Anthony
Powell
born December 21, 1905, London,
England
died March 28, 2000, near Frome, Somerset
English novelist, best known for his
autobiographical and satiric 12-volume
series of novels, A Dance to the Music of
Time.
As a child, Powell lived wherever his
father, a regular officer in the Welsh
Regiment, was stationed. He attended Eton
College from 1919 to 1923 and Balliol
College, Oxford, from 1923 to 1926.
Thereafter he joined the London publishing
house of Duckworth, which published his
first novel, Afternoon Men (1931). The book
was followed by four more novels on prewar
society, including Venusburg (1932) and From
a View to a Death (1933).
Powell left publishing for journalism in
1936, writing for the Daily Telegraph for
nearly 50 years. After serving in World War
II, he wrote a biographical study of the
17th-century author John Aubrey and His
Friends (1948).
In 1951 he published A Question of
Upbringing, the first part of his ambitious
12-part cycle of novels. The series’
first-person narrative reflects Powell’s own
outlook and experiences; he observes and
describes English upper- and middle-class
society in the decades before and after
World War II with wit and insight, using a
subtle, low-key style. The 12-volume Dance
to the Music of Time series ended with the
publication of Hearing Secret Harmonies in
1975 and is considered a significant
achievement of 20th-century English fiction.
Powell afterward continued to write novels
and also four volumes of memoirs, collected
as To Keep the Ball Rolling (1983).
