Dawn Powell wrote novels about people like herself: outsiders who’d come to New York City in the early twentieth century to make a name for themselves. For a few years, those novels put her at the center of the city’s literary scene. Ernest Hemingway even called her his favorite living writer.
When she died of colon cancer in 1965, Powell donated her body to science. But then her books disappeared from shelves, and, unbeknownst to her family, her body went missing too.
This is episode five of The Unmarked Graveyard, a series untangling mysteries from America’s largest public cemetery. To hear more stories from Hart Island, subscribe to the Radio Diaries feed.
Meet Miss Subways
The Gospel Ranger
Mandela's Election: 30 Years Later
Working, Then and Now
My Iron Lung (Revisited)
My So-Called Lungs (Revisited)
The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records
Guest Spotlight: Parakeet Panic
The Drum Also Waltzes
The Unmarked Graveyard: Live at WNYC
The Man on the President's Limo
The Unmarked Graveyard: LaMont Dottin
The Unmarked Graveyard: Hisako Hasegawa
The Unmarked Graveyard: Cesar Irizarry
The Unmarked Graveyard: Documenting an Invisible Island
The Unmarked Graveyard: Angel Garcia
The Unmarked Graveyard: Noah Creshevsky
The Unmarked Graveyard: Neil Harris Jr.
TRAILER: The Unmarked Graveyard
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