With so much newly processed material, we simply had to highlight the recently updated papers of playwright Alan Bowne in this month’s new (and updated!) finding aids blog post. The SCRC processing team is very excited that this newly expanded collection is now available for use in the Special Collections Research Center and the finding aid available on our website (or use the link included below).
Additional collection materials processed and finding aid updated by Meghan Glasbrenner
Content Warning: Many of the notebooks in this collection contain graphic sexual content.
Alan Bowne, circa 1980s. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 3, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Born William Alan Bowne on February 20, 1945 in Hemet, California, Bowne was best known for a handful of his works as a playwright and author, including the plays Beirut, Forty-Deuce, and Sharon and Billy, as well as the unpublished novel Wally Wonderstruck. Perhaps his most famous and enduring work, Beirut is a one-act play that tells the allegorical story of a heterosexual couple dealing with a mysterious disease that ravages dystopian New York. This fictional disease presumably represented the real HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Beirut was eventually adapted into a 1993 television movie, re-titled Daybreak. Bowne passed away from AIDS-related complications on November 24, 1989 in his Sonoma County home at 44 years old.
“Alan Bowne, Hell’s Angels territory” photo album scrapbook page detail, September 1981. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 3, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
The Alan Bowne papers includes play scripts and drafts, short story and novel drafts, screenplays, technical writings, correspondence, notebooks, photographs, audio cassettes, and one reel-to-reel tape. These materials originate from circa 1964 – 1991, with the bulk of the collection originating from the 1980s. The collection contains four series, with the first two consisting of previously processed materials. Series 1: Writings and Correspondence includes multiple drafts and scripts of Bowne’s work, correspondence and other materials related to submitting his written work to various publishers, and two personal notebooks, one containing his thoughts on his presumed AIDS diagnosis.
Letter from Robert Lantz of The Lantz Office, Inc. to Bowne, August 30, 1982. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 1, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Series 2: Photographs and Audiovisual Materials includes photographs of Bowne himself, with friends, on vacation, and of his Sonoma County, CA home and surrounding countryside, as well as two audio cassettes and a reel-to-reel tape containing recordings of a 1984 production of his play Sharon and Billy.
Photograph of Alan Bowne with friends, circa 1980s. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 2, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Photo album scrapbook page detail, 1984. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 3, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
The remaining two series contain the newly processed materials donated to SCRC in 2021 and 2023, much of which provides context to the collection’s existing materials, as well as expanding the coverage of Bowne’s life and career. Series 3: Additional writings contains additional written materials, such as drafts and scripts of Bowne’s work, including Cocaine and Underpants, The Little Monsters, and draft materials for additional uncompleted novels and short stories, as well as freelance technical writings from Bowne’s work as a ghost writer in the 1960s, resumes, and an obituary written after Bowne’s passing.
“RD” handwritten draft, 1969. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 4, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Finally, Series 4: Notebooks includes five additional notebooks containing handwritten writing by Bowne from between 1979 – June 1989. Contents include personal journal entries, such as thoughts on his AIDS diagnosis, as well as personal reading and writing projects, including one focused on reading and responding to each of Shakespeare’s plays. These journals are also significant because they provide context for many of the existing photographs in Series 2.
Series 4 notebooks. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 5, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Detail from large black notebook labeled “Journal”, January 1988. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 5, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Detail from green notebook labeled “Vagrant Notes”, 1989. Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Box 5, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
