Publisher's Synopsis
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part previously unpublished.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.
