The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931-1965 - Softcover

Powell, Dawn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1883642256 ISBN 13: 9781883642259

Publisher: Steerforth Press, 1998

Synopsis

Dawn Powell had a brilliant mind and a keen wit and her humor was never at a finer pitch than in her diaries. And yet her story is a poignant one – a son emotionally and mentally impaired, a household of too much alcohol and never enough money, and an artistic career that, if not a failure, fell far short of the success she craved. All is recorded here – along with working sketches for her novels, and often revealing portraits of her many friends (a literary who’s who of her period) – in her always unique style and without self-delusion.

Powell's remarkable Diaries will stand as one of her finest literary achievements.

About this title

Review:

Dawn Powell has often been overlooked since her death at 67 in 1965, but her brilliant novels, such as Angels On Toast, A Time to Be Born and The Wicked Pavilion are returning to print. And to accompany her rediscovery, The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931-1965 presents a wondrous evocation of the writing life. More than mere diaries, Powell's journals are at times a workbook presenting many fully-formed narratives. There are thoughtful pieces about why she feels compelled to write and gripes about how writers live. And scattered throughout are witty and gossipy essays about living in literary New York and socializing and working with such characters as Edmund Wilson, John Dos Passos, her editor Max Perkins, and the woman to whom she was often unfairly compared,Dorothy Parker.

From the Inside Flap:

"The struggle chronicled in "The Diaries of Dawn Powell is as brave and feisty a story as any to be found in the novels that made her Ernest Hemingway's 'favorite living writer."--James Wilcox, "Elle Magazine
WHEN DAWN POWELL'S unpublished Diaries first appeared three years ago, the book was proclaimed on the front cover of the "New York Times Book Review as "one of the outstanding literary finds of the last quarter-century . . . a book in a thousand." More praise followed from nearly every quarter, including Gore Vidal in "The New York Review of Books, Daniel Aaron in "The New Republic, and Bill Buford in "The New Yorker ("reads like a mini-book of mini-stories - one compact, perfectly formed arrative followed by another").
Powell had a brilliant mind and a keen wit and her humor was never at a finer pitch than in her diaries. And yet her story is a poignant one - a son emotionally and mentally impaired, a household of too much alcohol and never enough money, and an artistic career that, if not a failure, fell far short of the success she craved. All is recorded here - along with working sketches for her novels, and often revealing portraits of her many friends (a literary who's who of her period) - in her always unique style and without self-delusion.
With the publication of Tim Page's biography of Powell planned for this fall, and with all of her best works now back in print, it would appear that Dawn Powell has clearly 'arrived' to take her deserved place in American letters. And her remarkable "Diaries will stand as one of her finest literary achievements.

About this edition

• Publisher: Steerforth Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1883642256
• ISBN 13: 9781883642259
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 513