J.F. Powers

2 Collection Items

• Charles Thornbury on J.F. Powers

  J.F. Powers, one of Minnesota's most celebrated authors, died of natural causes at his home in Collegeville on Saturday. He was 81. Powers won national acclaim for his novels which explore the tensions of Midwestern Catholicism by following the story of a small-parish priest. He was considered a quiet literary giant, who worked various jobs in Chicago during the Great Depression and became a conscientious objector during World War II. Powers was a Professor and Writer-in-Residence at St. John's University in Collegeville until 1993.

  Jun. 16, 19994 minSave
• Novelist J. F. Powers dies

  J.F Powers, One of Minnesota's most acclaimed authors died on Saturday at his home in Collegeville. He was 81 years old. Powers' first novel, "Morte D'Urban" won the national book award in 1962. In the following years, Powers published a collection of short stories, but it took him more than two decades to complete his next novel. Like most of Powers' work, that book, "Wheat that Springeth Green," explored the world of the priesthood. In 1988, just after the novel's publication, Powers told Minnesota Public Radio he'd never considered the priesthood himself.

  Jun. 16, 19994 minSave