History of the Collection
Oberlin College Special Collections purchased Bowen’s records from two different English booksellers in 2004 and 2005. The archive was added to support the teaching of Comparative Literature in translation. The old travel trunk in which one half was arrived has also been preserved.
Scope and Content
This collection is 4 cubic feet of manuscripts, and typescripts; notes and correspondence; financial records and day books; clippings; photographs, promotional materials, endnotes, and illustrations; and multiple copies of Bowen's own books. With the exception of some family memetos, the collection spans the decades between the 1930s and the 1980s.
Works by John Charles Edward Bowen
Translations
Poems from the Persian. Oxford, England: B. Blackwell, 1948.
The Golden Pomegranate: A Selection from the Poetry of the Mogul Empire in India. Bombay, India: Thacker & Co. Ltd., 1957.
A New Selection of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. London: Unicorn Press, 1961.
Shaikh Saʻdī of Shiraz : a brief biography of the poet, with verse translations. Shiraz, Iran : Printed at the Musari Printing Press, circa 1969.
Oriental Proverbs: Selected, interpreted, and rendered into English Verse. London: Luzac and Co., 1980.
Plain Tales of the Afghan Border. London: Springwood Books, 1982.
Original Works
Grim and Gay (under pseudonym Lancer), 1941.[8]
Poems. London: J. Baker, 1968.
A Journey to the Heart of Asia. Abingdon, England: Abbey Press, 1972.
Translation or Travesty? An Enquiry into Robert Grave's Version of Some Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Abingdon, England: Abbey Press, 1973.
Broadsides
A Calendar of Love, 1983.
Rhodes and Asia Minor Remembered, 1983.
As part of the archive, Bowen's personal copies of his books are available for use in Special Collections, including copies of Poems and The Golden Pomegranate custom bound by the celebrated bookbinding firm Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the same firm responsible for the famous "Peacock" binding of The Rubaiyat by Omar Khyyam that was lost on the Titanic. Many of the books contain handwritten notes and corrections by Bowen, and provide additional insight into Bowen's work as a poet and translator.
Processed by Haley Antell, Meaghan Brown, and Ed Vermue in August 2015. Last updated August 2026.