John Cowper Powys

Born on October 8, 1872, in Shirley, Derbyshire, John Cowper Powys was the eldest of eleven children of a clergyman. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and began his literary career with poetry before becoming a widely traveled lecturer in the United States and a prolific writer of essays, criticism, philosophy, and fiction.

Powys achieved broad recognition with Wolf Solent in 1929, followed by such ambitious novels as A Glastonbury Romance, Weymouth Sands, and Maiden Castle. His writing is known for its powerful sense of place, intense inner life, humor, and fascination with myth and spiritual experience.

He returned to Britain in 1934 and settled in North Wales the following year, where he wrote historical novels including Owen Glendower and Porius, as well as works on literature, culture, and philosophy. He died in Blaenau Ffestiniog on June 17, 1963.