Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Alan Bowne papers, C0319, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Barbara Hayes in January 2019.

Additional materials donated by Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. in August 2021 and by Barabara Hayes in November 2023.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Amanda Menjivar in March 2019. EAD markup completed by Amanda Menjivar in March 2019. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in February 2023. Additional processing completed and finding aid updated by Meghan Glasbrenner from March-April 2024.

Biographical Information

Alan Bowne was an American playwright and author. Born William Alan Bowne on February 20, 1945 in Hemet, California, Bowne was best known for a handful of works, including "Beirut," "Forty-Deuce," "Sharon and Billy," as well as a 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.

Scope and Content

Content Warning: Many of the notebooks in this collection contain graphic sexual content.

The Alan Bowne papers consists of five boxes of materials created over the course of Bowne's career as a playwright and author. These include 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 collections contains four series.

Series 1: Writings and Correspondence (1971 - 1991) includes multiple drafts and scripts of Bowne's work, including drafts for "Forty-Deuce," "Sharon and Billy," and "Wally Wonderstruck." It also includes correspondence and other materials related to submitting his written work to various publishers. Notable are two notebooks Bowne wrote in, one containing his thoughts on his presumed AIDS diagnosis.

Series 2: Photographs and Audiovisual Materials (circa 1970s - 1989) includes photographs of Bowne himself, with friends, on vacation, and of his Sonoma County, CA home and the surrounding countryside. The two audio cassettes and reel-to-reel tape contain recordings of a 1984 production of his play "Sharon and Billy."

Series 3: Additional writings (circa 1960s - 1980s) includes additional written materials donated in 2021 and 2023. These include 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 techinal writings, resumes, and an obituary written after Bowne's passing.

Series 4: Notebooks (1979 - June 1989) includes five additional notebooks containing handwritten writing by Bowne. Contents include personal journal entries, including 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.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into four series by format and then chronologically.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other performing arts collections .

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• LGBTQ+ drama
• AIDS (Disease)
• Creative writing
• Filmmaking (Motion pictures)
• LGBTQ+
• New York (N.Y.)
• Playwriting
• Screenplay writing
• Sonoma County (Calif.)
• Theater -- United States