Petrushka and the Dancer: The Diaries of John Cowper Powys, 1929-39

The diary entries of John Cowper Powys begin in America, where Powys had just retired after 25 years of freelance lecturing, and end in Wales, with the completion of Owen Glendower . His day-to-day preoccupations - from the aesthetic to the anatomical - are evident here, along with reflections on his works in progress (numerous essays on philosophy, religion and literature, and four novels including A Glastonbury Romance ), encounters with members of his family, and detailed observations of rural life in upstate New York, in the West Country, and in Wales. The diary also charts Powys’s life with Phyllis Playter, to form her biography as well as his autobiography.