title: Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin
author:  Bruce Chatwin 
description: Starred Review. Celebrated English travel writer and novelist Chatwin (In Patagonia) died of AIDS 20 years ago; he was only 48. His lettersfrom such far-flung locales as Sweden, Afghanistan, his beloved Greece, Turkey, Africa, and, of course, Patagoniaare lovingly compiled and thoroughly annotated, with indispensable narrative (explaining, for instance, Chatwins sudden conversion to Eastern Christianity) by Chatwins widow and his biographer. Given to impulsive life and career changes, Chatwin discusses the full range of life from the mundane to the spiritual, from his writing to his dislike of his own pretty boy looks. He charmed or intimately knew such cultural movers and shakers as Christopher Isherwood, Susan Sontag, Jasper Johns, Edmund White, and many others. There were at least two serious long-term relationships with men (one with filmmaker James Ivory). Yet the Chatwins remained married and always intellectual partners; toward the end of his life, Chatwin writes, despite marital difficulties, neither of us have loved anyone else. (Feb. 7) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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  It is sure that, if a book is to be read
  
  
  second-hand or even in pirated form, its author would prefer it to be
  
  
  read as he or she wrote it. Therefore, from respect for the author
  
  
  and his considerable book, the two thousand-odd errors wrought by
  
  
  'program' incompatibility have been corrected; any remaining are of
  
  
  this editor's deficiency. The author's original text has been
  
  
  retained, corrected by common sense and scholarship - A publisher and
  
  
  fellow though lesser writer. Nov. '04.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **IN
  
  
  PATAGONIA**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Bruce
  
  
  Chatwin was born in 1942, and was the author of six books: _In
  
  
  Patagonia_,
  
  
  _The
  
  
  Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, The Songlines and Utz_.
  
  
  The last three he considered works of fiction. His last book, What Am
  
  
  I Doing Here, is a collection of essays, travelogues, and portraits.
  
  
  Chatwin died outside Nice, France, on January 17, 1989.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _**In
  
  
  Patagonia**_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  BRUCE
  
  
  CHATWIN
  
  
  
  
  
  _Il
  
  
  n’y a plus 