Petrushka and the dancer - John Cowper Powys

I have been reading aloud a thrilling Russian book called Semi-Precious

Stones where the fellow keeps a show-off Diary to be read if he is

arrested. This Diary of mine is just such an 'Apologia' when I am arrested

by death but it is also one of those things you are proud of doing just

because it is difficult to do & it has always given me thrilling pride and

pleasure when [Phyllis] reads it. She used, in her way, once to say that it

was her favourite work!

The extraordinary mind of the novelist John Cowper Powys (1872-1963) has

never been so revealingly displayed as in these diary entries, for the most

part previously unpublished. They begin in America, where Powys had just

retired from twenty-five years of freelance lecturing, and end in Wales,

with the completion of Owen Glendower.

The day-to-day preoccupations of Powys -- from the aesthetic to the

anatomical -- are evident here, along with reflections on his works in

progress (numerous books on philosophy, religion and literature, and five

novels including A Glastonbury Romance), encounters with members of his

notable family, and detailed observations of rural life in upstate New

York, in his beloved West Country, and in Wales. The entries also chart the

complexities of Powys's exceptional intimate life with Phyllis Playter, to

form her biography as well as his autobiography. Skilfully edited from the

vast original text, this Selection distils the essence of Powys's life.