Completists' Club discussion

I only aspire to reading all his novels/novellas, though I've already read great chunks of his letters and diaries and volumes of "philosophy". Problem is the man was a compulsive writer, with little or no sense of concision so his novels are enormous, and he lived into his 90's, scribbling into semi-senility. After his death someone wondered if even death would stop him writing.

Novels

Wood and Stone (1915)
Rodmoor (1916)
After My Fashion (written 1919, published 1980)
Ducdame (1925)
Wolf Solent (1929)
A Glastonbury Romance (1933)
Weymouth Sands (1934)
Jobber Skald (heavily edited version of the above for UK market, 1935)
Maiden Castle (1936)
Morwyn: or The Vengeance of God (1937)
Owen Glendower (1940)
Porius (1951, restored text 1994, final text 2007)
The Inmates (1952)
Atlantis (1954)
The Brazen Head (1956)
Up and Out (two novellas, 1957)
Homer and the Aether (1959)
All or Nothing (1960)
Real Wraiths (novella, 1974)
Two and Two (novella, 1974)
You and Me (novella, 1975)

Philosophy

The War and Culture (1914)
The Complex Vision (1920)
Psychoanalysis and Morality (1923)
The Meaning of Culture (1929)
In Defense of Sensuality (1930)
A Philosophy of Solitude (1933)
The Art of Happiness (1935)
Mortal Strife (1942)
The Art of Growing Old (1944)
In Spite of: A Philosophy for Everyone (1953)

Short stories

The Owl, The Duck, and - Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe! (1930)
Romer Mowl and Other Stories (collection published 1974)
Three Fantasies (collection published 1985)
Abertackle
Cataclysm
Topsy-Turvy

Literary essays and studies; essays

Visions and Revisions (1915)
Suspended Judgements (1916)
One Hundred Best Books (1916)
Dorothy Richardson (London: Joiner, 1931)
The Enjoyment of Literature (1938; revised British version: The Pleasures of Literature)
Obstinate Cymric :Essays 1935-47 (1947)
Dostoevsky (1947)
Rabelais (1948)

Poetry

Odes and Other Poems (1896)
Poems 1899.
Wolf's Bane: Rhymes (1916)
Mandragora: Poems (1917)
Samphire (1922)
Lucifer: A Poem (1956)
John Cowper Powys: A Selection from His Poems Ed. Kenneth Hopkins. London: Macdonald, 1964.

Autobiographical, diaries and letters

Autobiography (1934)
The Diary of John Cowper Powys 1930 Ed Frederick Davies. (1987)
The Diary of John Cowper Powys 1931 (1990)
Petrushka and the Dancer: The Diaries of John Cowper Powys 1929-1939 Ed. Morine Krissdottir. (1995)
Letters of John Cowper Powys to Louis Wilkinson 1935-1956 (1958)
Letters of John Cowper Powys to His Brother Llewelyn Ed Malcolm Elwin. 2 vols. (1975)
Jack and Frances: The Love Letters of John Cowper Powys to Frances Gregg 2 vols. Ed Oliver Wilkinson, assisted by Christopher Wilkinson. (1994)
Powys and Dorothy Richardson: Letters of John Cowper Powys and Dorothy Richardson Ed Janet Fouli. (2008)
Powys and Emma Goldman: Letters of John Cowper Powys and Emma Goldman Ed. David Goodway. (2008)
John Cowper Powy: Letters to Nicholas Ross (Selected by Nicholas and Adelaide Ross). Ed. Arthur Uphill. (1971)
Powys to Sea Eagle: Letters of John Cowper Powys to Philipa Powys Ed Anthony Head. (1996)
Letters to Henry Miller from John Cowper Powys (1975)
Powys to Knight: Letters of John Cowper Powys to G. R. Wilson Knight Ed. Robert Blackmore. (198..)
John Cowper Powys: Letters 1937-54 Ed. Iorwerth C. Peate. (1974)


I've read Wolf Solent (which immediately began my Powys fixation), Weymouth Sands, Maiden Castle, Porius, Up and Out, All or Nothing, and You and Me, so even though I've read most of these twice, I still have a ways to go.

His Autobiography should be included also, as it's one of his greatest works.

So, Wolf Solent is the starting point for neophytes? Though sometimes I enjoy beginning in really esoteric points, too, so are any of the late fantasies essential?

I recommend leaving the late fantasies until you're a confirmed Powys fan.

The Autobiography would also be a good place to start.