Dawn Powell

by Tim Page

Over the past decade, the works of Dawn Powell (1896-1965) have enjoyed a spectacular revival. Now Tim Page has written the first biography of this brilliant and insightful American author, whose longtime cult following has blossomed into well-deserved general popularity. Powell came to New York City at the age of twenty-one, a gifted and ambitious young woman from small-town Ohio. There she would live for another forty-seven years, but she always managed to maintain the fresh perspective of a "permanent visitor," exalting the multiplicity and sheer sensory overload of her beloved Manhattan. This is what she distilled into her extensive and impressive body of work: hundreds of short stories and articles, dozens of poems, at least ten plays, a magnificent diary that spans thirty-five years, and - the achievement that meant the most to her - a number of dizzying and inventive novels. For such a witty woman, Powell lived a restless and troubled life. Her youth was a ghastly one, a long se