Selected Letters, 1913-1965

by Dawn Powell, Tim Page

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell traces a richly talented writer's fifty-two-year journey from her childhood in a small Ohio town to the glitter of Manhattan. Powell was a prolific letter writer, and her correspondence provides an intimate look at the woman about whom The New York Times recently said: "[She] is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh."

Living most of her life in Greenwich Village, Powell supported herself as a writer through the Great Depression and two world wars while nursing an autistic son, an alcoholic husband, and her own parade of illnesses. In her correspondence, including gossip-filled letters to such luminaries as Edmund Wilson, John Dos Passos, and the legendary editor Max Perkins, we find the record of a courageous and dramatic woman who produced fifteen novels, ten plays, and more than one hundred stories.

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

373 pages, Paperback

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.