John Cowper Powys

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 (play /ˌɒn ˌkpər ˈp.ɪs/; 8 October 1872 – 17 June 1963) was a British novelist and lecturer.

Contents

Biography

Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came from a family of eleven children, many of whom were also talented. His two younger brothers Llewelyn Powys (1884–1939) and Theodore Francis Powys were well-known writers, while his sister Philippa published a novel and some poetry. Another sister Marian Powys was an authority on lace and lace-making and published a book on this subject. His brother A. R. Powys, was Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and published a number of books on architectural subjects. John studied at Sherborne School and graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, June 1894.[1]

On 6 April 1896 he married Margaret Lyon. They had a son, Littleton Alfred, in 1902. The marriage was unsatisfactory and Powys eventually lived a large part of each year in the USA and had relationships with various women, before establishing a permanent common-law relationship with Phyllis Playter in the 1920s. However, he diligently supported Margaret and the education of their son. Another important woman in his life was the American poet [1] Frances Gregg, whom he first met in Philadelphia in 1912. He was also a friend of the famous dancer Isadora Duncan. Another friend and an important supporter in America was the novelist Theodore Dreiser.

Powys's first employment was teaching in girls’ schools. He then worked as an Extension lecturer throughout England, for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Then in 1905 he began lecturing in the USA for The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. He worked as an itinerant lecturer until the early 1930s, gaining a reputation as a charismatic speaker. However, he usually spent the Summer in England. During this time he travelled the length and breadth of the USA, as well as into Canada. He engaged in public debate with the philosopher Bertrand Russell on marriage, as well as with the philosopher and historian Will Durant; he was also a witness in the obscenity trial of James Joyce's 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]

His first published works were highly derivative collections of poetry, (" Very Hardyesque", - was Philip Larkin's opinion),[3] published in the 1890s. His first novel Wood and Stone, dedicated to Thomas Hardy, was published in 1915. This was followed by a collection of literary essays Visions and Revisions in 1915 and his first full length work of popular philosophy, A Complex Vision, in 1920.

In 1921 he met Phyllis Playter, the twenty-six year old daughter of industrialist and business man Franklin Playter. Eventually they established a permanent relationship, though he was unable to divorce his wife Margaret, who was a Catholic. Margaret Powys died in 1947, and his son Littleton Alfred in 1954.

It was not until 1929, with Wolf Solent, that Powys achieved any real critical, and financial success. A Glastonbury Romance, one of Powys’s most admired novels, published in 1932, also sold well, though he made little if any money from it because of a libel lawsuit. Another important work, Autobiography, was published in 1934. In 1929 Powys and Phyllis had moved from Greenwich Village in New York City to rural, upstate New York. Then in June 1934 John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter left America and moved to England, living first in Dorchester, the setting for the final Wessex novel, Maiden Castle, before eventually moving to Corwen, North Wales, in July 1935, with the help of the novelist James Hanley, who lived nearby. Here Powys immersed himself in Welsh literature, mythology and culture, including learning to read Welsh. The move inspired two major novels with Welsh settings, Owen Glendower [1941] and Porius (1951). They later moved, a final time, in May 1955, to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. John Cowper Powys died in 1963 and Phyllis Playter in 1982.[4]

Works

Cowper Powys is a somewhat controversial "writer who evokes both massive contempt and near idolatry".[5] Thus while Walter Allen in Tradition and Dream recognizes Powys's genius, he is dissatisfied with what Powys has done with it, seeing Powys’s approach to the novel, as "so alien to the temper of the age as to be impossible for many people to take seriously".[6] Annie Dillard, however, views things quite differently: "John Cowper Powys is a powerful genius, whose novels stir us deeply".[7] What, however, is noteworthy is that consistently throughout his career he gained the admiration of major novelists, including Theodore Dreiser, Henry Miller, Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble, and James Purdy, as well as some academic critics, including George Painter, G. Wilson Knight, George Steiner, Harald Fawkner, and Jerome McGann. Film director John Boorman wrote in his autobiography that early in his career he contemplated making a movie based on A Glastonbury Romance.

Powys’s first published works were collections of poems published in 1896 and 1899, but these, and three subsequent volumes in 1915, 1916 and 1923, are of minor importance. However, the Welsh poet and critic Roland Mathias thought this side of Powys worthy of critical study: The Hollowed-Out Elder Stalk: John Cowper Powys as Poet. It was not until 1915 that he published his first novel, Wood and Stone, which was dedicated to Thomas Hardy.

While he was a famous lecturer and published a variety of both fiction and non-fiction regularly from 1915, it was not until he was in his early fifties, with the publication of Wolf Solent in 1929, that he achieved critical and financial success as a novelist. This novel was reprinted several times in both the USA and Britain. In the same year The Meaning of Culture was published and it too was frequently reprinted. In Defence of Sensuality, published at the end of the following year, was yet another best seller.[8] Before Wolf Solent there had been four earlier apprentice novels; Wood and Stone (1915), Rodmoor (1916), the posthumous After my Fashion (1980), which was written around 1919, and Ducdame (1925). Wolf Solent was the first of the so-called Wessex novels, which include A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Weymouth Sands (1934) and Maiden Castle.(1936). The latter is set in Dorchester, Thomas Hardy’s Casterbridge, and there are parallels with that earlier work. All the same despite his indebtedness to the Victorian novel and his enthusiasm for Hardy and Walter Scott, as well as lesser figures such as Ainsworth, Powys was clearly a modernist,[9] with affinities also with Dostoievsky, Nietzsche, Pater, Proust, Jung, Freud, Lawrence, Joyce, Dorothy Richardson, and the T. S. Eliot. of The Waste Land.[10]

It is clear from Powys’s diaries that his new found success was greatly helped by the stability that his relationship with Phyllis Playter gave him and her frequent advice on his work in progress.

A Glastonbury Romance sold particularly well in its British edition, though this was of little avail as it was the subject of an expensive libel case brought by Gerard Hodgkinson, the owner of the Wookey Hole Caves, who felt himself identifiably and unfairly portrayed in the character of Philip Crow. First published in 1933 A Philosophy of Solitude was another best seller for Powys in the USA.[8] While Welsh mythology was already important in A Glastonbury Romance and Maiden Castle it became even more important after he and Phyllis Playter moved to Corwen, Wales in 1935. First in the minor novel Morwyn (1937). There then followed two major historical novels set in Wales, Owen Glendower [1941][11] and Porius (1951). The first deals with the rebellion of the Welsh Prince Owen Glendower (A.D.1400-16), while Porius takes place in the time of the mythic King Arthur (A.D. 499). However, Arthur is a minor character compared with the Welsh Prince Porius, and the King’s magician Myrddin (Merlin). In both works, but especially Porius, Powys makes use of the mythology found in the Welsh classic The Mabinogion. Just as the landscape of Dorset and Somerset, and the characters deep personal relationships with it, had been of great importance in the great Wessex novels, so the landscape of Wales, especially that of the Corwen region, became now of equal significance.

The landscape and the intimate relationship that characters have with the elements, including the sky, wind, plants, animals, insects, etc., is of great significance in all Powys’s works. This is linked to another major influence on Powys, Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth, and writers influenced by Wordsworth, such as Walter Pater. Powys was also an admirer of Goethe and Rousseau. Words such as mysticism and pantheist are sometimes used in discussing Powys’s attitude to nature, but what he is concerned with is an ecstatic response to the natural world, epiphanies such as Wordsworth describes in his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" – with an important difference, because Powys believes that the ecstasy of the young child can be retained by any adult who actively cultivates the power of the imagination. Some have compared this to zen and such contemplative practices and for Powys, and the protagonists of his novels who usually resemble him, the cultivation of a psycho-sensuous philosophy is as important as the Christian religion was for an earlier generation.[12] Porius is, in some eyes, the crowning achievement of Powys’s maturity but others are repelled by its obscurity. It was originally severely cut for publication but in recent years two attempts have been made to recreate Powys’s original intent.[13]

The novels that followed Porius are more minor in scale and an element of fantasy is a special characteristic of them. In Atlantis even the inanimate world is allowed to speak. Some of the very last works would presumably not have been published if submitted by an unknown writer, though even they have their champions.

One of Powys’s most important works, his Autobiography, was published in 1934. While he sets out to be totally frank about himself, and especially his sexual peculiarities and perversions, he largely excludes any substantial discussion of the women in his life. The reason for this is now much clearer because we now know that it was written while he was still married to Margaret, though he was living in a common-law relationship with Phyllis Playter.

Periodically, over almost 50 years, starting with Confessions of Two Brothers in 1916, Powys wrote works that present his personal philosophy of life. These are not works of philosophy in the academic sense and in a bookstore the appropriate section might be self-help. Powys describes A Philosophy of Solitude (1933) as, a "short textbook of the various mental tricks by which the human soul can obtain ... comparative happiness beneath the normal burden of human fate" (7). It might seem that Powys’s various works of popular philosophy were mere potboilers, written to help their finances while he was working on his novels, but critics like Denis Lane, Harald Fawkner and Janina Nordius believe that they give insight into "the intellectual structures that form the metastructures of the great novels".[14]

Taking advantage of his reputation as an itinerant lecturer, Powys published in 1915 a collection of literary essays, Visions and Revisions. In the next forty years he published a couple of similar works, as well as three studies of writers, Dorothy Richardson (1931), Dostoivesky (1947), and Rabelais (1948), respectively. While not especially profound or original in their insights, they are full of the author’s infectious enthusiasm for literature. There is also a work on John Keats, part of which was published posthumously and Powys was working on a study of Aristophanes in his later years.

John Cowper Powys was a prolific writer of letters, many of which have been published, and kept a diary from 1929, some of which has also been published. Among his correspondents were the novelists Theodore Dreiser, James Purdy, James Hanley, Henry Miller and Dorothy Richardson, but he also replied to the many ordinary admirers who wrote to him.

One repeated theme in Powys' work is condemnation of animal cruelty, especially vivisection.[15] As a result, some writers have claimed he anticipated the modern animal rights movement.[16][17] This included not surprisingly opposition to fox-hunting.[18] Powys was also a vegetarian, but probably more for dietary than ideological reasons.

Bibliography

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, published 1974)
  • Two and Two (novella, published 1974)
  • You and Me (novella, published 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. (1938)
  • Obstinate Cymric :Essays 1935-47 (1947)
  • Dostoievsky (1947)
  • Rabelais (1948)

[2]

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)

Biography and Critical Studies

  • The Brothers Powys by Richard Perceval Graves (1983)
  • Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys by Morine Krissdottir (2007)
  • John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape by C.A. Coates. Totowa (1982)
  • The Saturnian Quest by G. Wilson Knight
  • John Cowper Powys, Novelist by Glen Cavaliero
  • I Am Myself Alone: Solitude and Transcendence in John Cowper Powys by Janina Nordius
  • John Cowper Powys: A Record of Achievementby Derek Langridge. (1966)
  • In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays Denis Lane, ed. New York(1990)
  • John Cowper Powys by Jeremy Hooker. Cardiff (1973)
  • John Cowper Powys by Herbert Williams. (1997)

References

  1. ^ Powys, John Cowper in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  2. ^ Vision on fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution edited by David Porter, AK Press, 2006. (48).
  3. ^ Philip Larkin, Letter to Monica Jones, 26 October 1969 - Letters to Monica, p.402 Faber 2010
  4. ^ See Powys’s Autobiography and Descents of Memory by Morine Krissdottir, especially.
  5. ^ C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape (179)
  6. ^ Quoted. By C.A. Coates
  7. ^ Writers Choice: A Library of Rediscoveries. Ed. Katz and Katz (95)
  8. ^ a b Derek Langridge, John Cowper Powys: A Record of Achievement
  9. ^ See In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays, ed. Denis Lane, especially the "Foreword" by Jerome J. McGann and Lane's "Introduction".
  10. ^ See, for example, J. C. Powys’s Autobiography
  11. ^ Issued January 24, 1941. Dante Thomas A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys
  12. ^ See Powys’s Autobiography and C. A Coates, especially
  13. ^ Colgate University Press, 1994, ed. Wilbur T. Albrecht and OverlookDuckworth, 2007, ed. Judith Bond and Morine Krissdottir.
  14. ^ Harald Fawkner quoted by Janina Nordius in '"I Am Myself Alone"' (16)
  15. ^ Autobiography , John Cowper Powys, Simon and Schuster, 1934 (583-4), see also Weymouth Sands and Morwyn
  16. ^ Animal revolution: changing attitudes toward speciesism Richard Dudley Ryder Berg Publishers, 2000 (269)
  17. ^ People Promoting and People Opposing Animal Rights: In Their Own Words John M. Kistler Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002 (161)
  18. ^ Mortal Strife by John Cowper Powys, Cape, 1942 (53)

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  • John Cowper Powys — [dʒɒn ˌkuːpɚ ˈpoʊɪs] (* 8. Oktober 1872 in Shirley, Derbyshire; † 17. Juni 1963 in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales) war ein walisischer Dichter und …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • John Cowper Powys — noun British writer of novels about nature; one of three literary brothers (1872 1963) • Syn: ↑Powys • Instance Hypernyms: ↑writer, ↑author …   Useful english dictionary

  • Powys, John Cowper — ▪ British author born October 8, 1872, Shirley, Derbyshire, England died June 17, 1963, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Merioneth, Wales  Welsh novelist, essayist, and poet, known chiefly for his long panoramic novels, including Wolf Solent (1929), A… …   Universalium

  • POWYS (J. C.) — Powys est une des figures les plus fortes de la littérature contemporaine. Si Miller et Dreiser le considèrent comme un génie, d’autres sont plus impressionnés par le gigantisme de ses romans et par la complexité d’une nature travaillée… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Powys (surname) — Powys is a Welsh surname and may refer to:*John Cowper Powys, writer, lecturer and philosopher *Llewelyn Powys, writer *Philippa Powys, writer *T. F. Powys, writer …   Wikipedia

  • Powys (Begriffsklärung) — Powys bezeichnet eine walisische Unitary Authority, siehe Powys einen walisischen Schriftsteller, siehe John Cowper Powys. einen Ornithologen Thomas Powys, 4. Baron Lilford (1833–1896), siehe Thomas Powys, 4. Baron Lilford. Dies …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Powys (homonymie) — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Powys peut désigner : Powys, le nom d un ancien royaume devenu une région du Pays de Galles Powys, patronyme de : Thomas Littleton Powys,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Powys — noun 1. British writer of novels about nature; one of three literary brothers (1872 1963) • Syn: ↑John Cowper Powys • Instance Hypernyms: ↑writer, ↑author 2. British writer of essays; one of three literary brothers (1884 1939) • Syn: ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

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