The Powys Society Newsletter No. 73

July 2011

CONTENTS

Chairman's Report

Committee Nominations, 2011-12

AGM 2011

Conference 2011

The Collection

Public Catalogue Foundation

Brighton Meetings, May 2011

Powys Day, Dorchester, May 2011

'Sylphia', by Geoffrey Winch

Heads of JCP by Oloff de Wet

Theodore and his Sisters, letters

'Dropping the pilot on the down'

by M. Skaife d’Ingerthorpe

Two Powys dust-jackets

Notes and Letters

'Solstice Moon over Phudd Hill'

Chydyok update

Chaldon Literary Festival

LIP review of The Sailor's Return

Philippa Powys: a new publication

Review of A Struggle for Life by John Hodgson

Tit-Bits, 1940: a contribution by JCP

'Durdle Door', by Gertrude Powys

The Old Gods, by Patrick Fallon

W. J. Keith: Some thoughts on

William Faulkner

JCP & his publishers, letters 1930-44

A Powysian boating trip in 1863      

Newsletter Editorial No. 73: "The seventy-odd letters between Theodore and his sisters that have found their way into the Collection at Dorchester seem rather a random bunch, largely domestic and with several difficult to date, but they are enough to shed light on their writers. Theodore's letters, even in the well-worn coinage we use to relations (thanks for letters, thanks for presents, health concern, weather) almost always have something of a quirky twist; and in Editor's view (as with JCP's diaries) it is the dailiness of lives that sets off the personalities who live them. A second instalment of letters after the move to Mappowder will be in the November Newsletter.

   Llewelyn reviewing David Garnett's The Sailor's Return continues the Chaldon connection. JCP takes part in a series on writers' religious or non-religious beliefs at the beginning of WW2, commissioned by the editor of Tit-Bits (definitely not to be confused with Ally Sloper); more prosaically he engages in diplomatic exchanges by letter with his publishers, Jonathan Cape. A perceptive review of Porius at its first appearance in 1951 is by the Irish poet Padraic Fallon. Finally, Stephen Powys Marks presents another twig from his family tree, with a cheery account in verse of what sounds a delightful boating excursion - despite trouble with swans, as depicted on our cover — on the Thames, in 1863." (Kate Kavanagh)

The Powys Society Newsletter No. 72

March 2011

CONTENTS

Two Powys Days 2011

AGM 2011

Conference 2011

First Powys Lecture in Ireland

News & Notes

Owain Glyndwr's Proclamation

Pageant photographs

Ducdame

   In Hampstead

   Shifting Light

   Revisiting Ashover

   How They Saw It

   'Ducdame'

   Ducdame In Our Time

William Faulkner's review of Ducdame

Powyses and The Dial

   JCP review, 1926

   Llewelyn Powys review, 1925

John and Theodore, 11 Letters, 1925

The Art of Unhappiness

Reviews

  Revealing King Arthur by Christopher Gidlow

  Literary Somerset by James Crowden

Pollinger Literary Archive

Newsletter Editorial No. 72

'Our two covers illustrate rather different presentations of Ducdame, JCP's fourth, and third published, novel, as it appeared in 1925. Discussion of Ducdame has led to 1925 as the key to Contents this time, with views and reviews of the  book, contemporary and later. This led further to contributions by Powyses to The Dial at that time: John Cowper on the once-so-famous Anatole France (then recently deceased), and Llewelyn on the then young (and still now admired) Edna St Vincent Millay. A year of letters between John and Theodore gives a good idea of their respective care for each other's life-illusions. Tim Blanchard's study of the earlier Rodmoor, as The Art of Unhappiness, makes a suitable preamble to the late 1920s, a time of relatively calm waters for the Powys brothers.

Within The Powys Society, Chris Thomas's inspection of the Pollinger archive reveals a decade (the 1980s) when many plans were proposed and a few achieved. A number of Powys-related books have appeared or are about to, and JCP now has a toe-hold in Ireland. The coming season promises well with meetings in Brighton in May, Dorchester in June, and the August Conference once more in Llangollen with an unusually varied programme led by our new Chairman Timothy Hyman. Many people have contributed to this newsletter and not all are mentioned. Editor is especially grateful for all their suggestions, encouragement and help. Kate Kavanagh

The Powys Society Newsletter No. 71

November 2010

CONTENTS

The Conference

The AGM

Obituaries: Margaret Eaton and Richard Maxwell

My Conference: Geoffrey Winch

Mary Simmonds, Christopher Uren

John Cowper Powys on film by Anthony Head

Llewelyn Powys’s 126th Birthday Party

Bookshops

Llewelyn Powys: ‘Africa’s Wisdom’

Elspeth Huxley: Powyses in Africa

JCP’s Diary, February 1934

JCP to Gerard Casey, letter 1934

Gerard Casey: A Pattern of Memories

Gerard Casey by Timothy Hyman

Mary Casey, two poems from Africa

'Potted Herring' in Chaldon Herring

Reviews: Littleton Powys THE JOY OF IT

Literary Somerset

Alyse Gregory KING LOG AND LADY LEA

Christmas Lore and Legend Yuletide Essays by Ll.P

Llewelyn Powys: ‘Cardinal Newman’

A Little Story

Notes & News

Newsletter Editorial No. 71

This Newsletter moves in various directions. As an extension of the Conference "entertainment", on Powyses in Africa, Will Powys is seen by Elspeth Huxley, chronicler of colonial Kenya, by JCP in his diary for a week in 1934, and by Gerard Casey in his "pattern of memories". New books from Sundial have prompted essays on Littleton and Alyse Gregory. LlP -- topically -- is at his most elegant writing about Cardinal Newman; and letters to the Editor give a new dimension to the JCP Experience.

Another very enjoyable conference, with A Glastonbury Romance leading the field -- a single book but spread wide and dug deeply by the speakers. Paul Weston embodied the magic/ occult character of Glastonbury today, a legacy of writers, archaeologists, and explorers of the psyche and the landscape all through the 20th century & continuing.  (This aspect is well described in W. J. Keith's recent book.)  It is a two-way influence, to and from the evocative myth-soaked configuration of hills and floodplain, and the enquiring or receptive minds of those drawn to it. Presided, we may think, by the two modern magi of the West – Freud calling spirits from the vasty deep of the mind, and Jung exploring and connecting human imaginations.

The JCP we know of was well aware of his power to influence minds -- almost wholly benevolent in intention, most would judge, as was his outward later life; but equally aware of malice, mixed motives, and the dangers of dark forces (his mistrust of spiritualism, and of Aleister Crowley, is well known -- and he could underestimate his own influence). He drew on these powers in his fiction, which has brought him into company he might or might not have chosen. (A surreally grotesque Glastonbury murder, described by Paul Weston, could have sprung from the darkest depth of Mr Evans's imagination.) How far can writers be held responsible for what is extracted from them?  Not, perhaps, for later growth-elements such as mind-altering drugs.

Magic, though a feature of the "romantic" quest, was not a problem for our other two speakers on A Glastonbury Romance (Fawkner & O'Hear). The range of human nature taking part in the book, and the patterns or non-patterns of human life as described there, with or without controlling superpowers, are surely enhancements of life .

KK

The Powys Society Newsletter No. 70

July 2010

  CONTENTS

Chairman’s Report for 2009–2010

Treasurer’s Report & Accounts

Philippa Powys, African poems

Cambridge and Dorchester meetings

A Literary Dinner

The Voice of God: Theodore's Soliloquies of a Hermit

Wisdom of TFP

JCP to Violet (five letters)

Reviews

Pleasures of Good Books

JCP on Literature

More on Lucifer

Owen Glendower The Seen and the Unseen

Notes & News

JCP to Littleton, 1953

‘The Flute’, a poem by JCP

Buried in Bath

Among the highlights of the 50 page March 2009 issue of The Powys Society Newsletter (No.66), are articles on T. F. Powys and Lady Ottoline Morrell (with photos) by Chris Thomas, Llewelyn and Naomi Mitchinson by Susan Rands, 'JCP, Anarchism & Max Stirner' by David Goodway, 'Thomas Hardy and His Times' by John Cowper Powys, and a review of Professor Keith's Aspects of John Cowper Powys's Owen Glendower by Sonia Lewis. Featured on the front cover is a photo of Theodore Francis Powys and Lady Ottoline Morrell (1936) in East Chaldon.