Dawn Powell had a brilliant mind and a keen wit and her humor was never at a finer pitch than in her diaries. And yet her story is a poignant one – a son emotionally and mentally impaired, a household of too much alcohol and never enough money, and an artistic career that, if not a failure, fell far short of the success she craved. All is recorded here – along with working sketches for her novels, and often revealing portraits of her many friends (a literary who’s who of her period) – in her always unique style and without self-delusion.
Powell's remarkable Diaries will stand as one of her finest literary achievements.
"The struggle chronicled in The Diaries of Dawn Powell is as brave and feisty a story as any to be found in the novels that made her Ernest Hemingway’s 'favorite living writer.'" -- James Wilcox, Elle Magazine
"One of the outstanding literary finds of the last quarter-century . . . a book in a thousand." -- New York Times Book Review
"Reads like a mini-book of mini-stories – one compact, perfectly formed narrative followed by another." -- Bill Buford in The New Yorker
Dawn Powell had a brilliant mind and a keen wit and her humor was never at a finer pitch than in her diaries. And yet her story is a poignant one – a son emotionally and mentally impaired, a household of too much alcohol and never enough money, and an artistic career that, if not a failure, fell far short of the success she craved. All is recorded here – along with working sketches for her novels, and often revealing portraits of her many friends (a literary who’s who of her period) – in her always unique style and without self-delusion.
Powell's remarkable Diaries will stand as one of her finest literary achievements.
Praise
"The struggle chronicled in The Diaries of Dawn Powell is as brave and feisty a story as any to be found in the novels that made her Ernest Hemingway’s 'favorite living writer.'" -- James Wilcox, Elle Magazine
"One of the outstanding literary finds of the last quarter-century . . . a book in a thousand." -- New York Times Book Review
"Reads like a mini-book of mini-stories – one compact, perfectly formed narrative followed by another." -- Bill Buford in The New Yorker
