Europhile Bailey Alexander writes:
Cherie Emily,
My name is Bailey Alexander and my husband and I live in Paris with a second home in Malta, but still manage a business in Seattle, albeit long distance. I rarely go back to the States, but I love reading the blogs, like Wolcott’s, your own, Glenn Greenwald, and Daily Kos.
My point? Well, I’ve always been a fan of The New Yorker as well as Dorothy Parker, certo, but why the conspicuous absence of our/America’s greatest comedic writer, Dawn Powell? She was the real deal, where Dorothy was more of an “It” personality. Dorothy could do the quip, the perfect short story every now and then, but Dawn did the novel. The novel.
Gore Vidal and Hemingway always acknowledged her as our finest satire queen and give/gave her the due she deserves, but why don’t you? Your site could prove the perfect position to launch Powell from cult status to religion, n’est pas?
She was not celebrated by the publishers of her time because she didn’t write about the war, but rather chose to focus on women and men on the make in New York, mostly from the Midwest, basically, most of those that made New York happen, culturally. She was the original doyenne of Greenwich Village; her satire is unmatched by or rather only equaled by Evelyn Waugh, etc.
Just curious.
A fan.
Bailey Alexander
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