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T. F. Powys

April 11, 2024

Theodore Francis Powys (20 December 1875 – 27 November 1953) – published as T. F. Powys – was a British novelist and short-story writer.[1] He is best remembered for his allegorical novel Mr. Weston's Good Wine (1927), where Weston the wine merchant is evidently God. Powys was influenced by the Bible, John Bunyan, Jonathan Swift and other writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as later writers such as Thomas Hardy and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Theodore Francis Powys
Born(1875-12-20)20 December 1875
Shirley, Derbyshire, England
Died27 November 1953(1953-11-27) (aged 77)
Mappowder, Dorset, England
Resting placeMappowder, Dorset
OccupationNovelist and short story writer
GenreAllegory
Literary movementModernism, English literature
Notable worksMr. Weston's Good Wine, Unclay
SpouseViolet Dodd

Biography edit

Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), vicar of Montacute, Somerset, for 32 years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, grand-daughter of Dr John Johnson, cousin and close friend of the poet William Cowper. He was one of eleven talented siblings, including the novelist John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) and the novelist and essayist Llewelyn Powys (1884–1939). Their sister Philippa Powys also published a novel and some poetry, while Marian Powys was an authority on lace and lace-making and published a book on this subject. Gertrude Powys was a painter. Another brother, A. R. Powys, was secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and published a number of books on architectural subjects.

 
Sailors return, East Chaldon. Powys lived in East Chaldon from 1904 to 1940.

A sensitive child, Powys was not happy in school and left when he was 15 to become an apprentice on a farm in Suffolk.[1] Later he had his own farm in Suffolk, but he was not successful and returned to Dorset in 1901 with plans to be a writer. Then, in 1905, he married Violet Dodd. They had two sons and later adopted a daughter. From 1904 until 1940 Theodore Powys lived in East Chaldon but then moved to Mappowder because of the Second World War.[1]

During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), Powys was one of several UK writers who campaigned for aid to be sent to the Republican side.[2]

The novels Mr. Weston's Good Wine (1927) and Unclay (1931) and the short-story collection Fables are most praised, while his early non-fiction work The Soliloquy of a Hermit (1916) also has its admirers.[1] Powys was deeply, if unconventionally, religious; the Bible was a major influence, and he had a special affinity with writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, including John Bunyan, Miguel de Cervantes, Jeremy Taylor, Jonathan Swift, and Henry Fielding.[3] Among more recent writers, he admired Thomas Hardy, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche.[4] Powys has been described by C. N. Manlove as one of the three main writers – along with C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams – of "Christian fantasy" in the 20th century.[5]

He died on 27 November 1953 in Mappowder, Dorset, where he was buried.[6]

Bibliography edit

Non-fiction edit

  • An Interpretation of Genesis. N.p.: Privately printed,1907.
  • The Soliloquy of a Hermit. New York: G. Arnold Shaw, 1916 (Soliloquies of a Hermit 1918). Available online [1]

Novels edit

  • Black Bryony. London: Chatto and Windus, 1923; New York: Knopf, 1923.
  • Mark Only. London: Chatto and Windus, 1924; New York: Knopf, 1924.
  • Mr Tasker's Gods. London: Chatto and Windus, 1925; New York: Knopf, 1925.
  • Mockery Gap. London: Chatto and Windus, 1925; New York: Knopf, 1925.
  • Mr. Weston's Good Wine. London: Chatto and Windus, 1927; New York: Viking, 1927.
  • Kindness in a Corner. London : Chatto and Windus, 1930; New York: Viking, 1930.
  • Unclay. London: Chatto and Windus, 1931; New York: Viking, 1932.
  • The Market Bell, edited with notes by Ian Robinson, assisted by Elaine Mencher; with an afterword by J. Lawrence Mitchell. Doncaster, South Yorkshire : Brynmill Press, 1991.

Story collections edit

(including novellas)

  • The Left Leg. London: Chatto and Windus, 1923; New York: Knopf, 1923. Available online [2]
  • Innocent Birds. London: Chatto and Windus, 1926; New York: Knopf, 1926.
  • The House With the Echo: Twenty-six Stories. London: Chatto and Windus, 1928; New York: Viking, 1928.
  • Fables. New York: Viking, 1929; London: Chatto and Windus, 1929 (No Painted Plumage, 1934).
  • The White Paternoster, and Other Stories. London, Chatto & Windus, 1930; New York: Viking,1931.
  • The Only Penitent. London, Chatto & Windus, 1931 (The Dolphin Books series).
  • The Two Thieves (containing "In Good Earth", "God", "The Two Thieves"). London: Chatto and Windus, 1932; New York: Viking, 1933.
  • Captain Patch: Twenty-one Stories. London: Chatto and Windus, 1935.
  • Bottle's Path, and Other Stories. London: Chatto and Windus, 1946.
  • God's Eyes A-Twinkle (an anthology of the stories of T. F. Powys, with a preface by Charles Prentice). London, Chatto & Windus, 1947.
  • Rosie Plum, and Other Stories, ed. F. Powys. London, Chatto & Windus, 1966.
  • Come Dine, and Tadnol, ed. A. P. Riley. Hastings: R.A. Brimmell, 1967
  • Father Adam. Doncaster: Brynmill, 1990.
  • Mock's Curse: Nineteen Stories, selected and edited by Elaine & Barrie Mencher. Norfolk: Brynmill, 1995.
  • The Sixpenny Strumpet (with tales from The Two Thieves). Harleston: Brynmill, 1997.
  • Selected Early Works of T. F. Powys. Brynmill Press, 2003.

In addition some single stories were also published as books during the 1920s and 1930s.

Further reading edit

  • Buning, Marius. T. F. Powys: A Modern Allegorist. Rodopi: Amsterdam, 1986. ISBN 90-6203-718-6
  • Churchill, Reginald Charles. The Powys Brothers. London: Published for the British Council and the National Book League by Longmans, Green, 1962.
  • Coombes, H. T. F. Powys. London : Barrie and Rockliff, [1960].
  • Hunter, William. The Novels and Stories of T. F. Powys. Beckenham, Kent: Trigon Press, 1977.
  • Graves, R. P. The Brothers Powys. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. ISBN 0-7100-9323-3
  • Hopkins, Kenneth. The Powys Brothers. 1967.
  • Humfrey, Belinda. Recollections of the Powys Brothers: Llewelyn, Theodore and John Cowper. London: Peter Owen, 1980.
  • Marlow, Louis (Louis Umfreville Wilkinson). Welsh Ambassadors: Powys Lives and Letters, 1936. London: Rota, 1971. ISBN 0-85400-006-2
  • ———. Seven Friends. London: The Richards Press, 1953.
  • Mitchell, Lawrence J. T. F. Powys: Aspects of a Life. Bishopstone, Hertfordshire: Brynmill Press Ltd, 2005. ISBN 978-0-907839-86-6
  • ———. "T. F. Powys, 1875–1953". Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Libraries, 1982.
  • Pouillard, Michel. T. F. Powys (1875–1953): La solitude, le doute, l'art. Paris: Didier-érudition, 1981.
  • Powys, John Cowper. Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1934; London: John Lane, 1934.
  • Riley, Peter. A Bibliography of T. F. Powys. Hastings: R. A. Brimmell, 1967.
  • Sewell, Brocard. Theodore: Essays on T. F. Powys. [Aylesford, Eng.] : Saint Albert's Press, 1964.
  • Scutt, Theodora Gay. Cuckoo in the Powys Nest. Denton: Brynmill, 2000. ISBN 0-907839-62-2
  • Ward, Richard Heron. The Powys Brothers. London: John Lane, 1935.

Theses edit

  • Steinmann, Martin. T. F. Powys: A Thematic Study. Univ. of Minnesota., 1954. Ph.D Thesis.
  • Goldring, Frances J. T. F. Powys as an Allegorical Novelist. Dalhousie University, Dept. of English, 1969. M.A. Thesis.
  • Hoffman, David Edwin. A Comparative Study of J. C. Powys, T. F. Powys and Llewelyn Powys, with Special Reference to the Influence of Their Private Religions in Their Literary Work. King's College, London, Department of English, 1958. M.A. Thesis.

Articles and discussion edit

  • Allen, Walter Ernest. The Short Story in English. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Cavaliero, Glen. The Rural Tradition in the English Novel, 1900–1939. London and New York: Macmillan, 1977.
  • ———. The Alchemy of Laughter: Comedy in English Fiction. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
  • Gunnell, B. "T. F. Powys's Unclay, or the Unconditional Gift". Durham University Journal 85:1 (1993), 95.
  • Holbrook, David. "Two Welsh Writers: T. F. Powys and Dylan Thomas". In Boris Ford, ed., The Modern Age, vol. 7 of The Pelican Guide to English Literature. London: Penguin, 1964.
  • Van Kranendonk, A. G. '"T. F. Powys". English Studies 26:1 (1944), 97–107.
  • Rogers, John Headley. British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915–1945. British short-fiction writers, 1915–1945 [electronic resource] / John Headley Rogers, editor. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1996.
  • Steinmann, Martin. "Water and Animal Symbolism in T. F. Powys". English Studies 41:1 (1960), 359–365.
  • See also The Powys Review[3], The Powys Journal[4], La letter powysienne [5], and Powys Notes for further articles, etc.

Archives edit

  • Harry Ransom Center, Theodore Francis Powys Collection.
  • Dorset Museum, Dorchester, Correspondence and literary papers.
  • British Library. Letters to Vera Wainwright, Add. MS 54330.
  • London University Library. Letters to Charles Lahr and literary mss.
  • National Library of Wales. Letters to John Cowper Powys.
  • University of Aberdeen Library. Letters to J. B. Chapman.

The Powys Society's website has a comprehensive list of archives.

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Powys, Theodore Francis" in Christine L. Krueger, Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th and 20th Centuries Infobase Publishing, 2009 ISBN 1-4381-0870-2 (p. 303)
  2. ^ James Smith, British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930–1960. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2012 ISBN 1-107-03082-X (pp. 4-5).
  3. ^ Frank Kermode, "The Art of Theodore Powys, Ironist". The Welsh Review VI:3 (Autumn 1947); Gervais, David. "T. F. Powys: Invention and Myth. English". The Journal of the English Association 45.181 (Spring 1996): 62–78.
  4. ^ Gervais, David. "T. F. Powys: Invention and Myth. English". The Journal of the English Association 45.181 (Spring 1996): 62–78.
  5. ^ Margarita Carretero González, Encarnación Hidalgo Tenorio, Behind the Veil of Familiarity: C.S. Lewis (1898–1998). Peter Lang, 2001 ISBN 0820450995 (p. 305).
  6. ^ Dictionary of National Biography; Lawrence Mitchell. T. F. Powys: Aspects of a Life (Bishopstone, Hertfordshire: Brynmill Press, 2005).

External links edit

  • The Powys Society
  • Works by T. F. Powys at Faded Page (Canada)
  • , article in the New Statesman
  • Philosopher John Gray, "The Paradox of Immortality" [6]
  • "T. F. Powys, an English Tolstoy?", article in the TLS by Michael Caines
  • Hermit of 'The House in the Pasture' Obituary article about T. F. Powys by his son, Francis Powys.
  • Manuscripts and Book Collections relating to members of the Powys family at the University of Exeter

April 11, 2024
powys, theodore, francis, powys, december, 1875, november, 1953, published, british, novelist, short, story, writer, best, remembered, allegorical, novel, weston, good, wine, 1927, where, weston, wine, merchant, evidently, powys, influenced, bible, john, bunya. Theodore Francis Powys 20 December 1875 27 November 1953 published as T F Powys was a British novelist and short story writer 1 He is best remembered for his allegorical novel Mr Weston s Good Wine 1927 where Weston the wine merchant is evidently God Powys was influenced by the Bible John Bunyan Jonathan Swift and other writers of the 17th and 18th centuries as well as later writers such as Thomas Hardy and Friedrich Nietzsche Theodore Francis PowysBorn 1875 12 20 20 December 1875Shirley Derbyshire EnglandDied27 November 1953 1953 11 27 aged 77 Mappowder Dorset EnglandResting placeMappowder DorsetOccupationNovelist and short story writerGenreAllegoryLiterary movementModernism English literatureNotable worksMr Weston s Good Wine UnclaySpouseViolet Dodd Contents 1 Biography 2 Bibliography 2 1 Non fiction 2 2 Novels 2 3 Story collections 3 Further reading 4 Theses 5 Articles and discussion 6 Archives 7 References 8 External linksBiography editPowys was born in Shirley Derbyshire the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys 1843 1923 vicar of Montacute Somerset for 32 years and Mary Cowper Johnson grand daughter of Dr John Johnson cousin and close friend of the poet William Cowper He was one of eleven talented siblings including the novelist John Cowper Powys 1872 1963 and the novelist and essayist Llewelyn Powys 1884 1939 Their sister Philippa Powys also published a novel and some poetry while Marian Powys was an authority on lace and lace making and published a book on this subject Gertrude Powys was a painter Another brother A R Powys was secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and published a number of books on architectural subjects nbsp Sailors return East Chaldon Powys lived in East Chaldon from 1904 to 1940 A sensitive child Powys was not happy in school and left when he was 15 to become an apprentice on a farm in Suffolk 1 Later he had his own farm in Suffolk but he was not successful and returned to Dorset in 1901 with plans to be a writer Then in 1905 he married Violet Dodd They had two sons and later adopted a daughter From 1904 until 1940 Theodore Powys lived in East Chaldon but then moved to Mappowder because of the Second World War 1 During the Spanish Civil War 1936 39 Powys was one of several UK writers who campaigned for aid to be sent to the Republican side 2 The novels Mr Weston s Good Wine 1927 and Unclay 1931 and the short story collection Fables are most praised while his early non fiction work The Soliloquy of a Hermit 1916 also has its admirers 1 Powys was deeply if unconventionally religious the Bible was a major influence and he had a special affinity with writers of the 17th and 18th centuries including John Bunyan Miguel de Cervantes Jeremy Taylor Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding 3 Among more recent writers he admired Thomas Hardy Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche 4 Powys has been described by C N Manlove as one of the three main writers along with C S Lewis and Charles Williams of Christian fantasy in the 20th century 5 He died on 27 November 1953 in Mappowder Dorset where he was buried 6 Bibliography editNon fiction edit An Interpretation of Genesis N p Privately printed 1907 The Soliloquy of a Hermit New York G Arnold Shaw 1916 Soliloquies of a Hermit 1918 Available online 1 Novels edit Black Bryony London Chatto and Windus 1923 New York Knopf 1923 Mark Only London Chatto and Windus 1924 New York Knopf 1924 Mr Tasker s Gods London Chatto and Windus 1925 New York Knopf 1925 Mockery Gap London Chatto and Windus 1925 New York Knopf 1925 Mr Weston s Good Wine London Chatto and Windus 1927 New York Viking 1927 Kindness in a Corner London Chatto and Windus 1930 New York Viking 1930 Unclay London Chatto and Windus 1931 New York Viking 1932 The Market Bell edited with notes by Ian Robinson assisted by Elaine Mencher with an afterword by J Lawrence Mitchell Doncaster South Yorkshire Brynmill Press 1991 Story collections edit including novellas The Left Leg London Chatto and Windus 1923 New York Knopf 1923 Available online 2 Innocent Birds London Chatto and Windus 1926 New York Knopf 1926 The House With the Echo Twenty six Stories London Chatto and Windus 1928 New York Viking 1928 Fables New York Viking 1929 London Chatto and Windus 1929 No Painted Plumage 1934 The White Paternoster and Other Stories London Chatto amp Windus 1930 New York Viking 1931 The Only Penitent London Chatto amp Windus 1931 The Dolphin Books series The Two Thieves containing In Good Earth God The Two Thieves London Chatto and Windus 1932 New York Viking 1933 Captain Patch Twenty one Stories London Chatto and Windus 1935 Bottle s Path and Other Stories London Chatto and Windus 1946 God s Eyes A Twinkle an anthology of the stories of T F Powys with a preface by Charles Prentice London Chatto amp Windus 1947 Rosie Plum and Other Stories ed F Powys London Chatto amp Windus 1966 Come Dine and Tadnol ed A P Riley Hastings R A Brimmell 1967 Father Adam Doncaster Brynmill 1990 Mock s Curse Nineteen Stories selected and edited by Elaine amp Barrie Mencher Norfolk Brynmill 1995 The Sixpenny Strumpet with tales from The Two Thieves Harleston Brynmill 1997 Selected Early Works of T F Powys Brynmill Press 2003 In addition some single stories were also published as books during the 1920s and 1930s Further reading editBuning Marius T F Powys A Modern Allegorist Rodopi Amsterdam 1986 ISBN 90 6203 718 6 Churchill Reginald Charles The Powys Brothers London Published for the British Council and the National Book League by Longmans Green 1962 Coombes H T F Powys London Barrie and Rockliff 1960 Hunter William The Novels and Stories of T F Powys Beckenham Kent Trigon Press 1977 Graves R P The Brothers Powys London Routledge amp Kegan Paul 1983 ISBN 0 7100 9323 3 Hopkins Kenneth The Powys Brothers 1967 Humfrey Belinda Recollections of the Powys Brothers Llewelyn Theodore and John Cowper London Peter Owen 1980 Marlow Louis Louis Umfreville Wilkinson Welsh Ambassadors Powys Lives and Letters 1936 London Rota 1971 ISBN 0 85400 006 2 Seven Friends London The Richards Press 1953 Mitchell Lawrence J T F Powys Aspects of a Life Bishopstone Hertfordshire Brynmill Press Ltd 2005 ISBN 978 0 907839 86 6 T F Powys 1875 1953 Minneapolis University of Minnesota Libraries 1982 Pouillard Michel T F Powys 1875 1953 La solitude le doute l art Paris Didier erudition 1981 Powys John Cowper Autobiography New York Simon amp Schuster 1934 London John Lane 1934 Riley Peter A Bibliography of T F Powys Hastings R A Brimmell 1967 Sewell Brocard Theodore Essays on T F Powys Aylesford Eng Saint Albert s Press 1964 Scutt Theodora Gay Cuckoo in the Powys Nest Denton Brynmill 2000 ISBN 0 907839 62 2 Ward Richard Heron The Powys Brothers London John Lane 1935 Theses editSteinmann Martin T F Powys A Thematic Study Univ of Minnesota 1954 Ph D Thesis Goldring Frances J T F Powys as an Allegorical Novelist Dalhousie University Dept of English 1969 M A Thesis Hoffman David Edwin A Comparative Study of J C Powys T F Powys and Llewelyn Powys with Special Reference to the Influence of Their Private Religions in Their Literary Work King s College London Department of English 1958 M A Thesis Articles and discussion editAllen Walter Ernest The Short Story in English Oxford and New York Oxford University Press 1981 Cavaliero Glen The Rural Tradition in the English Novel 1900 1939 London and New York Macmillan 1977 The Alchemy of Laughter Comedy in English Fiction Houndmills Basingstoke Hampshire Macmillan Press New York St Martin s Press 2000 Gunnell B T F Powys s Unclay or the Unconditional Gift Durham University Journal 85 1 1993 95 Holbrook David Two Welsh Writers T F Powys and Dylan Thomas In Boris Ford ed The Modern Age vol 7 of The Pelican Guide to English Literature London Penguin 1964 Van Kranendonk A G T F Powys English Studies 26 1 1944 97 107 Rogers John Headley British Short Fiction Writers 1915 1945 British short fiction writers 1915 1945 electronic resource John Headley Rogers editor Detroit Mich Gale Research 1996 Steinmann Martin Water and Animal Symbolism in T F Powys English Studies 41 1 1960 359 365 See also The Powys Review 3 The Powys Journal 4 La letter powysienne 5 and Powys Notes for further articles etc Archives editHarry Ransom Center Theodore Francis Powys Collection Dorset Museum Dorchester Correspondence and literary papers British Library Letters to Vera Wainwright Add MS 54330 London University Library Letters to Charles Lahr and literary mss National Library of Wales Letters to John Cowper Powys University of Aberdeen Library Letters to J B Chapman The Powys Society s website has a comprehensive list of archives References edit a b c d Powys Theodore Francis in Christine L Krueger Encyclopedia of British Writers 19th and 20th Centuries Infobase Publishing 2009 ISBN 1 4381 0870 2 p 303 James Smith British Writers and MI5 Surveillance 1930 1960 Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2012 ISBN 1 107 03082 X pp 4 5 Frank Kermode The Art of Theodore Powys Ironist The Welsh Review VI 3 Autumn 1947 Gervais David T F Powys Invention and Myth English The Journal of the English Association 45 181 Spring 1996 62 78 Gervais David T F Powys Invention and Myth English The Journal of the English Association 45 181 Spring 1996 62 78 Margarita Carretero Gonzalez Encarnacion Hidalgo Tenorio Behind the Veil of Familiarity C S Lewis 1898 1998 Peter Lang 2001 ISBN 0820450995 p 305 Dictionary of National Biography Lawrence Mitchell T F Powys Aspects of a Life Bishopstone Hertfordshire Brynmill Press 2005 External links editThe Powys Society Works by T F Powys at Faded Page Canada Bookmarks John Gray on T F Powys article in the New Statesman Philosopher John Gray The Paradox of Immortality 6 T F Powys an English Tolstoy article in the TLS by Michael Caines Hermit of The House in the Pasture Obituary article about T F Powys by his son Francis Powys Manuscripts and Book Collections relating to members of the Powys family at the University of Exeter Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title T F Powys amp oldid 1212955492, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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