J.F. Powers Bibliography

J.F. Powers Bibliography

James Farl (J.F.) Powers (8 July 1917 - 12 June 1999) was a Roman Catholic short-story writer and a novelist. He often drew inspiration from developments within the Roman Catholic Tradition. He was a conscientious objector during World War II and worked as a hospital orderly.

Although Powers' published output was not in large quantity like many of his contemporaries, it has long had a devoted following who admire his ability, especially his satire, and his great ability as a true wordsmith. He captured post World War II American Catholicism. He published two novels and three collections of short stories during his lifetime, and those stories have come from a variety of sources and been republished in numerous forms of packaging over the years. His work was admired by his contemporaries and is appreciated to this day. Evelyn Waugh once stated about Powers as a writer whose "whole art is everywhere infused and directed by his faith." And Joseph Bottum in his article about Powers calls him "the Greatest Catholic Writer of the 20th century."

He won the national book award for fiction in 1963 - the year that Morte d'Urban was published. His accolades also include: Lions, Harts, Leaping Does which was selected for inclusion in the O. Henry Prize Stories of 1944; National Book Award nomination for fiction, 1988 for Wheat that Springeth Green; Wethersfield Institute Award for outstanding literary achievement, 1989.

My introduction to his work was the short story The Warm Sand (seen here), which haunted me for many years. I wrote about the book and tracked it down a few years back in a piece called That Elusive Story. Since tracking it down it has taken me a few years to hunt down all of his published work that I can find. This piece is intended asof those works and over the next few months I will publish reviews of each of them.

Book Chronology:

1947 - The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
1949 - Cross Country. St. Paul, Home of the Saints.
1956 - The Presence of Grace
1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1975 - Look How the Fish Live
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers

Bibliography:

Prince of Darkness & Other Stories
Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1947, 227p.

Cross Country. St. Paul, Home of the Saints.
Published in the Partisan Review V16 #7 July 1949, p.715-721

Morte d'Urban
Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1962, 336p.

The Presence of Grace
Doubleday & Co., Garden City NY 1956, 191p.

Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
Time Reading Program Special Edition
New York, New York, 29 p.
(Note all stories in this collection are gleaned from either Prince of Darkness & Other Stories or The Presence of Grace.)

Look How the Fish Live
Knopf, New York, 1975, 190p.

Wheat that Springeth Green
A.A. Knopf, New York, 1988, 335p.

The Old Bird, A Love Story
Signed Numbered limited edition of this soft story. 260 copies were produced, with wood cut illustrations by Barbara Harman. (note: well worth tracking down even if just for a look.)

The Stories of J. F. Powers
New York Review Books, New York, New York, 1999, 570p.
(Note all stories in this collection are gleaned from either Prince of Darkness & Other Stories, The Presence of Grace or Look How the Fish Live.)

The Short Stories by Volume:


The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories

o The Lord's Day
o The Trouble
o Lions, Harts, Leaping Does
o Jamesie
o He Don't Plant Cotton
o The Forks
o Renner
o The Valiant Woman
o The Eye
o The Old Bird, A Love Story
o Prince of Darkness

The Presence of Grace

o Dawn
o Death of a Favorite
o The Poor Thing
o The Devil Was the Joker
o A Losing Game
o Defection of a Favorite
o Zeal
o Blue Island
o The Presence of Grace

Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories

o Dawn
o The Lord's Day
o The Forks
o The Valiant Woman
o Prince of Darkness
o Zeal
o Death of a Favorite
o Defection of a Favorite
o The Poor Thing
o A losing Game
o The Devil Was the Joker
o Lions, Harts, Leaping Does
o The Presence of Grace

Look How the Fish Live

o Look How the Fish Live
o Bill
o Folks
o Keystone
o One of Them
o Moonshot
o Priestly Fellowship
o Farewell
o Pharisees
o Tinkers

The Stories of J. F. Powers

o The Lord's Day
o The Trouble
o Lions, Harts, Leaping Does
o Jamesie
o He Don't Plant Cotton
o The Forks
o Renner
o The Valiant Woman
o The Eye
o The Old Bird, A Love Story
o Prince of Darkness
o Dawn
o Death of a Favorite
o The Poor Thing
o The Devil Was the Joker
o A Losing Game
o Defection of a Favorite
o Zeal
o Blue Island
o The Presence of Grace
o Look How the Fish Live
o Bill
o Folks
o Keystone
o One of Them
o Moonshot
o Priestly Fellowship
o Farewell
o Pharisees
o Tinkers

Notes on Wheat that Springeth Green:

The book Wheat That Springeth Green can almost be read as a series of short stories. In fact some of the book has been published in short story format in other sources. Chapter 10 of this book is a variation of the short story Bill - in Wheat it appears as Good News. Chapters 16-18 of this book were published in an earlier format as Priestly Fellowship. Finally the short story The Warm Sand was published just a year before the book came out in The Substance of Things Hoped For edited by John Breslin SJ appears in Wheat as chapter 6 Out in the World. Though some of the short stories vary from the chapters in the novels, the fact that they are variations on the same theme make them extremely interesting.

Short Stories, Books and Articles Original Publication Info:

1943 Autumn - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does - Accent
1943 December - Saints on the Air - Catholic Worker
1943 July - Day in the County Jail - Catholic Worker
1943 May - Night in the County Jail - Catholic Worker
1943 Winter - He Don't Plant Cotton - Accent
1944 Fall - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Rocky Mountain Review
1944 November 10th - The Trouble - Commonweal
1944 Spring - Renner - New Mexico Quarterly Review
1944 Winter - Interlude in a Book Shop - Opportunity
1945 August - Blessing - The Sign
1945 August 10th - Dealers in Diamonds and Rhine-Stones - Commonweal
1945 Spring - William Everson: Way Elegies and Waldport Poems - Accent
1945 Summer - William Maxwell: The Folded Leaf, and Walter Van Tilburg The City of Trembling Leaves - Accent
1946 Winter - Prince of Darkness - Accent
1947 - The Eye - In Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
1947 - The Forks - In Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
1947 - The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories - Book
1947 April 26th - Jamesie - Colliers
1947 Spring - The Valiant Woman - Accent
1948 July 16th - Waugh Out West - Commonweal
1948 June 25th - Peter Taylor: A Long Fourth and Other Stories - Commonweal
1948 May - Art, The Moon Prince - Commonweal
1948 October 15th - Fun With A Purpose - Commonweal
1949 August 5th - Short And Select - Commonweal
1949 July - St. Paul Home of the Saints - Partisan Review
1949 May - Refugee - The Month
1949 November 4th - Peddling Fish - Commonweal
1949 October - The Poor Thing - Tomorrow
1950 August 19th - Letter to the Editor - Tablet
1950 July 1st - Death of a Favorite - The New Yorker
1950 Spring - Elizabeth Bowden et Al., Who do I write? - Renascence
1951, November 10th - Defection of a Favorite - The New Yorker
1953 March 21st - The Devil Was the Joker - The New Yorker
1954 Autumn - The Presence of Grace - Accent
1955 Autumn - Blue Island - Accent
1955 November 5th - A Losing Game - The New Yorker
1956 - The Presence of Grace - Book
1956 August 19th - Letter to the Editor: Books on Trial - Tablet
1956 February 10th - Zeal - Commonweal
1956 November 10th - The Green Banana - The New Yorker
1956 Winter - Dawn - Partisan Review
1957 December 21st - A Couple of Nights Before Christmas - The New Yorker
1957 October 31st - Look How the Fish Live - The Reporter
1960 December 10th - Are These Our Children? (AKA - Folks) - The Nation
1960 May 21st - Wrens and Starling - The New Yorker
1960 October 15th - God Writes a Bad Hand - The New
1962 - Morte d'Urban - Novel
1962 April - Twenty-Four Hours in a Strange Diocese - Esquire
1962 July - At Lake Lucille - The Critic
1962 March - The Most a Man Can Do - The Critic
1962 March 3rd - Moonshot - The Nation
1962 November - She Stands Alone - Four Quarters
1962 Spring - Sailing Against the Wind - The Kenyon Review
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories - Book
1963 May 12th - National Book Award Address - New York Book Review
1963 May 18th - Keystone - The New Yorker
1965 July - Conscience and Religion - Commentary
1965 May 23rd - The Pesky Side of Paradise - New York Herald Tribune Book Review
1967 Oct-Nov - Cross-Section: Authors in Wonderland - The Critic
1969 May 17th - Bill - The New Yorker
1969, September 27th - Priestly Fellowship - The New Yorker
1971 July-August - One of Them - The Critic
1973 August 6th - Farewell - The New Yorker
1973 November - Dealers in Diamonds and Rhine-Stones - Commonweal
1975 - Look How the Fish Live - Book
1975 August - Pharisees - Commonweal
1977 - The Lord's Day - Cross-Section
1978, January 30th - The Hair Shirt - The New Yorker
1979 March 26th - The Warm Sand - The New Yorker
1987 - The Warm Sand - The Substance of Things Hoped For
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - Novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Signed Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers - Book
Folks - The Nation
Tinkers - American Review

Links to other articles about J.F. Powers:

Wikipedia
The Minnesota Historical Society
The Marrying, Burying World of J. F. Powers
Separation Of Church and Dreck
Clerical character: rereading J.F. Powers
The sins of the fathers
Yardley on Powers
People of the Book
Amy Welborn
The Storyteller
Men of Cloth
Blogtrotter

(I posted all of his cover art I could find here.)

My Reviews and Articles on Powers:

1962 - Morte d'Urban - novel
1963 - Lions, Harts, Leaping Does, and Other Stories
1988 - Wheat that Springeth Green - novel
1991 - The Old Bird, A Love Story - Illustrated Edition
1999 - The Stories of J. F. Powers
J.F. Powers Selected Bibliography
J.F. Powers Book Covers
That Elusive Story
The Warm Sand
Meme Booked By 3 May 2007
Meme Book Meme
Meme Booked by 3 February 2007

RS398 Directed Reading - The Religious Fiction of J.F. Powers
Essay - Why J.F. Powers
The Prince of Darkness and Other Stories
The Presence of Grace
Morte d'Urban
Look How the Fish Live
Wheat that Springeth Green
Essay - J.F. Powers Literary Life and Legacy