The Modern Novel

Biography

Anthony Powell (it’s pronounced pole) was born in Westminster in 1905. He went to Eton and then read history at Balliol College, Oxford. His first job was working for the publisher, Duckworth, where he eventually became an editor. He left the company in 1936 to work as a scriptwriter for Warner but none of his scripts was ever made into a film and he soon left to become a full-time writer. During World War II, he served in the Intelligence Corps. After the War, he worked for the Times Literary Supplement and then as literary editor of Punch. Starting in 1951, he published his Dance to the Music of Time series, with the final and twelfth book published twenty-four years later. It is for this work that he is best known, with the character of Widmerpool a key character of English literature. He continued writing until his ninetieth year, dying in 2000. He will always take second place to Evelyn Waugh as the best-known English comic novelist of the twentieth century and it seems likely that, given the somewhat old-fashioned nature of his writing, his reputation will wane during the twenty-first century. Of course, I prefer William Gerhardie.

Books about Anthony Powell

Michael Barber: Anthony Powell: A Life
Neil Brennan: Anthony Powell

Other links

Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Fine memories of Anthony Powell
The Anthony Powell Society
Interview

Obituaries

Obituary
Obituary
Obituary