Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"...a reader comes to the last of [Powell's letters] already missing their company.... [An] amazing collection." (Lorrie Moore, The New York Times Book Review)
Review
"[An] engaging selection of letters." (Chicago Tribune)
Review
"...these letters are in many ways the perfect record of a difficult life lived with pluck, intelligence and verve." (Publishers Weekly)
Review
"The letters of Dawn Powell are brave, funny and smart as hell. You'll wish you could write her back." (John Waters)
Review
"[An] engaging selection of letters."--
Chicago Tribune"A posthumous triumph, these letters are in many ways the perfect record of a difficult life lived with pluck, intelligence and verve."--Publishers Weekly
"The letters of Dawn Powell are brave, funny and smart as hell. You'll wish you could write her back."--John Waters
"So current and alive is Powell's epistolary voice...a reader comes to the last of [Powell's letters] already missing their company....[An] amazing collection."--Lorrie Moore, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Tim Page is the author of
Dawn Powell: A Biography and editor of
Dawn Powell at Her Best and
The Diaries of Dawn Powell. Formerly the chief music critic for
The Washington Post, he is now the artistic advisor and creative chair for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.