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Edited by Frank Warren
The Letters of John Cowper Powys
to Frank Warren
In February 1956 the young Frank Warren wrote a fan letter to the octogenarian novelist, poet and philosopher John Cowper Powys. Frank had recently been reading Llewelyn Powys's Advice to a Young Poet and was intrigued by his style and philosophy. Thus began an intermittent correspondence that covered a range of topics as varied as they are fascinating :
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tea with Thomas Hardy and William Barnes; a visit to the library of Friedrich Nietzsche ('almost entirely composed of French books') and reading the great German thinker's pencilled notes in the margin; recollections of the astonishing Dorset beggar woman Nancy Cooper, and the 'naughty gossip' of Mary, first Countess Cowper, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales in 1714. Writing from his tiny quarryman's cottage in North Wales, Jesus Christ, William Cowper and Shelley ('Think of Shelley's heart being buried at Bournemouth of all places!') — are all grist to John Cowper's quirky and indefatigable mill.
Whether we read John Cowper Powys's letters to Henry Miller, Dorothy Richardson, a Japanese professor or a young stranger like Frank Warren, we are reminded once again of the unlimited generosity and intellectual vitality of this great talker, writer and philosopher.
Appended to the correspondence is 'Recollections of John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter' by Frederick Davies.
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