John Cowper Powys (8 October 1872 - 17 June 1963) was a public lecturer and writer, born in Derbyshire, England. His father was a curate in the Church of England and both his parents came from a line of parsons.JCP had five brothers and five sisters.Brothers Theodore Francis (1875- 1953) and Llewelyn (1884-1939) became established writers.

JCP graduated from Cambridge in 1894 then lectured in girls' schools.He lectured in Literature around England for University Extension.In 1896 he married Margaret Lyon (1871? - 1947).He played tennis with her, and after his mother said she hoped he wasn't leading her on, he  married her (Elwin,ed.p.14).She was "alien in mind and spirit " to JCP (Humfrey,p.30),and they drifted apart, one reason because he was often away lecturing.He provided her with an income, and often sent money to family and friends.Their only child, Littleton Alfred (1902-1954), became a Roman Catholic priest.He died from a muscle wasting disease caused by a motorcycle accident.

In 1904 JCP began to lecture in America, living there from 1909 to 1934.In 1921 he met American Phyllis Playter (29 Nov.1894 - 10 March 1982) and she became his permanent partner.In 1930 he performed his last lecture tour so that he could write full time. In 1935 he settled in Wales.The Powys family had lived in England for four hundred years, but he identified strongly with Wales.

Personality of JCP

He made an impact on many he met, witnessed by the number of people who have written about him. Henry Miller wrote:"Like Celine, he can speak of himself in the most derogatory terms, call himself a fool, a clown, a weakling, a coward, a degenerate, even a 'sub-human' being, without in the least diminishing his stature."(Humfrey,p.190)"I have referred to him as a living book.What is that but to say he is all flame, all spirit"?(Ibid.p.193) Frank Shelley observed:

He made you feel while you were with him..."one of the most important people in the world - that your opinion on anything and everything was of vital interest to him, and that it was immensely generous of you to devote your invaluable time to honouring him with a visit."(Ibid.p.222)"As soon as you were with him, you became involved in a tacit celebration of the very wonder of living. His sheer attentiveness was dynamic, magnetic.You had, in fact, to become the wonderful person he pretended you were.He seemed to invite you into at least two thirds more of the universe than you had ever imagined."(Ibid.)

"He was as un-physical as a skeleton; but, a very vital skeleton - energized, one might suppose, from some occult nuclear satellite."(Ibid.p.223)

JCP had much of the actor and showman in him, contributing largely to his success as a lecturer.Often he almost hypnotised his audience, becoming so immersed in his subject and the person he was talking about.His imagination was very powerful,and he said he had a "tendency to live in my own self-created world".(Petrushka..p.xv) JCP and Phyllis were "two totally impractical, reclusive, self-absorbed people"(Ibid.)

He was picked on at school for being different, and he found  that if he flaunted his eccentricities he could survive.On his last day at school after supper he gave his "apologia" to his stunned schoolmates.He "dragged in every single detail they derided me for, I exposed my lacerations, my shames, my idiocies",(Autobiography) (including his habit of chewing food with his front teeth).The next day he was laid up with the dyspepsia which was to plague his life.When a student at Cambridge he kept a revolver in his rooms, which, when waved in the air on one occasion, instantly deterred a bunch of students bent on ragging him. In his writings he is often frank about his personal habits and idiosyncracies.

He was uncoordinated physically.He spilt Phyllis' breakfast on the bed.He was always spilling hot coals onto the carpet.He often tore his trousers, and often fell over while out walking.Their two cats and a dog were not housetrained, and when the former disgraced themselves inside they were destroyed. (Diaries).

JCP was a very eccentric character.Oliver Wilkinson has written:
"Jack married for honour's sake, and against his instincts.He had developed a loathing for anything feminine.He did not like even a female animal near him.He abhorred the female parts of a flower.He recoiled from women, from the very thought of women, form anything to do with women.This made marriage difficult."(p.xxvi) [His difficulties with the feminine are reflected in his horoscope, where Cancer is intercepted in the 7th house of partnerships and his Moon is in the 12th house of restriction and hidden matters.JCP born at 1:30pm.See Meddle.]

"Jack made faces at people in the elevated railway.He still looked distinguished as he did so, but that made it more disconcerting.His appearance was strange and beautiful, even though his clothes were spotted and stained, with buttons missing.(Once, when he was about to climb onto the lecture platform, with his hostess trying anxiously to indicate that his fly-buttons were undone, he told her,'Madam, I wear them like that!)When posting a letter, he felt the post-box, and prayed to it.He picked up fallen flowers to save them from further bruising.He hung his hands over the table cloth in case he touched it."(p.xix)

In The New Astrology  Suzanne White combines Chinese and Western astrology.JCP was a Libra/Monkey, and her comments on this combination fit him like a glove:
"This combination of signs can talk his way in or out of just about any paper bag you come up with...[His] strength lies in his brilliant manipulation of words and ideas to fit situations both commercial and artistic.[They] are gentle con artists whose characteristic eloquence and gift of the gab make them thrilling company....attracted to motion for its own sake...

The Libra/Monkey is manipulative.He or she will not be above exploitation of others.He sees the world as his playpen.He doesn't see why he should not extract sentiment in favor of gain.After all, whatever shenanigans he is up to, he will be the first to assure both you and himself that he has the best interests of everyone concerned at heart."(p.425) (Psychedelic guru Timothy Leary was  a Libra/Monkey,and also a man who made a career out of putting on a show for the public.)

Philosophy of Life

He had no desire to construct an abstract system of thought, but rather, to present a practical philosophy that would enable himself and others to enjoy living in the here and now.One of his major objectives was to cultivate "the pleasure there is in life itself".(Wordsworth)

A favourite saying of his was "Defy and enjoy".He advocated striving to be happy in spite of obstacles.He emphasised the importance of controlling the mind, and not tormenting oneself with negative thoughts and fretting about things beyond one's control.He called his approach to life "stoical epicureanism."

Although one of his books is called "In Defence of Sensuality", he does not advocate a "drink and be merry" approach to life.He writes about the more subtle sensations we can get out of life, particularly in relating to Nature:

"On the surface of Nature's forms and shapes there are a thousand undulating emanations, flowing here, floating there, dependent upon the innumerable caprices of chance and occasion. These emanations, wherein the shadows of clouds, the flickering of broken lights, the motions of winds, the winged atmospheres that come and go around us, blend with something that emerges from each separate individual living thing, and make up together that mysterious essence , that some have called the magic, of the universe.

This magic seems to rise up from the appearances of Nature and to sink amid the appearances of Nature.It is indeed the flickering and flowing of a presence that is as once psychic and material; and though non-human in its essence is so deeply associated with our nervous life that it over- brims in every direction our conscious awareness and excites magnetic vibrations which touch our subconscious memory and rouse up strange responses in the imagination."(The Meaning of Culture,p.172)

This magic is the soul or the secret of Nature and dwells on the material surface of Nature rather than in any "spiritual" depths.(Ibid.)By concentrating on these emanations we can recapture the"...celestial light, the glory and the freshness of a dream."(Wordsworth,"Ode On Intimations...")

He took an animistic and polytheistic attitude to Nature.To him, every part of Nature had consciousness, from rocks and trees to the Moon, planets and stars.He used to pay homage to various gods and spirits of Nature.Although some of his writings might appear to be mystical, he was not a mystic.He had no desire to transcend the ego self and achieve union with the Absolute,( or variously  called God, the over soul, the One).He did not recognise the concept of the "higher self" as used in esoteric thought.He was favourably disposed towards Taoism, but did not like ways Buddhism downgrades the instincts and this worldly life.

Kenneth White has written:
"There is in fact no love lost between Powys and society.In his anti-social, asocial attitude, he is more than an individualist...he is a rank and radical,absolute,out-and-out solipist...And over against socially inspired values, he provocatively defends "anti-social degeneracy","introvertism","paranoia" and "spiritual onanism".(White,p.8)

The Uses of Literature

JCP did not take a dry, academic approach to literature.He saw in the classic works of literature a means to heighten our awareness of life and to cope better with living.Some authors he liked were Homer, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare,Wordsworth, Keats,Whitman,Hardy,Dostoievsky and Proust.It takes time to realise "the influence that literature exerts over human minds, the power it has of transferring to one's real experience that mythical heightening which it diffuses through its imaginary world."(Meaning of Culture,p.29)Reading and re-reading the great authors is a means to see the world in new ways and enhance the power of the imagination.JCP believed that we half discover and half create the world, thus he placed much importance on the imagination. In these days when the imagination is under so great a threat by the mass media, his advocacy of this faculty of the mind is very desirable.

Up to the age of forty he "struggled desperately to evoke and arrange my feelings according to what I admired in my favourite books." After forty he found and lived by his real feelings(Autobiog.p.403)

He was sometimes called a charlatan because he did not approach the classics in an academic manner.But this did not bother him.Dry academic discourse was not his intent.He devoured the classics in order to enhance his own life. His aim was to enthuse others with a liking for the writers he was so passionate about. He can inspire one to get more out of life.He is an antidote to our sterile, hum-drum age.

In a review of  Suspended Judgements in The Dial (Jan.25,1917:56-58),Israel Solon makes this interesting observation:

"Some years ago, I attended one of Mr. Powys's lectures;and,falling into an old habit of mine,I began to take notes.It was two or three minutes before I saw that Mr.Powys's statements did not look nearly so impressive as they sounded.But it was fully half an hour before I made a real discovery.During some pause, I began to read what I had written down, and found, to my astonishment, that Mr. Powys's statements cancelled themselves out.Each of Mr. Powys's vehement assertions, sooner or later, was cancelled by another equally vehement but contrary assertion.At the end of the lecture I had nothing left.The first thing that occurred to me was that it was due to some quirk or crotchet in Mr.Powys's make-up.But I soon gave that up for a better explanation.It was part of a deliberate policy.It was part of a policy to give everybody what he wants."

I doubt if the audiences of JCP were one jot concerned about any alleged inconsistencies.I am sure his appeal was in his contagious enthusiasm, giving people, at least temporarily, a glimpse of wider and deeper vistas to life.Mr. Solon finds this attitude present in Suspended Judgements, with JCP praising writers then later damning them, e.g.Voltaire and Byron.This ties in with JCP's approach to people.A number of times in his works he says he shamelessly buttered up people's egos in order to please them.This is another likely reason why he has been branded a charlatan.

Novels of JCP

The first of his novels that I read was "Wolf Solent" (1929) and it is the only one that I have been able to finish.Some people love his novels, while others can't see much in them at all.Martin Seymour-Smith wrote: "Both brothers [John and Theodore]see the universe...as a battleground for the forces of good and evil. Both writers have been overatted by their admirers;both had genius;both too rapidly became bores by harping on their particular obsessions."(p.213)

George Steiner has observed:
"There is no ease of access.Each great novel of John Cowper Powys is a world of its own.It has to be re-conquered, reunderstood almost from the start."(p.8)

I find that many of his characters don't come across as real people, but serve only as vehicles for his ideas or are projections of his own fantasy.I think there is a grain of truth in what Seymour-Smith says,as in his novels JCP really lets loose with his personal manias.In his works he can be extremely long-winded: some of his novels, for example, had much cut out, yet still are very long!Powys stated: "My writings...are simply so much propaganda, as effective as I can make it, for my philosophy of life."(Autobiog.p.641)

In his diaries he often praises Phyllis for her insights on his novels.She made a penetrating comment on 20 June 1935: "She says that I ought to take a simple theme like that of Hamlet or Lear  & then be as fanciful & imaginative as I like - but based on the old universal feelings of the human race - feelings that all can follow....She says that there must be Reality & an interpretation of Reality for a book to be really great." (Petrushka,p.190)

As I read more about him, I have figured out why I can't read his novels.He lived in his imagination and had little understanding of people and the everyday world.His child-like vivid imagination coexisted with with a mind that was in many ways childish.He would pull faces at people from train windows (Oliver Wilkinson).He would imagine people in grotesque ways, for example a woman at a function as having a giant reptilian tail (Autobiography).He advocated that we see people as circus freaks, exaggerating their feature's in one's mind (In Spite Of, a Philosophy for Everyman).He liked to tease Phyllis, and he took pleasure in hiding his lack of interest in others behind a facade of affability(Diaries).His unworldiness is reflected in his novels, where he creates his own private world.

Extracts from some reviews of his works

V.S.Pritchett's "The Glastonbury Monster"(The New Statesman and Nation,Oct.20,1934:553-4)which reviews the Autobiography is perceptive and amusing:
"...These quotations may indicate the embarrassment of the task of reviewing Mr Powys' books.One has the sensation of entering some Turkish bath of the psyche, and of there seeing Mr Powys naked in the hottest room of the subjective process.He sits steaming confusedly away, an ascetic-looking figure for all his verbal sensuality, declaiming theatrically and monotonously among the vapours and secretions.He is determined to sweat every drop out of his system.

Whether Mr Powys' naked and shameless candour is as candid as it sounds is doubtful.He is naked yet hidden in the vapour of his own confession.He seems to me to have wrapped himself in sensationalism..

With poetic intuitions-yet no poet;emulator of prose styles, but no stylist;with an ability to draw character,but no novelist;a priest washing his sins in rhetoric; a mystic only too much in tune with the indefinite; an actor, but fatally insisting upon a one-man play; a man as easily bogged in the sublime as in the ridiculous, his self-dramatisations collapsing at a touch into bathos - with all his intuitive and imaginative gifts, Mr Powys ends by making turgid what he has the ability to make clear."

Wolf Solent was reviewed in The New Statesman,Aug.24,1929 (no name given).Here are some excerpts:
"As one plunges deeper in the wilderness of this work, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep in mind that it is not the first novel of a very young man indeed.All the usual signs are there: the complete absence of objective grasp; the interminable soul searchings of the hero; the megalomaniac inconsequence of the plot; the feversih effort to get everything in.To these generic defects Mr. Powys adds a conscience condemned, by the lack of fixed principles, to constant overwork, and a style of such unsophisticated badness as becomes, in the long run, almost endearing.

... A novelist, besides, must leave out something.Mr Powys's  method is to leave out the difficult things.Important transitions, the growth of relationships,he passes over in silence, assuming in the next chapter that they have taken place, and leaving the how and why for ever a mystery to the astonished reader.

...Wolf, however, continues to take him [the Squire] seriously; indeed, he is shocked.He is in a continual state of shock;shocked at his friends, shocked at himself, shocked still more when he is not shocked; shocked by sex particularly, but not exclusively.

...He torments himself unflaggingly over his ideals without having any clear notion what they are, or any impulse to sit down and think them out.In fact, Mr. Powys has rediscovered the hundred per cent.
romanticism of Sturm und Drang - and he does not appear to entertain the least suspicion that it has been discovered before.

His moral sensitiveness, indeed, and patience in recording impressions might give his book some value if he had command of English enough to do them justice.Unfortunately, he has not.At the end of a long, serious, introspective sentence, suddenly you come upon an exclamation mark: it strikes on the ear like the blunder of a too-genial guest at a genteel and rather strained tea-party.This hearty symbol, however, recurs so often that one comes to take it in the right spirit, as a mere confession of inadequacy.Mr. Powys's literariness is a more consistent shock."Miss Gault's face," he says,"was like an ancient amphitheatre full of dusky gladiators." Faces, interpreted by Mr.Powys,are seldom without some monstrous oddity.Smiles are reflected in them like bunches of honeysuckle.In fact, the book is so strenously over-written that it was hardly possible it should be expressive.It has been grossly over-praised."

Snippets from his Diaries

Here are some extracts from his diaries.They show some of the ways in which JCP used his imagination and related to the elements to expand his life experiences, and to savour life more fully.(Again his penchant for showmanship is present in the diaries.They were written for an audience, as now and then he addresses the reader.I can imagine him thinking along the lines: "See what tricks Moony Jack  can really get up to.")

"I prayed to the actual stones of Stonehenge.I said - 'O Stonehenge help me to write such a book on Glastonbury as has never been writ of any place.'I drank rainwater out of a hollow in the stone of Sacrifice.I knelt on the edge of the altar-stone.I invoked Merlin and my Three Great Spirits of the Earth.I carried water in the palm of my hand for the handle of my stick."(3 August,1929) "I have found out how to dance a peculiar dance with a certain stamping of my feet that gives me a very curious feeling of being a real magician and of the earth being porous and of floating in immense space while I hold the T.T."(standing for The Tao and/or Tiny Thin, i.e., Phyllis).22 August,1929).

"Of all animals I worship the Cow.And my deepest Religious ritual is for 'the Mothers' - Cybele and Gaia and Demeter and Our Lady and Ceridwen the Welsh Demeter;and another one too!"(15 Sept.1929)He was very much attached to his dog, called the Black, then the Old, and lastly the Very Old.It was a black cocker spaniel which he acquired in America and took to Wales with him.Man and dog often went out walking together and JCP sorely missed him when he died.

"I invoke the Four Elements and drink my orange juice and as libation a few drops to the earth and to the Chthonian Deities Below the Earth and then feed the birds."(12 Dec.1935)

"Went all the way to Grouse-Gate - where I waited listening to the Curlews.I got the peculiar pleasure I do get from imagining myself a Gorilla, slowly walking along, feeling the grass and heather and moss under its feet and enjoying the cold north-east air.And I thought that though all living things produced by the earth perish and leave no individual soul behind, yet - so I am absolutely assured - the material cosmos, in which a Gorilla like me walks, is not all there is." ( 2 May,1939)

To conclude

 JCP  shows us that there are dimensions to everday life beyond our normal realisation.The Industrial Revolution began the creation of an artificial physical world for people, now the Electronic Revolution is creating an artificial mental world.The mass media is swamping peoples' minds with manipulative images, creating a limbo world of the mind.JCP said:"I think these Televisions have done more harm to human intelligence than any other invention."(Letters to Nicholas Ross,p.145)

Fewer people today really control their own minds.Some ideas of JCP are most helpful in this  mechanical age by showing how we can utilise our poetic and mythic imagination and enhance our responses to life.His life and works show that we can get so much out of life by the proper use of those things which life itself gives us, such as imagination, the elements and natural "magic", instead of relying on excessive artificial stimulation as is so common today.

Some References
Hopkins, Kenneth The Powys Brothers. Southrepps:Warren House Press,1972
Humfrey, Belinda,ed. Recollections of the Powys Brothers. London:Peter Owen,1980
Meddle Jeff  "Magic Powys", Powys Newsletter,July 1989[Perceptive interpretation of JCP's horoscope.]
Powys, John Cowper  Autobiography. London:Macdonald, 1967
----------  Letters of John Cowper Powys to Frances Gregg Vol.1.Edited by Oliver Marlow Wilkinson.
London:Cecil Woolf,1994
----------  Letters of John Cowper Powys to his Brother Llewelyn Vol 1.Edited by Malcolm Elwin. London:Village Press,1975
----------  Letters to Nicholas Ross. London:Bertram Rota,1971
----------  The Meaning of Culture. London:Village Press,1974
----------  Petrushka and the Dancer:the Diaries of John Cowper Powys 1929-1939.Morine Krissdottir ed. Manchester:Carcanet Press,1995
Seymour-Smith,Martin Guide to Modern World Literature vol.1.London:Hodder & Stoughton,1975
Steiner, George "The Difficulties of Reading John Cowper Powys",The Powys Review,Spring 1977,Number 1.
White,Kenneth The Life Technique of John Cowper Powys.Swansea:Galloping Dog Press,1978
Williams, Herbert  John Cowper Powys. Bridgend:Poetry Wales Press,1997