charles BowdenAcknowledgmentsCopyright and CreditsIndex