The Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Introduction 1
4. BEGINNINGS
5. Over the Rainbow 17
6. On Campus 23
7. Taking History Off Campus 27
8. Street Signs with Lew Kreinberg and Charles Bowden 33
9. Chuck Becomes a Reporter 38
10. Let the Tortoises Roll 43
11. The Jimi Hendrix of Journalism 47
12. BOWDEN’S SOUTHWEST
13. Stand My Watch 59
14. Give Light to the Air 63
15. How’s My Government? 70
16. Discovering Chuck 74
17. Mr. Southwest 76
18. Chuck’s Desert Garden 78
19. Planting Trees 83
20. A Man for All Seasons 86
21. Chuck Bowden in the Twilight Zone 88
22. The Most Fearless Writer in America 93
23. PUBLISHING CHUCK
24. Writing in the Moment 109
25. The Big Kick: Editing Chuck 115
26. Of Rock ’n’ Roll and Corn Laws: A Few Words on Charles Bowden 122
27. Sketches of Chuck 130
28. Assembling a Bowden Bibliography 134
29. Lessons from Anger and Love 138
30. COLLABORATORS
31. Interviewing a Tire 147
32. Dickens, Melville, and Bowden 154
33. Over the Line 157
34. Heart’s Desire 165
35. White, Red, and Black 174
36. Traveling and Not Traveling with Chuck 180
37. TRAILING BOWDEN
38. Bowden’s Need to Walk 187
39. Bowden Nails the Door Shut behind Us 193
40. Muir, Abbey, Bowden 197
41. A Desert Evening with Chuck 203
42. The Mesquite Tree and the Endless Loop 206
43. WRITERS ON BOWDEN
44. America’s Most Alarming Writer 215
45. He Heard the Music 218
46. Charles Bowden and La Santa Muerte 224
47. The License Plate Said “Hayduke”: Chuck Bowden and the Red Cadillac—A Memory 238
48. Scratchboard Opposites 248
49. Drawn to the Flames: Bowden and Agee, Expanding the Boundaries of American Nonfiction 253
50. Wild Gods of Mexico 258
51. Crossing the Line 264
52. The Fountain Theatre 269
53. Pure Bowden 273
54. Street Reporter on La Línea 280
55. No One Gets Out Al 284
56. CODA
57. Here Stands a Reporter 295
58. Packing Chuck’s Legacy 302
59. Mary Martha Miles 308
60. I Have Had to Make Up My Life As I Went Along 314
61. Acknowledgments 321
62. Copyright and Credits 323
63. Index 329