Question: The American who owned Taprobane Island died in what year? 

Related documents: [0]  [DOC] Paul Frederic Bowles ( ; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with Tangier, Morocco, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life. [END] 
[1]  [DOC] Taprobane Island, originally called "Galduwa" ("Rock Island" in Sinhalese), is a private island with one villa, located just off the southern coast of Sri Lanka opposite the village of Weligama. The island was renamed after the old Greek word for Sri Lanka, by its most famous owner, the self-titled Count de Mauny Talvande (born Maurice Talvande), who sighted it around 1925 after a long search for an earthly paradise. He built its villa and replanted the island to create a private eden. The islet passed on to the American author and composer Paul Bowles and then the Sri Lankan born former UN Chief Prosecutor Sir Desmond Lorenz de Silva before it came to the ownership of the Australian businessman Geoffrey Dobbs. [END]  
Answer: 1999
1999