The Blue Train

Few writers wait until they are 70 to publish their first novel. The Blue Train was written in 1941 when the author was half that age. Although Henry Miller's response, included herewith as the Afterword, was enormously encouraging, Powell put the manuscript aside in favor of a long career as library administrator, teacher, bibliographer, and essayist, during which he achieved wide renown. Upon retiring from UCLA in 1966, he rewrote the novel and once again put it aside as not ready to publish. Finally in 1975 in his 70th year, he gave The Blue Train a final revision--and here it is, a tender, youthful celebration of life and love, overdue and welcome n an age surfeited with brutal, pornographic sex.