Until richard powers traveled to bookstores across the united states in 1998 to promote his sixth novel, gain, he was as mysterious, having always spurned. Mining the same rich, longneglected vein of sociallyaware fiction once plumbed by upton sinclair, john dos passos, and sinclair lewis, powers creates a subtle, quietly horrifying mirror reflecting the seldomnoticed, tragic. His most recent, the overstory, won the pulitzer prize in fiction. He can use language better than pratically anyone else writing today. In the hands of lawyers, though, interpretative powers can be perverted and make us sick.
The clare familys story begins in 1802, in a fledgling soap factory near the docks of roxbury, mass. Reading his many novels about characters obsessed with science, technology, and art, you can imagine him floating in the darkness emitting one flowing brilliant, lyrical paragraph after the next. Unlike the lorax, who spoke for the trees, richard powers prefers to let them do their own talking. Born in 1957 in evanston, illinois, powers lived in bangkok, thailand from age eleven to sixteen while his father taught there. Richard powers is the author of several novels, including the echo maker fsg, 2006, which won the national book award and was a finalist for the. In the other, we learn about clare soap and chemical company, a soap manufacturer that is established in the mid1800s and grows over the next century. Richard powers is the author of ten novels, including his most recent title, generosity. The salon interview richard powers the author of gain on cancer, corporations, the blankness of the midwest and the elusive art of seducing readers.
For the first decades of his career, he did few interviews, and didnt even go on a book tour until the late 90s, but, however unlikely it sounds, powers is a people person. At the time, he was on the first book tour of his career, in support of his novel gain. Apr 18, 2018 then i read richard powerss the overstory, out this month from w. Of course, i didnt realize it at the time, but i was censoring richard powers, the most important book cover artist of science fictions silver age. Gain braids together two stories on very different scales.
Select this result to view richard leonard powers is phone number, address, and more. Richard powers is in the same league as don delillo. Richard powers books list of books by author richard powers. Mar 21, 2018 powers is a writer of blistering intellect. His novel the echo maker won the 2006 national book award for fiction. The fiction of richard powers sometimes resembles a dying satyrabove the waist is a mind full of serious thought, philosophical reflection, deep exploration of music and science. You can also read gain as the evolution of corporations and the evolution of death by cancer. You can read gain just for the pleasure of reading great writing. Never one to tread lightly or think small, powers galatea 2. And now, because jane franks the art of richard powers is such a fine assemblage, i have been given an appropriate opportunity to try and make amends. I first met richard powers in the summer of 1998 at a bookstore in oak park, illinois, which happens to be the hometown of ernest hemingway and not far from where powers was born. Richard powers is such a great novelist that a reading of any of his novels, at whatever juncture, is bound to draw comparison with other masterpieces such as the gold bug variations, the time of our singing and the echo maker. Finalist, national book award, 1994 praise for operation wandering soul by richard powers if you have children or will have children, if you, read more the gold bug variations stuart ressler, a brilliant young molecular biologist, sets out in 1957 to crack the genetic code.
Apr 03, 2018 the overstory of richard powerss title is a term for the canopy of a forest, the foliage at the top of the trees. The national book awardwinning author of the echo maker proves yet again that no writer of our time dreams on a grander scale or more knowingly captures the zeitgeist the dallas morning news. He apologizes after picking me up at the airport in knoxville, tennessee, on a cool evening in early april, that his chevy volt, an electric hybrid, is in the shop, and he has to maneuver this beast, with its 20 miles to the gallon, across winding country roads. Fulltime instructor in dance history and contemporary social dance forms, stanford university dance division, department of theater and performance studies. Richard powers is without a doubt one of the two or three. Mike belleme for the guardian at 60, with numerous accolades, including a national book award for the echo maker, powers has long earned the right to tackle any. Richard powers hates the hulking white chevy silverado pickup hes driving. Richard powers novel is a fascinating and profound exploration of the interaction of an individual human life and a corporate one. Richard powers in arizona az 33 records found whitepages. Gain provides an indepth, fascinating history of the development of a soap company, from humble 18thcentury beginnings to a modern conglomerate. We try to keep bookbrowses biographies both up to date and accurate, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of its a tough task. Richard powers bio, facts, family famous birthdays.
It follows the lives of nine unique protagonists an artist, a vietnam vet, and seven others and their profound encounters with trees. The overstory, winner of the pulitzer prize in fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation ofand paean tothe natural world. Having earned a bit of a reputation for being the reclusive genius type he didnt give interviews until he had published his third book, and didnt consent to having his photo on the jacket until his fifth novelist richard powers explains to the new york times, i wanted the books to speak for themselves. Richard powerss website this bio was last updated on 04172018. Gain is erudite, penetrating and splendidly written. Gain isbn 0374159963 is a novel by richard powers published by in 1998. Richard is related to silicate glb powers and adam r powers as well as 1 additional person.
Powers has received a macarthur fellowship and a lannan literary award. Join facebook to connect with richard powers and others you may know. Feb 09, 2014 the astonishing power of richard powers. An interview with richard powers believer magazine.
Feb 18, 2003 richard powers wrote his new novel, the time of our singing, in bed, using a wireless keyboard to beam his prose to a giant computer screen across the room. Richard powers made his debut in 1985 with three farmers on their way to a dance, a brilliant and almost unbelievably brainy meditation on what he calls our. Using the tools of the story, he pulls readers heartfirst into a perspective so much longerlived and more subtly developed than the human purview that we gain glimpses of a vast, primordial sensibility, while watching our own kind get whittled down to size. Richard powers wrote his new novel, the time of our singing, in bed, using a wireless keyboard to beam his prose to a giant computer screen across the room. For richard powers of evanston, author of the pulitzer. Author richard powers richard powers recently won the national book award for his book the echo maker. Richard powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted. He is the author of eight novels, including plowing the dark, gain, and galatea 2. Richard powers born june 18, 1957 is an american novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.
In his new novel, gain, richard powers takes us into the world of business and shows us what it has meant to america and the world by telling the stories of two families. Richard powers booklist richard powers message board. The biography of richard powers almost reads like a book. Before he was married, richard powers went through a period of not speaking to anyone. Gain and loss in the circle of life in richard powers novel, gain, he intertwines two fictional stories to analyze the growth of large corporation in america and the deterioration of the individual as a potential result. Richard powers has been the recipient of a lannan literary award and a macarthur fellowship. In the overstory, powers gives readers nine characters whose stories entwine over the course of the novel. By the end of it, he had written a 400page novel but had become, as he puts it, a bit. Principal focus since 1975 has been social dance forms, from the renaissance to today. The overstory of richard powerss title is a term for the canopy of a forest, the foliage at the top of the trees. Jul 23, 1998 the salon interview richard powers the author of gain on cancer, corporations, the blankness of the midwest and the elusive art of seducing readers.
Richard powers has proven himself a visionary writer. Richard powers phone, address, background info whitepages. So, please help us if the information about this author is out of date or inaccurate, and you know of a more complete source, please let us. Powers has sometimes been criticized for being a topdown novelist, one who presents characters from the high or long perspective of history, science, or music. Apr 23, 2018 richard powers hates the hulking white chevy silverado pickup hes driving. Toward the beginning of orfeo, the engrossing new novel by richard powers, were told that over the past 40 years americans have lost about a third of their ability to pay attention. With gain, richard powers launches his own strong bid for entry into the canon of americas best novelists, delivering a work both epic in scope and universal in emotional resonance, a contemporary book drawing upon timeless, and often uniquely american, themes. Part mystery and part science, the novel is about a. Mar 14, 2003 before he was married, richard powers went through a period of not speaking to anyone. Join facebook to connect with richard power and others you may know. The overstory, a novel about trees and people who understand them, is the ecoepic of the year and perhaps the decade. Nobody talks much about the quest for great american novel anymore. The candleandsoap outfit begun in boston in the 1830s by the three clare brothers first built a reputation on its medicinal soap.
Powers has received a macarthur fellowship, a lannan literary award, and the james fenimore cooper prize for historical fiction. My reading, therefore, of gain powers sixth novel ultimately drew comparison. Apr 03, 2018 richard powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted. Gain tells two stories separately and intertwines them. Richard powers gain exemplifies the kind of book i love to read a beautifully written narrative combined with a compelling story in this case two disparate stories that are headed for each other. Gain only confirms that powers is, in fact, a major american novelist. Its not just a completely absorbing, even overwhelming book. Mike belleme for the guardian at 60, with numerous accolades, including a national book award for the echo maker. Then i read richard powerss the overstory, out this month from w.
This is the national book awardwinning authors twelfth novel, and it might be his finest. The best result we found for your search is richard leonard powers i age 60s in globe, az. Richard powers is without a doubt one of the two or three best living writers working in the english language. Powers, whose list of awards covers just about every major honor available to a writer, including the national book award for the echo maker fsg, 2006 and a macarthur genius fellowship, is the author of twelve novels, most recently the overstory, which is, to repeat the word kingsolver herself used in a frontpage encomium in the new. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, richard powers s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum new york to the late twentiethcentury timber wars of the pacific northwest and beyond.
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