======================================================================
=                        Edward_Powys_Mathers                        =
======================================================================

                            Introduction
======================================================================
Edward Powys Mathers (28 August 1892 – 3 February 1939) was an English
translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic
crosswords.


                             Biography
======================================================================
Powys Mathers was born on 28 August 1892 in Forest Hill, London,
England, the son of Edward Peter Mathers, newspaper proprietor. He was
educated at Loretto School and Trinity College, Oxford.

He translated J. C. Mardrus's French version of 'One Thousand and One
Nights'. His English version of Mardrus appeared in 1923, and is known
as Mardrus/Mathers. He also translated 'The Garden of Bright Waters:
One Hundred and Twenty Asiatic Love Poems' (1920); and the Kashmiri
poet Bilhana in 'Bilhana: Black Marigolds' (1919), a free
interpretation in the tradition of Edward FitzGerald, quoted at length
in John Steinbeck's 1945 novel 'Cannery Row'. These are not scholarly
works, and are in some cases based on intermediate versions in
European languages. Some of his translations were set to music by
Aaron Copland. As noted by 'The New York Times', Powys Mathers
"rendered into English poems from almost all the Asiatic languages:
from Sanskrit and Chinese, Annamese and Arabic, Hindustani and
Afghan."

Powys Mathers was notable as a composer of cryptic crosswords for 'The
Observer', from 1926 until his death, using the pseudonym "Torquemada"
(in allusion to the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Tomás de
Torquemada). under which name he reviewed detective stories from 1934
to 1939. Powys Mathers was the author of 'Crosswords for Riper Years'
(1925) and 'The Torquemada Puzzle Book' (1934), which included the
murder mystery puzzle 'Cain's Jawbone'.

In 1919, he married Rosamond Crowdy (5 July 1886 - 7 June 1965), third
daughter of Colonel H. Crowdy, RE.

Powys Mathers died in his sleep at his home in Hampstead, London, on 3
February 1939, aged 46.


                           External links
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/bilhana/index.htm Black Marigolds
at sacred-texts.com]
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040622151638/http://www.wenaus.com/poetry/gardenbrightwaters.html
The Garden of Bright Waters]


License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Powys_Mathers