The Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965

by Dawn Powell, Tim Page (Editor)

The rediscovery of Dawn Powell is in full swing. Her novels, most of them back in print, now grace the shelves of bookstores across the nation. Tim Page's masterly biography of Powell has helped to generate an enormous amount of publicity and renewed interest in this immensely provocative and insightful writer-including a three-page spread in The New York Times .

Terry Teachout, writing in The New York Times Book Review , hailed The Diaries of Dawn Powell , edited by Tim Page, as one of the outstanding literary finds of the last quarter century. This collection of Dawn Powell's letters promises to create yet another wave of excitement and discovery. Written to friends, fans, relatives, and publishers, and to Malcolm Lowry, John Dos Passos, Edmund Wilson, Max Perkins, and Malcolm Cowley, they are rife with Powell's great ability to entertain. This collection will complete the restoration and rehabilitation of one of America's finest literary voices.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Biography, Biography Memoir, History, Memoir, Poetry

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Dawn Powell was an American writer of satirical novels and stories that manage to be barbed and sensitive at the same time.

Reviews

[Dan Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished Dawn Powell’s Selected Letters. A strange and sad feeling when you approach the end of the letters of someone you’ve grown to love, but at least I still have her books to read and reread. This is a great thing about a beloved author: the person may pass away, but the books live on.

Enormous thanks to Tim Page for such a great job in assembling and editing this book.

[Katy Koivastik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! I am an admirer of Powell’s wit and writing style which comes through in her un-restrained letters to fellow writers, editors, artists and members of her extended family.

Clearly Tim Page is an expert on Powell’s life and work and has curated this book of her letters in such a way one gets a clear picture of her struggles with her work and finances. Despite those struggles, she led an amazing life amongst fellow members of “The Lost Generation”, though she herself did not consider herself a true member, her inclusion in an Esquire magazine photo to the contrary.

I am most envious of Ms. Powell’s role as a habitué of the infamous Cedar Bar at a time when AbEx painters Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollack were also regulars.

[Doris Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[A Pleasure · Rating 5 out of 5]

These letters remind me that I am human. Thank you Dawn.

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of letters by Dawn Powell that provide an interesting look into her life. A life full of love, wit, and courage.