Anthony Powell
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Anthony Dymoke Powell (December 21, 1905 - March 28, 2000) is a writer most remembered for his A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy published between 1951 and 1975.
Born in Westminster, England, he studied at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. Among his contemporaries were Evelyn Waugh, Henry Green, Graham Greene, and George Orwell. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1936, a few years after publishing his first novel, to join Warner Brothers motion-picture studios on a six month contract as scriptwriter. There, he became acquainted with F Scott Fitzgerald who was also writing for film at the time. A year later, he returned to England where he became a regular contributor to The Spectator and the Daily Telegraph newspaper while devoting as much time as possible to writing novels until the outbreak of World War II when he served in the Intelligence Corps as a Liaison Officer with the Allied Forces. During this time, he wrote an acclaimed biography of John Aubrey.
At the end of the War, he returned to writing, reviewing for the Times Literary Supplement, and in 1953 was appointed Literary Editor of Punch magazine.From 1958 to 1990, he was a regular reviewer for the Daily Telegraph, resigning after he was criticized by Auberon Waugh.
Through his writings, Anthony Powell would go on to international fame and in 1973 he declined an offer of knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. He was made Companion of Honour in 1988.
His journals were published between 1995 and 1997.
Anthony Powell died at his home near Frome, Somerset.
Partial bibliography:
- The Barnard Letters - (1928)
- Afternoon Men - (1931)
- John Aubrey and His Friends - (1948)
- Venusberg - (1961)
- Infants of the Spring - (1976)
- The Fisher King - (1986)
A Dance to the Music of Time, the twelve-volume series of novels published between 1951 and 1975 consists of:
- A Question of Upbringing - (1951)
- A Buyer's Market - (1952),
- The Acceptance World - (1955)
- At Lady Molly's - (1957)
- Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - (1960)
- The Kindly Ones - (1962)
- The Valley of Bones - (1964)
- The Soldier's Art - (1966)
- The Military Philosophers - (1968)
- Books Do Furnish a Room - (1971)
- Temporary Kings - (1973)
- Hearing Secret Harmonies - (1975)
More information is available at the Anthony Powell Society (http://www.anthonypowell.org.uk) webpage