John Cowper Powys

John Cowper Powys
Born	1872 (1872) Derbyshire
Died	1963 (1964)
Education	Sherborne School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Occupation	Author and lecturer

John Cowper Powys (pronounced /ˌdʒɒn ˌkuːpər ˈpoʊ.ɪs/) (October 8, 1872 - June 17, 1963) was a British writer, lecturer, and philosopher.

Biography

Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, the son of a Victorian clergyman whose ancestors had estates on the Welsh borders. His mother was descended from the poet William Cowper, hence his middle name. His two younger brothers, Llewelyn Powys and Theodore Francis Powys, also became well-known writers. Other brothers and sisters also became prominent in the arts. John studied at Sherborne School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,^[1] and became a teacher and lecturer; as lecturer, he worked first in England, then in continental Europe and finally in the USA, where he lived in the years 1904-1934. While in the United States, his work was championed by author Theodore Dreiser. He engaged in public debate with Bertrand Russell and the philosopher and historian Will Durant: he was called for the defence in the first obscenity trial for the James Joyce novel, Ulysses, and was mentioned with approval in the autobiography of US feminist and anarchist, Emma Goldman. Powys would later share Goldman's support for the Spanish Revolution.^[2]

He made his name as a poet and essayist, moving on to produce a series of acclaimed novels distinguished by their uniquely detailed and intensely sensual recreation of time, place and character. They describe heightened states of awareness resulting from mystic revelation or from the experience of extreme pleasure or pain. The best known of these distinctive novels are A Glastonbury Romance and Wolf Solent. He also wrote some works of philosophy (The Meaning of Culture,The Complex Vision), ^[3] and literary criticism, including a pioneering tribute to Dorothy Richardson. Having returned to the UK, he lived in England for a brief time, then moved to Corwen in Wales, where he wrote historical romances (including two set in Wales) and magical fantasies. He later moved to Blaenau Ffestiniog, where he remained until his death in 1963.

Works

Powys' novels are legendary for their massive size and numerous characters and can be difficult because of their many references to Welsh culture and mythology. Powys' animist world view, in A Glastonbury Romance, endowed inanimate objects like the sun with souls and points of view. The appeal of Powys eludes some readers while others are deeply moved: because of this his challenging works have never been fashionable yet have won a loyal following. They have been praised by talents as diverse as novelists Henry Miller, Robertson Davies, and Margaret Drabble, the critic George Steiner, as well as classical pianist Glenn Gould. Film director John Boorman wrote in his autobiography that early in his career he contemplated making a movie based on "A Glastonbury Romance."

Powys was also one of the twentieth century's greatest literary letter writers: his correspondence bears comparison with that of Charles Olson in its immediacy and intellectual scope. A collection of his letters to his lifelong friend and biographer Louis Wilkinson (himself best known for his close connection with Aleister Crowley) was published during his lifetime: further volumes have been issued posthumously.

One repeated theme in Powys' work is condemnation of animal cruelty. Powys was a vegetarian and an opponent of fox-hunting ^[4] and especially vivisection, which he repeatedly denounced.^[5] As a result,some writers have claimed he anticipated the modern animal rights movement.^[6][7]

Bibliography

Further Reading

• "THE BROTHERS POWYS" by Richard Perceval Graves (1983)

• "DESCENTS OF MEMORY: The Life of John Cowper Powys" by Morine Krissdottir (2007)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Cowper Powys

• British Powys Society
• "The Powys Review" Collection of critical articles and other material, Belinda Humfrey (Ed)
• Works by John Cowper Powys at Project Gutenberg
• "The facts and fictions of John Cowper Powys", review of Morine Krissdottir's biography and "Porius", TLS, Margaret Drabble, November 14 2007
• "The Powys connection", : review of The Powys Journal, Vol. 18, TLS, P. J. Carnehan , October 31 2008
• Bilingual French/English Powys Site
• Swedish John Cowper Powys Society
• A Guardian article Aug. 2006 by Margaret Drabble: Overview of works and career on Powys
• A review by A.N. Wilson of Powys’ Porius
• John Cowper Powys in Sussex