Customer Reviews

Dawn Powell: A Biography

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I didn't know much about Dawn Powell before I read this book, but am now very glad I've come to know her a little, and I'm eager to read some of her novels, as well. The biography covers her life from her difficult childhood in Ohio to her many productive years in Manhattan. Along with detailing her life, the author details her work -- including how various novels came about, and how they were received. I recommend this book especially to anyone interested in the lives of writers and how they work. (The book offers some chuckles, as well, as Dawn was a very funny and quotable woman.)

Dawn Powell comes vividly to life in this affectionate, well-reasoned and meticulously fair biography. Tim Page has been nothing less than heroic in the service of this once-forgotten American writer -- and it seems to me that he understands her very well indeed.

I had a very different response than one earlier reader to Page's occasional admissions that he didn't know what happened at this or that point in Powell's life. It struck me as refreshingly honest. Very few biographers have the courage to confess that they aren't omniscient and that certain facts will simply get lost over the course of 100 years. And I was very glad that he didn't pad the book with all the Greenwich Village 101 stuff that you find in biographies of practically everybody who ever lived below 14th Street.

Certain people don't "get" Powell, and they probably won't get Page either. For the rest of us, this book has been, and will continue to be, a revelation.

I came to Powell a few years ago via the beautifully designed Steerforth volumes sporting 40s B&W photos. Having never heard of her, I quickly moved from novel to novel, agog when her talent for characterization was successfully combined with wit. It's difficult not to be intrigued by the author of such unique observations. Somewhere between reading a third and fourth novel I devoured her selected diary entries, and between the fifth and sixth novels launched into her selected letters and the Marcelle Rice review. I was still eager to learn more about the muses and demons of this superlative author.

Having just finished this biography, I can say that Page's book can successfully take the place of the diaries, letters, and Rice review for most readers. Since the letters are comprised only of those sent, not received, by Powell, and are highlights, they go only so far as a glimpse into the soul of the woman. Page had access to much additional material and in the biography is able to quote the letters and diary entries in a fascinating context. His volume paints a multifaceted portrait of the woman. He was persistent in interviewing remaining friends and family to set the scene in a fuller way. The end result is this satisfying and moving account of an amusing, endearing, and exasperating Village resident for anyone left wanting more after reading a Powell novel.

Much miscellany lies beyond the novels and short stories in Powell's career-- book reviews, nonfiction articles, screenplays-- to occupy future dissertations and biographies. These potential projects will be welcomed annexes to a Powell depiction, but it is difficult to imagine a more human account of her life than Page's.

I fell in love with Dawn Powell after reading this biography! I recommend reading it highly, as well as looking into some of Powell's own works. My only complaint is the lack of photographs of Powell during her best writing (and flirting) years. After reading this book I thought about how many worth while authors are forgotten and lost to us, and how fine and generous Mr. Page has been in exhuming this wonderful woman's reputation and career for a new generation that perhaps has finally caught up with her.

Tim Page has done an excellent job of writing in this biography of an important writer who has been overlooked, ignored. Gore Vidal did boost Powell's posthumous reputation through a piece in THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, but Page, arguably, has done the major work of excavation. The book is a joy to read. The accomplishment here is similar to that of the famous contemporary English biographers Michael Holroyd and Richard Holmes.

Dawn Powell, 1896-1965, came from Ohio. She was born in Mount Gilead and attended Lake Erie College. She received an honorary degree from that college near the end of her life. In 1918, after college graduation, she moved to Pomfret, CT, to imbibe the artistic atmosphere. After Labor Day she moved to New York City permanently. She found work with the Butterick Company. Later she joined the publicity department of the Red Cross. She free lanced. She met Joseph Gousha. Joseph came to believe it was his role to foster Dawn's genius.

After the couple married, they lived separately initially, and then moved to Riverside Drive. This was a domestic period for Dawn. She kept her name Dawn Powell. Joseph Jr. was born in 1921. His nickname was JoJo. He had enormous intellectual gifts and undiagnosed autism. His behavior was bizarre. A nurse was hired who worked for the family until 1954. In financial difficulties she refused to be fired. Louise Lee's presence allowed Dawn to write again. Joe and Dawn were both heavy drinkers. They pursued their vocations and their avocations separately. They were victims of difficult circumstances and were uncomplaining.

Dawn was close to John Dos Passos and John Howard Lawson and many other writers and artists. A great deal of the time the Goushas lived in Greenwich Village. Sometimes when writing a novel Dawn would go to Atlantic City in order to focus on her work. She liked to disown her first novel, WHITHER, claiming she had been a better writer at age thirteen. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY was the first of Dawn's Ohio novels. DAWN NIGHT (1930) was the first of her great books. COME BACK TO SORRENTO (1932) was a gentle Ohio novel. TURN, MAGIC WHEEL (1936) portrayed sophisticated New York. THE STORY OF A COUNTRY BOY was sold to Hollywood.

Upon completing THE HAPPY ISLAND, Dawn fell into the hands of Maxwell Perkins when she changed publishers. ANGELS ON TOAST (1940) was witty, urbane. Another satire was A TIME TO BE BORN. The final novel in the Ohio series was MY HOME IS FAR AWAY. In all, she published fifteen novels. A TIME TO BE BORN was rated an enjoyable book about very disagreeable people. Following Max Perkins's death, Dawn's editor was John Hall Wheelock. In 1951 she moved to Houghton Mifflin. Rosalind Wilson, Edmund Wilson's daughter, became her editor. THE WICKED PAVILION (1954) was one of the more popular Dawn Powell novels. It appeared on the New York Times best seller list for one week. Dawn's last book THE GOLDEN SPUR, used material gleaned from drinking nightly at the Cedar Bar.