A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

Dawn Powell's dazzling tale of ambition, betrayal and romantic chaos, introduced by Marlowe Granados.

'A fascinating study of New York's power society' Hernan Diaz, author of Trust

'Among the greatest writers of her time' Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road

Amanda Keeler is a bestselling novelist, famed for her martini-soaked parties. It's a glamorous life, paid for in full by marriage to a tedious, teeth-grinding newspaper tycoon.

When a meek friend from her provincial past arrives in Manhattan, Amanda plots to use her as cover for an affair-until she realises that they have both fallen for the same man.

Sophisticated, scandalous and acidly funny, this is a portrait of a woman determined to have everything, even if it costs the one thing she never meant to gamble: her heart.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Dawn Powell (1896-1965) was a novelist and playwright known for her satires of New York's cultural and literary circles. Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, she endured a tumultuous childhood before running away at thirteen to live with an aunt who encouraged her writing aspirations. After graduating from Lake Erie College, Powell moved to New York City, immersing herself in the bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village.

She gained early recognition for her witty pieces in The New Yorker and Esquire, and in 1939 became a Scribner author, sharing the legendary editor Maxwell Perkins with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Although Powell enjoyed a devoted circle of admirers, her work drifted into obscurity after her death. Interest in her novels was later revived by the tireless work of Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page, executor of her estate, and also through Gore Vidal's influential appraisal in The New York Review of Books.

"Effortlessly funny, fantastically mean without ever being cynical, and particularly astute on gender politics while avoiding earnestness and essentialism" — The Atlantic (Named in 2024 one of the Great American Novels of the past 100 Years)

“Dawn Powell's 1942 comedy of manners . . . steers us through the lives of women who come to New York from the hinterlands, for love, money, opportunity and a good time. One, Amanda Keeler Evans, a figure based on Clare Boothe Luce, is a vapid and conniving social climber who marries a newspaper baron to set her own writing career afoot. The other, Vicky Haven is a victim of Amanda’s social and romantic manipulations. Few books have so bitingly and energetically captured the hunger for status and success that animate the city and enrage so many.“
— The New York Times

“The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Boothe Luce character in her roman à clef A Time to Be Born. The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell’s clarifying lens her actions become understandable — one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience, and Powell was peerless in keeping her readers off stride.”
—Salon

DAWN POWELL (1896-1965) was a novelist and playwright known for her satires of New York's cultural and literary circles. Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, she endured a tumultuous childhood before running away at thirteen to live with an aunt who encouraged her writing aspirations. After graduating from Lake Erie College, Powell moved to New York City, immersing herself in the bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village. She gained early recognition for her witty pieces in The New Yorker and Esquire, and in 1939 became a Scribner author, sharing the legendary editor Maxwell Perkins with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Although Powell enjoyed a devoted circle of admirers, her work drifted into obscurity after her death. Interest in her novels was later revived by the tireless work of Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page, executor of her estate, and also through Gore Vidal's influential appraisal in The New York Review of Books. MARLOWE GRANADOS is the author of Happy Hour, a novel The New York Times called "confident, charismatic and alive to the pleasure of observation." After spending time in New York and London, Granados now lives in Toronto. Her second novel, Petty Intrigues, is forthcoming.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781805333265
ISBN 10	1805333267
Title	A Time to Be Born
Author	Dawn Powell
Series	Pushkin Press Classics Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pushkin Press
Year published	2026-06-18
Number of pages	336
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.