At the suggestion of Gertrude Stein, Paul Bowles, a successful composer of theatrical music on Broadway, moved to Morocco to remove himself from the stifling influences of Western culture. The Sheltering Sky was his first attempt at novel writing, and though the editors of Doubleday rejected the commissioned manuscript for being too "existential," New Directions published it to great critical reviews. Bowles called the novel "an adventure story, in which the actual adventures take place on two planes simultaneously: in the actual desert, and in the inner desert of the spirit." William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac all admired the novel, and Burroughs, seeking a place to live after the death of his wife in Mexico, moved to Morocco, hoping to meet Paul and Jane Bowles, and to find a culture that would be more amenable to his unorthodox appetites. Eventually Burroughs succeeded in meeting the famous author, and when Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Orlovsky came to visit, they joined Paul and Jane Bowles on several excursions.
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