Persona

Powys, Llewelyn, 1884-1939

1884-1939

Llewelyn Powys (August 13, 1884 - December 2, 1939), wrote a wide variety of works, including essays, a biography, a novel, travel books, works of popular philosophy and propaganda, autobiographical memoirs, and "an imaginary autobiography".

Born in Dorset, England, Llewelyn Powys moved with his family to the village of Montacute in Somerset, England, where his father would be rector for the next thirty-three years. Powys was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1909. Though he spent the next two years in a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, he was never to regain full heath.

From 1914 to 1919 Llewelyn Powys lived in Kenya, managing a farm for his brother William, who was in military service during World War I. In 1919, Llewelyn moved to the United States, marrying Alyse Gregory in October 1924 who was the managing editor of the Dial magazine as well as a widely known and connected New York novelist and essayist. Powys returned to England again in 1925, the pattern of leaving and returning to England informs the rest of Powys' life until the last few most productive years of his life, between 1931 and 1936, when he remained to write in his boyhood home of Dorset, England, Llewelyn Powys only achieved fame by forsaking his homeland and publishing outside of England.

In autumn 1936, Llewelyn Powys' health severely deteriorated and he left England in December for the sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, in which he died in 1939.