You can buy Jonathan Bowden’s Western Civilization Bites Back here.

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In July of 2012, I answered a questionnaire about Jonathan Bowden for Alex Kurtagic, who was planning to write a biography of Jonathan. These are my answers. I have edited the original to correct errors, add new details, and remove confidential information.

Question: “Please describe, in as much detail as you can, your first face-to-face encounter with Jonathan Bowden.”

That is pretty much covered in my “Remembering Jonathan Bowden.”

Question: “What were your impressions and thoughts at the time?” 

See above.

Question: “Please describe, from your perspective, the occasion of JB’s first inaugural speech in the United States. What did you see and hear?”

See above.

Question: “Tell us about your subsequent working relationship with JB, as The Occidental Quarterly and the Counter-Currents editor.”

After Jonathan’s speech in Atlanta in 2009, Jonathan went with Adrian Davies and Sam Dickson for a while to Key West, where Sam has a house. When Jonathan flew back to Atlanta to catch his plane back to England, he had a very long wait, six or eight hours I think. So Mike Van Houten and I went to pick him up at the airport. Mike treated us to a huge meal at a Brazilian steakhouse. Jonathan ate very modestly, something I observed later at the California retreat. He was relaxed, talkative, and funny. His only remark about Key West is that Sam Dickson did “nothing but eat.” (Sam isn’t a glutton, but he loves long conversations over meals and makes a big production of them.) I don’t remember the rest of our conversation, but it was a very pleasant one. We talked mostly about people, travel, and the race situation, because these are the sorts of things that Van Houten focuses on.

I recall giving Jonathan some of my Savitri Devi books. (There were three out at the time: And Time Rolls On, Gold in the Furnace, and Defiance.) He very kindly had some of his books sent to me after he returned to England, but I am sorry to say that I found them unreadable. After his visit, I felt very strongly that we had the makings of something really exciting coming together, and I believed that Jonathan would be a big part of it. I wanted to get Jonathan involved in The Occidental Quarterly, but his writings were not right for TOQ or TOQ online, and it was not entirely a matter of TOQ being restricting and stuffy. I was pleased though to have The Art of Jonathan Bowden, vols. 1 and 2 reviewed for TOQ Online.

When I founded Counter-Currents, I contacted JB and invited him to write for us. Counter-Currents went online on June 11, 2010. On August 11, I reprinted something on modern art from his website. A few days later, Jonathan sent me his first article, “Why I Write.” He was pleased when our reprint of his Nosferatu piece was translated into Czech. Beginning in September, he began writing for us weekly. His next eight pieces were reviews of his own books under the pen name John Michael McCloughlan. This weekly writing continued into January, when he had his breakdown. In March of 2011, he told me he wanted to start writing again, but with a pen name. He wanted something hyphenated and ultra British. Since Mountbatten-Windsor was out of the question, I suggested Arthur Kingsley-Wake, which he accepted even though he said it made him sound like he was 70 years old. He wrote one piece under that pen name, on A Clockwork Orange. I found it somewhat harder to edit than the others. He was clearly laboring under some sort of impediment. After that, he wrote no more until June 2011, when his friend Bill Hopkins died. He then began writing weekly again, until October 2011, when he took a break. I don’t know why, but I had the impression he was working on other projects.

All told, Jonathan wrote 35 original pieces for us. I thought they were better written in general than the short pieces on his website. I think that he loved the fact that he could discuss popular culture in a frankly Right-wing style. He told me that he would go to a library and use a computer for an hour or two, typing his essays from memory as if they were timed university exams. I figured that he had to have some sort of computer at home, given the books he published, but apparently he had no internet connection. That is when it occurred to me that we could get Jonathan to be much more productive with a proper computer, which led eventually to our gift of a new laptop just before he died. We also gave him a podcasting kit to make it possible for him to do better quality interviews, and we hoped he would eventually become a giant of the airwaves.

Question: “I understand that JB emailed you while in the midst of his breakdown, stating he was in physical danger. What did you imagine or were your thoughts at the time? Did he subsequently explain it?”

He wrote saying that his living situation had become untenable and that his life had been threatened, and said it was in part due to the things he had published at CC. Here is the email:

1/28/2011
My Future Life

Dear Greg,

This is in no way a joke e-mail. I have been threatened with death, assassination, arson and physical beatings here in the United Kingdom. I have also been partially driven from my house. The situation has become very precarious for me and I might well be killed at a time in the near future. Do I have your assistance in the future in helping me with my predicament? One of the reasons that I have been singled out is for writing for counter-currents – this has been made quite clear to me. I am in a very difficult position here in the United Kingdom.

Yours ever,

Jonathan Bowden

Frankly, I took it all at face value. It seemed completely plausible to me. He asked me what I could do to help. I wrote back immediately:

Jonathan,

I am almost broke, but if you need to get out of the UK, I can give you a place to stay and your own computer for a while, and I can surely rally some friends and supporters to help to find you find something more long lasting. Get your visa in order. Pack your grip.

Sam Dickson might also be able to help you. He has a number of properties. He might be able to give you a place to stay for a good long time. Adrian Davies should be consulted about that.

Feel free to call me. ***-***-****

Best,

Greg

Fearing that I had sounded noncommittal, I sent a PS:

Seriously, I will do everything possible to help.

Will you be in Charlotte for AmRen?

Greg

I have a large room that I use as a library on the ground floor of the house where we live. It is a storage room, but has a window on the garden, and it is quite spacious and comfortable, lined floor to ceiling with books. I use it as a guest bedroom, and I sleep there myself on the couple days a year when San Francisco is hot, since it is the coolest and quietest place in the house. I would have let Jonathan stay indefinitely, as long as the landlord did not object.

I did not hear back from him, so I emailed Adrian Davies:

31 January 2011
To: Adrian Davies
Subject: Jonathan Bowden

Dear Adrian,

I received a disturbing email from Jonathan Bowden on Friday. He said that his life has been threatened, and he has basically been forced to flee his home. He asked what I could do to help him. Unfortunately, I can do very little. Money is very tight. But I do have an extra room here, and I offered him a place to stay in San Francisco, and I also offered to help him with finding other resources.

I have not heard back from him, and I am worried. This is obviously not good, no matter what is going on.

I am wondering if you have heard anything.

I hope all is well with you.

All the best,

Greg

Adrian replied:

Dear Greg,

JB has suffered a complete nervous breakdown. The threats etc. are the product of a fevered imagination. He has been leading the British Police a merry dance, making calls to the 999 (emergency service) number to say that terrorists are out to get him. He is now under medical care after being arrested in Reading for brandishing a commando knife in the street! I hope that a few weeks’ rest and some medication will restore him to his old self. He is very unwell at present.

Best wishes,

Adrian

I did not hear from Jonathan until March 3, 2011. He never mentioned the episode. He did not seem changed in the least, though, when I talked to him on the phone a couple of times in 2011 or when I saw him in 2012. Although I did feel that the Clockwork Orange piece was a bit muddled. His writing after that, however, was true to form.

Question: “Please tell me about his participation at the retreat in February 2012. Describe his arrival, the events and conversations involving JB that weekend.”

Jonathan wore the same black suit with a broken button and green shirt and tie during his whole visit. I travel light myself, so it did not seem odd. He also had a long raincoat with him. I awaited him outside the baggage area in the international concourse. I only waited a few minutes before he appeared. He was relaxed and smiling when he came out. Jef Costello and Mike Polignano were in the car.

We drove to the apartment in SF, giving him a bit of a driving tour, showed him our apartment, introduced him to my dog Rockwell (Jonathan declared himself “pro-dog” and pronounced that Rockwell was a “good egg”), then we went out to dinner at a place on Washington Square called The Bottle Cap, which had such good food that we forgave the silly name and the dreary atmosphere. Jonathan ate light: ravioli, I recall. (He ate light the whole time he was here.)

We then walked to City Lights Books, which he enjoyed. He was so comical in his raincoat examining books with a magnifying glass. I called him “Inspector.” With the accent, all he needed was a Deerstalker and a meerschaum pipe.

During his visit, he was talkative and relaxed. We drove to Santa Cruz on Friday evening, and we met informally with the participants for drinks and dinner. Jonathan revealed that he had quite a good knowledge of astrology, and declared that he had “the astrological profile of a fascist dictator.” His talk at our retreat, “Western Civilization Bites Back,” was excellent, as you can hear and read for yourself. Because I was the main organizer of the retreat, I did not have a chance to spend much time talking to Jonathan while we were there. He circulated with the rest of the guests and seemed engaged. In the last session, he vowed to return and speak as many times as we would have him, which pleased us all tremendously. He very much enjoyed the drive down to Santa Cruz and back. He loved the California coast. I planned eventually to show him Robinson Jeffers’ tower near Carmel.

On the Sunday evening after the retreat, Jonathan, Matt Parrott, Jef Costello, Mike Polignano, and I went to a very nice Persian restaurant. Matt found the food so foreign he would not order anything. Jonathan seemed to enjoy it tremendously, though. The conversation was mostly movement gossip. After dinner, we recorded a long interview about art (Part 1 Audio, Part 1 Transcript, Part 2 Audio, Part 2 Transcript). After that, Jonathan entertained us with impressions and stories about people on the British Right, including Nick Griffin. His impressions and accents had us all floored.

On the Monday after the retreat, Matt Parrott, Mike Polignano, and I took Jonathan on a driving tour of SF, and the weather was lovely. He really seemed to love SF and California in general.

Before we took him to the airport for his flight, we went to lunch at a horrible American pizza place the size of a small airplane hangar with dozens of huge plasma TVs tuned to every possible station. Jonathan was most amused. One does not have to drive far outside SF to get to “Middle America.” He had a light pizza, which was good, and a beer. He remarked that maybe this place would be more to Matt’s liking (we had already dropped him off at the airport), and he hypothesized that Matt suffered from “BFP.” “BFP?” I asked. “Bourgeois food panic.”

Question: “During that last visit, in what ways did you find him changed since your earlier encounter in 2009?”

He did not seem changed to me.

Question: “What did JB tell you about the way he worked? (Painting- and writingwise.)”

He never told me about his painting technique, but he was apparently able to do commissions. He told me that he wrote his articles for us by going to a library and sitting down at a computer for the allotted hour (or however long) and writing like he was doing a university exam.

Question: “What did JB tell you about his past and about his family?”

Nothing. We talked about art, literature, and Right-wing ideas and personalities.

Question: “What did JB tell you about his personal life—how he lived, what he did for a living, etc.?”

Nothing. It was a great mystery. I assumed he lived in genteel poverty with a lot of books, perhaps on a small trust or the public dole.

Question: “Please tell me about JB’s eccentricities and peculiar habits.”

I have covered that. I don’t like your focus on madness and eccentricity, by the way, since Jonathan’s beliefs were quite rational and well-grounded, and it will only allow people to dismiss him without a serious hearing.

You can buy Jonathan Bowden’s Pulp Fascism here.

Question: “What projects were under discussion with C-C at the time of his death? What other projects did he mention he was then working on?”

He told me a friend had offered him the princely sum of 100 pounds to write an introduction to far-Right thinking, and he offered it to us. I told him that I would of course publish it. We also talked about anthologizing a number of his writings on fascistic and Nietzschean themes in comics, pulps, and popular culture under the title Pulp Fascism. He was keen on the latter idea and mentioned it when he was visiting SF.

Question: “Please describe the moment when you learnt of JB’s passing, your initial reaction, and subsequent thoughts.”

It is covered in my piece on Jonathan’s passing. Since then, my feelings of loss have deepened. I think about him frequently, and his passing has made me more conscious of my own health and more focused on accomplishing what needs to be done for our people.

Question: “What impact did JB have on you personally?”

He was one of the most interesting and charismatic people I have ever met. Yet unlike many people of genius, he was very easy to get along with and talk to. I felt very much at ease with him, very visible, and he seemed open and at ease as well. I felt we were becoming good friends when he was here in SF, and I looked forward to bringing him back to all future Counter-Currents retreats, showing him more of California, and publishing much more of his work.

He also inspired me to be more open and courageous about developing and expressing my own views, and he influenced my own thinking about the nature of the New Right and the task of metapolitics.

Question: “What impact, in your estimation, did JB have in the United States New Right?”

He had an important impact on my writing, which may yet have some impact on the world. And it is my hope that his work will continue to impact people in North America and around the globe. We will certainly make his work available on our site in perpetuity.

Question: “What is your evaluation of JB’s work—his writing, his paintings, and his films?”

Jonathan’s greatest work was as an orator.

I like some of his paintings tremendously. They have a demonic intensity, and their composition, technique, and color are quite pleasing to my eyes. I own the two paintings I think the best: Adolf and Leni and Medusa Now Ventrix. I looked forward to his commission Meat in the Walls, which I discussed with him in San Francisco, but he did not live to complete it. The commission he completed for me, Savitri Diva, was not that good. We also talked about me purchasing his Mussolini with Bi-Planes when he came over next, for our August 2012 retreat. I planned to buy and commission other paintings in the future. I think that Jonathan was pleased that I actually liked his art and wanted to own it. I don’t know if he sold much or any of it to other people.

I have shared my views of his writing in my memorial piece. (Also see my Foreword to Edward Dutton’s biography of Jonathan.)

I have only watched a bit of one of Jonathan’s films. It was after he died, and it made me sad, so I shut it off.