Edited by Janet Fouli
The Letters of John Cowper Powys
and Dorothy Richardson

    This correspondence is among the first in the Uniform Edition in which both sides have been collected, where it has been possible to reconstruct the dialogue between the two writers. The result is a memorably stimulating exchange of views between two people who are both not only prolific letter-writers, but also significant literary figures.
    Powys was constant in his admiration of Dorothy Richardson's books, and his encouragement and efforts to help her precarious financial circumstances are evident from his letters to her. Yet at first she had been hesitant to meet him:
'I think on the whole I agree with those who feel it is a mistake to meet writers whose work one likes. There is so rarely any apparent correspondence. The enquirer risks losing "illusions" — and the writer a reader. Truth is served however and that, no doubt, if one can face it, is great compensation. We shall be at home on Sunday.'
      From this reluctant invitation sprang a friendship that was to last twenty-five years. Between 1929 and 1952, she wrote 104 letters and cards to Powys and received 76 from him. Their first meeting immediately established their friendship and while they were not to meet often, their correspondence quickly developed into a steady exchange of ideas and of books.
    The letters in this remarkable collection belong to a period that includes the publication and prohibition of Ulysses, the translation of A la recherche du temps perdu, the writings of Virginia Woolf and Henry Miller, and, in another perspective, the Second World War. They bear lively witness to these events and to the friendship of both writers. They also provide a fascinating portrait of Powys and of Richardson, a self-portrait projecting each of them in their preoccupations and their environments, and also a mirror, showing how each of them sees the other. These are not deliberate self-revelations for the public gaze, for neither writer anticipated publication. This adds a special interest, for we can see Powys and Richardson as they were to themselves, and to each other, and to those closest to them — the two silent spouses and collaborators, Phyllis Playter and Alan Odle. This important collection forms what, in a different context, Dorothy Richardson calls 'an excursion into the mind and personality of the author'. As such, it is an invaluable complement to the books of each writer. Its contribution to our knowledge and understanding of both writers is considerable.
 
214mm x 133mm, 272 pp. & 6 illustrations.
ISBN 978-1-897967-27-0                 £35.00