false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg 92287 2 The resurrection of the great dualistic novelist Dawn Powell(1864-1965)--who chronicled both Greenwich Village cafe society (hilariously) and small-town Ohio life (poignantly)--was initially sparked by a 1987 Gore Vidal essay that led to the reissue of several Powell novels. In the 1990s, <I>Washington Post</I> music critic Tim Page revivified her further. Page wrote essays about Powell, penned introductions for new reprints of her titles, and, with Powell family members, hired a lawyer and sued Powell's ineffectual literary executor for the release of the writer's amazing collection of papers. From there, he edited and guided <I>The Diaries of Dawn Powell</I>, which assured her standing as primary wit and social chronicler of the 20th century.<p> But Powell still had no biography; now Page has taken care of that, too. <I>Dawn Powell: A Biography</I> is the first published account of her life story, as chronicled via letters, diary entries, and reminiscences from surviving relatives and friends. Apart from some sentimental, long-winded slides describing Powell's troubled Ohio youth ("the happiest moments of her childhood were those idyllic times when she was hidden away by herself, in treetops, thickets, or attic rooms, pencil in hand, observing people, places, and events and recording everything in her notebooks"), Page's tone in this book is serious, studious, and well balanced. More detective than literary critic, Page eschews literary analysis in favor of neatly organized discussions of each of her 15 novels, setting his own textual synopses against Powell's diary entries and public and private reviews of each title (her friends Edmund Wilson and John Dos Passos frequently offered unpublished critiques).<p> Page doesn't justify Powell's questionable decisions (marrying Joseph Gousha, a heavy alcoholic; institutionalizing her afflicted son), nor does he ignore her less admirable qualities (her own heavy drinking, her apathy towards politics and social causes). He consults doctors about the family illnesses (Powell's son Jojo was likely autistic, not retarded; Powell's belief that the tumor she suffered in her 50s was a vestigial twin is instead attributed to a rare tumor called a teratoma). He reveals her true age (a year older than she claimed). He states her likely lovers (almost certainly radical playwright John Howard Lawson, possibly writer Coburn Gilman). He tracks down a life's worth of wild freelance jobs and job offers (analyzing songs for a radio show, which she took; writing a treatment of Frank L. Baum's <I>Wizard of Oz</I>, which she declined). He also, slightly abashedly, refutes his own earlier published claim that she spent a portion of her later years homeless, explaining instead that facts show that she and her husband actually lived in a series of residential hotels in Manhattan during that time.<p> Well-balanced, to the point of being dispassionate, this biography speaks to the converted. If you're not yet a Powell fan, grab her diaries and novels first. <I>--Jean Lenihan</I> 89010 1998 Dawn Powell: A Biography total:14|5:3|4:10|3:1|2:0|1:0| 14 58 19 0 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Tue Nov 24 13:23:10 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 24 13:23:10 -0800 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Mon Jul 20 16:38:38 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 16:38:45 -0700 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Sun May 10 11:29:25 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 11:29:25 -0700 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 5 0 false Tue Apr 07 05:14:08 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 05:14:08 -0700 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 5 0 false Thu Mar 12 21:14:08 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 21:14:08 -0700 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 3 0 false Tue Feb 10 19:15:03 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 19:15:03 -0800 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 5 0 false Mon Jan 26 17:07:56 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 17:07:56 -0800 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 08:02:42 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 09:11:28 -0800 2009 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 0 0 false Thu Nov 20 06:38:08 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 06:38:08 -0800 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Wed Oct 08 19:07:51 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 08 19:07:55 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Mon Aug 18 07:15:34 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 07:15:34 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 0 0 false Fri Aug 01 18:02:29 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 18:02:29 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Thu Jul 24 22:11:43 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 22:11:53 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 0 0 false Wed Mar 26 07:58:33 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 07:58:38 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 0 0 false Tue Mar 18 13:39:36 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 13:39:44 -0700 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Wed Feb 06 13:55:08 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 13:55:08 -0800 2008 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Thu Nov 15 18:02:35 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 15 18:02:35 -0800 2007 92287 0805063013 9780805063011 14 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171245338m/92287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92287.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 4 0 false Sat Sep 15 07:28:52 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 07:28:52 -0700 2007 564984 080505068X 9780805050684 0 0 4.14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175836115m/564984.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/564984.Dawn_Powell_A_Biography 0 0 false Thu Aug 02 10:20:57 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 10:20:58 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=92287