T. F. Powys

Theodore Francis Powys

Sailors return, East Chaldon. Powys lived in East Chaldon from 1904 to 1940.
Born (1875-12-20)20 December 1875
Shirley, Derbyshire, England
Died 27 November 1953(1953-11-27) (aged 77)
Mappowder, Dorset, England
Resting place Mappowder, Dorset
Occupation Novelist and short story writer
Genre Allegory
Literary movement Modernism, English literature
Notable works Mr. Weston's Good Wine
Spouse Violet Dodd

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 Friederich Nietzsche.

Biography

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, a descendent 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.

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 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, 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

Non-fiction

Novels

Story collections

(including novellas)

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

Further reading

Theses

Articles and discussion

Archives

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "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

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