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Complete Novels
For decades after her death, Dawn Powell's work was out of print, cherished by a small band of admirers. Only recently has there been renewed awareness of the novelist who was such a vital presence in literary Greenwich Village from the 1920s to the 1960s. With these two volumes, The Library of America presents the best of Powell's quirky, often hilarious, sometimes deeply moving fiction.Dawn Powell was the tirelessly observant chronicler of two very different worlds: the small-town Ohio of her childhood and the sophisticated Manhattan to which she gravitated. If her Ohio novels are more melancholy and compassionate in their depiction of often frustrated lives, her Manhattan novels, with their cast of writers, show people, businessmen, and hustling hangers-on, are more exuberant and incisive. But all show rich characterization and a flair for the gist of social complexities. A playful satirist, an unsentimental observer of failed hopes and misguided longings, Dawn Powell is a literary rediscovery of rare importance.
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First published January 1, 1930
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About the author
Dawn Powell
43 books338 followersDawn Powell was an American writer of satirical novels and stories that manage to be barbed and sensitive at the same time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 20, 2024
Dawn Powell In The Library of America -- 1
Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacing and values of life in the Midwest and in New York. Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical. She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations.
In the 1990s, many people discovered Powell's works, sparked largely by the biography and other writings on Powell by Tim Page. In 2001, the Library of America published two volumes of Dawn Powell, with notes by Tim Page, including nine of her novels. The LOA is a wonderful and ambitious project which aims to capture the best in American writing, including novels, poetry, history, philosophy and more. The LOA offers a record of American thought and of the American experience.
This volume consists of five novels that Powell wrote between 1930 and 1942. The first two books center upon life in the Midwest while the latter three books are satires of urban life.
The first novel in the book, Dance Night (1930), was Powell's fourth published novel and her own favorite of her works. It is a coming-of-age novel set in a town called Lamptown, Ohio. It deals with the restlessness of adolescence in a small town and with sexual frustration. The book points the way for its hero to leave Lamptown on a train, presumably to seek his chance in New York City.
"Come Back to Sorrento", Powell's next novel was written in 1932 and sold very poorly. But the novel is a gem. It is set in a small midwestern town and its two main characters are a woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage who had dreamed in her youth of becoming a singer, and the town music teacher who had aspired to become a concert pianist and who is likely homosexual. The book is on the whole subdued and understated and centers upon the frustrating relationship between the two protagonists.
The next book in the collection, "Turn, Magic Wheel" (1936), is the first of Powell's novels satirizing life in New York City. Its characters are a young man who has published one successful novel lampooning a literary idol of the day, the literary idol himself, (modeled on Earnest Hemingway), and the women who are involved with both of them. There are great descriptions of the streets, bars and sites of New York City. The story is sharply, but compassionately, told. The book, I think, is ultimately a love story with an ambiguous message about the possibility of happiness.
"Angels on Toast" (1940) is a satire of the world of business with its two main characters commuting by train from Chicago to New York City in search of money and mistresses. It is sharp and engaging, if one-dimensional. I don't think it as good as the other four novels in this volume.
The final work in this collection, "A Time to be Born" (1942) was one of Powell's few novels to achieve commercial success during her lifetime. One of the main characters in this book is modeled in part on Clare Boothe Luce. In this book, Powell juxtaposes life in mid-west Ohio with life in New York City. The two major women characters in the book move to New York from the same small town in Ohio with very different results. This book is satirical but it is also -- actually primarily -- a coming-of-age novel for its young woman heroine. It gives an unforgettable picture of life in New York City just at the eve of United States entry into WW II.
Powell is best known as a satirist, but the books in this series show she was that and more. Her themes as a novelist are somewhat limited, but they are developed well and embroidered in each successive work. Her writing style develops with time until in her final novels (the second volume of the series) it becomes beautiful. She offers a vision of New York City and of the loss of innocence that is her own. The Library of America series is to be commended for finding writers describing American experience in somewhat unexpected places. Powell deserves her place in this series and in American literature. This volume will give the reader a good exposure to the work of Dawn Powell.
Robin Friedman
Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacing and values of life in the Midwest and in New York. Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical. She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations.
In the 1990s, many people discovered Powell's works, sparked largely by the biography and other writings on Powell by Tim Page. In 2001, the Library of America published two volumes of Dawn Powell, with notes by Tim Page, including nine of her novels. The LOA is a wonderful and ambitious project which aims to capture the best in American writing, including novels, poetry, history, philosophy and more. The LOA offers a record of American thought and of the American experience.
This volume consists of five novels that Powell wrote between 1930 and 1942. The first two books center upon life in the Midwest while the latter three books are satires of urban life.
The first novel in the book, Dance Night (1930), was Powell's fourth published novel and her own favorite of her works. It is a coming-of-age novel set in a town called Lamptown, Ohio. It deals with the restlessness of adolescence in a small town and with sexual frustration. The book points the way for its hero to leave Lamptown on a train, presumably to seek his chance in New York City.
"Come Back to Sorrento", Powell's next novel was written in 1932 and sold very poorly. But the novel is a gem. It is set in a small midwestern town and its two main characters are a woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage who had dreamed in her youth of becoming a singer, and the town music teacher who had aspired to become a concert pianist and who is likely homosexual. The book is on the whole subdued and understated and centers upon the frustrating relationship between the two protagonists.
The next book in the collection, "Turn, Magic Wheel" (1936), is the first of Powell's novels satirizing life in New York City. Its characters are a young man who has published one successful novel lampooning a literary idol of the day, the literary idol himself, (modeled on Earnest Hemingway), and the women who are involved with both of them. There are great descriptions of the streets, bars and sites of New York City. The story is sharply, but compassionately, told. The book, I think, is ultimately a love story with an ambiguous message about the possibility of happiness.
"Angels on Toast" (1940) is a satire of the world of business with its two main characters commuting by train from Chicago to New York City in search of money and mistresses. It is sharp and engaging, if one-dimensional. I don't think it as good as the other four novels in this volume.
The final work in this collection, "A Time to be Born" (1942) was one of Powell's few novels to achieve commercial success during her lifetime. One of the main characters in this book is modeled in part on Clare Boothe Luce. In this book, Powell juxtaposes life in mid-west Ohio with life in New York City. The two major women characters in the book move to New York from the same small town in Ohio with very different results. This book is satirical but it is also -- actually primarily -- a coming-of-age novel for its young woman heroine. It gives an unforgettable picture of life in New York City just at the eve of United States entry into WW II.
Powell is best known as a satirist, but the books in this series show she was that and more. Her themes as a novelist are somewhat limited, but they are developed well and embroidered in each successive work. Her writing style develops with time until in her final novels (the second volume of the series) it becomes beautiful. She offers a vision of New York City and of the loss of innocence that is her own. The Library of America series is to be commended for finding writers describing American experience in somewhat unexpected places. Powell deserves her place in this series and in American literature. This volume will give the reader a good exposure to the work of Dawn Powell.
Robin Friedman
August 8, 2010
Dawn Powell, part of Greenwich Village's literary scene from 1920 to 1960, is often compared to Dorothy Parker but in my mind she's superior. Their humor is similar and they both excel at lampooning the foibles of the rich, self-important, and lovelorn, but Powell is a little more subtle and underneath it all you feel an affection for most of her characters.
I just finished A Time to Be Born, which I think is her best work. Set in New York in 1941, it's the tale of the scheming social climber Amanda Keeler Evans and her timid friend Vicky, freshly arrived from the small town where they grew up. Of course there are men and backstabbing involved. I felt completely drawn into the world portrayed.
I just finished A Time to Be Born, which I think is her best work. Set in New York in 1941, it's the tale of the scheming social climber Amanda Keeler Evans and her timid friend Vicky, freshly arrived from the small town where they grew up. Of course there are men and backstabbing involved. I felt completely drawn into the world portrayed.
February 1, 2020
I actually bought this book some time ago, but I was reviewing my past Amazon orders, and voilà! If you've never read a Dawn Powell novel, well, do yourself a favor, and this compilation is a great place to start. All praise to editor Tim Page for the helpful notes and for doing so much (a bio, collected letters) for the Powell legacy. Is there anyone writing today who has Powell's charm, her sense of humor, her humanity? If so, please tell me about him or her. The only thing Powell lacked was an ability to write a cliché phrase or sentence, or a line that could have been written by anyone else. I also highly recommend Patricia Palermo's study of Powell's New York novels, "The Message of the City".
June 22, 2024
I'm putting this aside. It's not a dnf, it's a one story at a time situation. The first story was readable, had good writing but I really didn't like the characters at all.
January 23, 2018
"The real cause for regret in old age would be that one had met no love great enough to command fidelity." Witty, wicked and wise, these novels of sophisticated intellectuals mixing it up with "Dodo", journalists, admen, and ambitious women, are also very funny. Gore Vidal called her "Our best comic novelist."
Romance triumphs after delicious discourse and diversions. The psychology behind the characters is explored with relentless, unflinching honesty. The foibles are laid bare and overcome.
Exquisite!
Romance triumphs after delicious discourse and diversions. The psychology behind the characters is explored with relentless, unflinching honesty. The foibles are laid bare and overcome.
Exquisite!
September 11, 2013
Not my taste. I may try her later work.
August 19, 2019
Tried hard to make myself finish this book, but I just can't make myself read. And the characters are just not living in the real world and it's driving me crazy.
December 12, 2021
Turn, Magic Wheel
Angels on Toast
A Time to be Born
Angels on Toast
A Time to be Born
January 21, 2010
So glad I found Dawn Powell, she is what I always wanted Dorothy Parker to be.
December 7, 2023
Brilliant biting wit.
From Chapter XII of A Time to be Born:
Everywhere people were whispering to each other, "I've just got back
from Washington," with mysterious, significant looks as if now they knew
the secrets of all nations. Merely by buying a round trip ticket to the
nation's capital they acquired special powers of divination into the
country's future, which on no account would they reveal. At every
gathering a murmur fraught with spy-papers, secret missions, dangerous
responsibilities, would sweep the room—"He's leaving for Washington
tonight!" Heads would turn, every one would stare eagerly at whatever
man had been so honorably mentioned, as if out of the whole world the
President himself had decided here is the one most able to advise him.
The mere name of the city, hitherto evoking only images of cherry
blossoms and grisly state banquets, now invested whoever mentioned it
with curious, enviable knowledge, and so trains and planes were packed
with citizens rushing to Washington with their letters to some one
high-up, their queries, their suggestions, their data. Initials of
various departments and organizations buzzed up and down train
corridors, hotel lobbies, club-rooms, bars—OCD, COI, OFF, and any one
confessing bewilderment at these alphabetical symbols was socially as
undesirable as any college freshman unable to grasp the fundamental
difference between a Deke and a Beta. Briefcases shot back and forth
bulging with state secrets, plans for making ploughs out of bent paper
clips, paper clips out of bent ploughs, bullets out of iambic
pentameters and tea out of poison ivy. Artists knocked each other down
in their stampede to the Mayflower with a Functional Canvas, columnists
thought up five-word slogans for civilian morale and rushed to
headquarters for their proper medals; civilians wore uniforms to denote
they were civilians; men in action wore civilian clothes to denote they
were in the service, possibly too important for the obscurity of full
military trappings. It was a time to be just back, just going, or to
know some one who was just back or just going to Washington. Like any
other holy city, the mere pilgrimage was if itself enough to insure
respect from one's fellows.
From Chapter XII of A Time to be Born:
Everywhere people were whispering to each other, "I've just got back
from Washington," with mysterious, significant looks as if now they knew
the secrets of all nations. Merely by buying a round trip ticket to the
nation's capital they acquired special powers of divination into the
country's future, which on no account would they reveal. At every
gathering a murmur fraught with spy-papers, secret missions, dangerous
responsibilities, would sweep the room—"He's leaving for Washington
tonight!" Heads would turn, every one would stare eagerly at whatever
man had been so honorably mentioned, as if out of the whole world the
President himself had decided here is the one most able to advise him.
The mere name of the city, hitherto evoking only images of cherry
blossoms and grisly state banquets, now invested whoever mentioned it
with curious, enviable knowledge, and so trains and planes were packed
with citizens rushing to Washington with their letters to some one
high-up, their queries, their suggestions, their data. Initials of
various departments and organizations buzzed up and down train
corridors, hotel lobbies, club-rooms, bars—OCD, COI, OFF, and any one
confessing bewilderment at these alphabetical symbols was socially as
undesirable as any college freshman unable to grasp the fundamental
difference between a Deke and a Beta. Briefcases shot back and forth
bulging with state secrets, plans for making ploughs out of bent paper
clips, paper clips out of bent ploughs, bullets out of iambic
pentameters and tea out of poison ivy. Artists knocked each other down
in their stampede to the Mayflower with a Functional Canvas, columnists
thought up five-word slogans for civilian morale and rushed to
headquarters for their proper medals; civilians wore uniforms to denote
they were civilians; men in action wore civilian clothes to denote they
were in the service, possibly too important for the obscurity of full
military trappings. It was a time to be just back, just going, or to
know some one who was just back or just going to Washington. Like any
other holy city, the mere pilgrimage was if itself enough to insure
respect from one's fellows.
April 18, 2023
Unsure about this one ... maybe 3.5.
I wish I could remember where I got the recommendation to read her works, because it might give me more insight to why they were recommended. Maybe John Banville recommends her. When reading some biographical facts about her, it is written that she was better read in Britain.
Anyway, I am aware that some authors are recognized because they do ground breaking work. I wonder if it's her honesty regarding marital affairs that is remarkable here. She presents the views of both the men and the women. I wish she had gone a little further with the women, but maybe where she went was more than enough at the time.
I appreciate that many of her characters, like in Dance Night, are average people. And, I lose my interest with men that travel so much that they have girls ready for a swell evening at their call (Angels on Toast). The final story, A Time to Be Born, another NYC story, didn't interest me either. The character, supposedly based on Clare Boothe Luce, was so unappealing that I put the book down, and walked away.
Maybe I would like her "Ohio" novels better, which are in Vol. #127. Also, I read that her diary is interesting because of all the people she met, from Hemingway to Adlai Stevenson. She lived through interesting times (1896 - 1965) and I am sure she had plenty of things to write and say.
I wish I could remember where I got the recommendation to read her works, because it might give me more insight to why they were recommended. Maybe John Banville recommends her. When reading some biographical facts about her, it is written that she was better read in Britain.
Anyway, I am aware that some authors are recognized because they do ground breaking work. I wonder if it's her honesty regarding marital affairs that is remarkable here. She presents the views of both the men and the women. I wish she had gone a little further with the women, but maybe where she went was more than enough at the time.
I appreciate that many of her characters, like in Dance Night, are average people. And, I lose my interest with men that travel so much that they have girls ready for a swell evening at their call (Angels on Toast). The final story, A Time to Be Born, another NYC story, didn't interest me either. The character, supposedly based on Clare Boothe Luce, was so unappealing that I put the book down, and walked away.
Maybe I would like her "Ohio" novels better, which are in Vol. #127. Also, I read that her diary is interesting because of all the people she met, from Hemingway to Adlai Stevenson. She lived through interesting times (1896 - 1965) and I am sure she had plenty of things to write and say.
June 27, 2021
In my youth I was fascinated by the Algonquin Round Table, Anita Loos, and other contemporaries of Dawn Powell. Since all of her books were out of print until the late 1990s, she escaped me. I first heard of her when The New Yorker published excerpts of her diaries a couple of years ago. Her own life story is intertwined with her fiction. I'm so glad she's back in print. Next stop will be later novels. A TIME TO BE BORN was my favorite in this volume.
These are not feel-good stories. These are stories for lovers of New York as it once was, and if you have Midwestern roots and know about the particular pseudo-aristocracy in that culture, you'll see it described amazingly well.
Gore Vidal did a great piece on her in the NY Review of Books that is available online.
These are not feel-good stories. These are stories for lovers of New York as it once was, and if you have Midwestern roots and know about the particular pseudo-aristocracy in that culture, you'll see it described amazingly well.
Gore Vidal did a great piece on her in the NY Review of Books that is available online.
March 16, 2025
I'm only reading Powell's Ohio novels (her New York novels are mostly satire, and I'm not a fan of satire), and I had already read Dance Night (my favourite!), so from this collection I only read Come Back to Sorrento (also published as The Tenth Moon without the author's permission.) A gorgeous, devastating read! A story of failure, love, and unrequited dreams, all woven delicately and expertly with Powell's sharp observance of human nature. I still prefer Dance Night, mostly because it has a happy ending, but Come Back to Sorrento is well worth the read!
February 4, 2023
I hadn't read these for ages since Leah Silverstein introduced me to Dawn Powell like 20 yrs ago. they are SO GOOD. they are little soap operas with everyone cheating on each other and drinking up a storm and killing their terrible husbands and I love it. there's unrequited love and lots of amazing quotes and unmarried pregnant women and abortions and villains and innocent victims staying up all night. I love the ones set in Ohio and the ones in NYC.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2021
Dawn Powell's "Dance Night" is a vivid portrait of life in an Ohio factory town, circa 1930. There's an ambitious boy, an orphan, a milliner, a corsetiere, a shop girl, and a traveling candy salesman who drinks too much and is rarely home. I've also started "Angels on Toast," which centers on traveling salesmen who cheat on their wives and again, drink too much. Both are definitely worth reading.
Read
November 23, 2025I only read two of the five, Dance Night and Turn, Magic Wheel. The former was such a shock, so evocative, funny and heartbreaking at the same time, better in its way than most of Sherwood Anderson. The latter, another New York satire, suffers from some of the same stiffness that Locusts does, but it’s more focused.
March 13, 2018
Read "Dance Night" and "'Angels on Toast". Glad I read them, very rich characterizations. Liked "Dance Night" best.
June 23, 2018
Her words are timeless. Loved these novels.
Want to read
December 13, 2023Prompt #30 in challenge
January 23, 2024
Great edition of some forgotten but still interesting novels.
Want to read
April 9, 2024Several novels in one book
Read
January 22, 2025Not my taste
November 2, 2018
This is a collection of five Dawn Powell novels - Dance Night, Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel, Angels on Toast, and A Time to Be Born. I'm not a big Dawn Powell fan... I think most of her work is good, but not great. My favorite novel in this book was Angels on Toast.
Dance Night ★★★
Come Back to Sorrento ★★★
Turn, Magic Wheel ★★★
Angels on Toast ★★★★
A Time to Be Born ★★★
Dance Night ★★★
Come Back to Sorrento ★★★
Turn, Magic Wheel ★★★
Angels on Toast ★★★★
A Time to Be Born ★★★
April 26, 2013
4/21--Finished "A Time to Be Born" three nights ago and I'm changing my rating to "Really Liked It." In this, her best-reviewed novel, Powell proves herself a talented satirist indeed. Following young Vicki Haven from the Midwest, where she leaves the no-good boyfriend who jilted her for her officemate, to New York, where she becomes a pawn of an old school friend (Amanda Keeler Evans) who has made it big by marrying rich, the novel is unsparing in its observations of both small and big city life. The time is 1940-41, before the U.S. entry into World War II, and characters often show their hands in their attitudes toward the Nazi regime and/or Hitler himself. (To some, for example, his main offense is in being lower-class.)
With this one I *did* laugh out loud. Yet the character portraits are full enough that Edith Wharton becomes as obvious a point of comparison as the more often mentioned Dorothy Parker.
I also enjoyed the way Powell played with the structure of the romance novel, providing a wedding while denying a sense of "happily ever after."
Definitely recommend this one.
4/1/13 (?) So far I've read the first novel, "Dance Night," which follows the aspirations and relationships of a handful of people in a small Ohio town in the 1930s. Powell is a good writer, able to make you care about characters even as she satirizes them. But I'm not willing yet to think of her as a "lost great." I do appreciate her acuity in seeing and describing the differing agendas men and women bring to their relationships. Her observations are seldom laugh-out-loud funny, and sometimes they are so true as to be depressing, but for all that it's exhilarating to see these aspects of life nailed so mercilessly.
Will read the last novel, "A Time to Be Born," next, then see if I want more.
With this one I *did* laugh out loud. Yet the character portraits are full enough that Edith Wharton becomes as obvious a point of comparison as the more often mentioned Dorothy Parker.
I also enjoyed the way Powell played with the structure of the romance novel, providing a wedding while denying a sense of "happily ever after."
Definitely recommend this one.
4/1/13 (?) So far I've read the first novel, "Dance Night," which follows the aspirations and relationships of a handful of people in a small Ohio town in the 1930s. Powell is a good writer, able to make you care about characters even as she satirizes them. But I'm not willing yet to think of her as a "lost great." I do appreciate her acuity in seeing and describing the differing agendas men and women bring to their relationships. Her observations are seldom laugh-out-loud funny, and sometimes they are so true as to be depressing, but for all that it's exhilarating to see these aspects of life nailed so mercilessly.
Will read the last novel, "A Time to Be Born," next, then see if I want more.
Read
September 15, 2012Over the past year, I've dipped into this volume to read the first four novels - now it's time for the fifth and final one. The Library of America has done a great job helping rescue authors from undeserved obscurity. Reading the books in succession, you see the changes in style and subject matter that moved from small town inhabitants in Powell's native Ohio east to writers, businessmen, and social climbers of New York between the wars. Along the way, Powell moves from depicting the loneliness and longing of people seeking to escape the strictures of small towns to the portrayal of people who have escaped to the Big City and find out that it's not the place they dreamed of. Powell's genius lies in her ability to satirize people's actions without the reader loosing sight of the common humanity within. For all her sharpness of wit and ability to show how people deceive themselves and others, her deep affection for her characters shines through. Maybe now that these novels are in print again, some of her plays will be revived.
October 6, 2011
What happened to the author who wrote the early Midwestern novels "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento" to end up writing incredibly satirical novels like "Angels on Toast" and "A Time to be Born"?
New York happened.
In the Midwestern novels, I can see elements of the satire and characterization that bloomed in the later novels - but it must have been the sordid city lights that lit up the writing that came later. Her characters are rarely two-dimensional, even if they are exaggerated there is a humanity still recognizable in them. I know this gets claimed of many authors - but for me, Powell is our American Dickens. Tom Wolfe thinks it should be him. But Mr. Wolfe, you are no Dawn Powell!
New York happened.
In the Midwestern novels, I can see elements of the satire and characterization that bloomed in the later novels - but it must have been the sordid city lights that lit up the writing that came later. Her characters are rarely two-dimensional, even if they are exaggerated there is a humanity still recognizable in them. I know this gets claimed of many authors - but for me, Powell is our American Dickens. Tom Wolfe thinks it should be him. But Mr. Wolfe, you are no Dawn Powell!
March 21, 2007
Ms Powell offers a glimpse of humanity during the depression and war years, a look so well written that it's as fresh as if it were written just yesterday. I've often wondered if Steinbeck and Hemmingway were overrated, now, I know they are. Dawn died in near obscurity and definite poverty because she found it hard to compete in the world of male authors.
August 28, 2016
It's a bit hard to rate a book that contains five novels. I didn't care for the first one at all, but liked the next one more, and the next ones even more. A Time To Be Born was my favorite, so funny and cutting. Definitely the characters and open ended endings of these stories leave me with mixed feelings..
October 19, 2016
Oh Dawn Powell! She is one of those writers that once you have discovered her, you must read everything she's written. And all of it is good! She's brilliant, subtly humorous and tragically underrated. A true treasure!
October 12, 2012
See my reviews for the individual novels in this collection.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews