Powell, Dawn ___ 1896-1965 ___ American ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, Powell ran away from an abusive stepmother when only 12, and was then brought up by an aunt. She studied at Lake Erie College, where she became involved in student theatre and journalism. In 1918, she moved to New York City, taking up various jobs while writing freelance articles and stories. She married Joseph Gousha, a poet and businessman, settled in Greenwich Village, and had one son called JoJo. During a life, somewhat dogged by financial problems, Gousha's drinking and difficulties with Jojo, she wrote 16 novels (such as 'Dance Night', 'Turn, Magic Wheel' and 'The Locusts Have No King'), nine plays and many short stories. Although after her death, she fell out of favour, Gore Vidal has been an enthusiastic promoter of her work. When her diaries were published in 1995, they were immediately praised by the literary establishment.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1931-1965 ___ domestic literary society family self people

WEB TEXT LINKS
good extracts
many extracts
a few pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Columbia University Libraries

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of Dawn Powell 1931-1965
 

May 2005, July 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.