Dance Night is published by Farrar & Rinehart; its poor sales and negative reviews depress Powell, who will always consider this her finest novel. Visits Bermuda in the summer with Margaret De Silver. Earns some of her living collaborating with nightclub comedian Dwight Fiske on bawdy song-stories. (Many of these are later published in Fiske's collections Without Music in 1933 and Why Should Penguins Fly? in 1934.)

Begins work on two novels, Come Back to Sorrento and a book she originally calls the "Lila" novel, which becomes Turn, Magic Wheel. Begins keeping a detailed diary with some regularity, a practice she continues for the rest of her life. An early play, Walking Down Broadway, is purchased for $7,500 and loosely adapted into a film directed by Erich von Stroheim (the film, which is taken away from Stroheim and partially reshot, is retitled Hello, Sister! and released in 1933). The family moves in October to 9 East 10th Street.

Come Back to Sorrento is published by Farrar & Rinehart, who against Powell's wishes retitle it The Tenth Moon. Spends beginning of the year in California, working as a screenwriter, but receives no film credits. Big Night is selected for production by the Group Theater, and Powell is anxious about what she calls the "heavy footed literalism" of their staging. The play is directed by Cheryl Crawford, then, late in the rehearsal period, by Harold Clurman; the cast includes Stella Adler, J. Edward Bromberg, and Clifford Odets. Begins work on novel The Story of a Country Boy, based in part on memories of her maternal cousin Charles Miller.

Big Night opens in January; receives harsh reviews and closes after four days, although it is praised by Robert Benchley in The New Yorker. Powell begins work on another play, Jig-Saw. Completes The Story of a Country Boy. Forms friendship with Edmund Wilson; friendship with John Dos Passos deepens. At the end of the year, there is a rupture, apparently final, with John Howard Lawson.

Begins work on satirical novel Turn, Magic Wheel. Jig-Saw is produced by the Theater Guild, with Spring Byington, Ernest Truex, and Cora Witherspoon in leading roles; production is a modest success, and play is published by Farrar & Rinehart. The Story of a Country Boy is published to poor sales and undistinguished reviews; film rights are sold to Warner Brothers and First National Pictures for $12,500.

Continues work on Turn, Magic Wheel; Farrar & Rinehart are mystified by her self-proclaimed "new style" of urban comedy, and John Farrar suggests that she put the novel aside, "not necessarily destroy." Visits Havana and Key West with Joseph and old friend Harry Lissfelt. Men of Iron, a film loosely derived from The Story of a Country Boy, is released to poor reviews.

Turn, Magic Wheel is published by Farrar & Rinehart, to excellent reviews and moderate sales. British edition is published by John Constable; the reviews are even more enthusiastic. (Powell will continue to have a small but avid following in England.) Moves again to Hollywood in the fall; earns a large salary as a screenwriter and is promised an extended contract, guaranteeing her up to $1500 a week; dislikes writing for the movies and returns to New York.

Works on novel The Happy Island while taking amphetamine diet pills. Attempts to produce a play, Red Dress, based on She Walks In Beauty, with Norman Bel Geddes.

The Happy Island is published; it is a critical and financial failure. Jojo is moved to Gladwyne Colony in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where he lives for most of the next 14 years

The Happy Island is published; it is a critical and financial failure. Jojo is moved to Gladwyne Colony in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where he lives for most of the next 14 years

Signs with Scribner's, where her new editor is Max Perkins, famous for his work with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Appears as a regular guest analyzing popular songs on radio program Music and Manners, featuring Ann Honeycutt. Briefly employed as book critic for Mademoiselle; describes the work as a "kindergarten" job. Through Dos Passos, becomes increasingly friendly with Gerald and Sara Murphy, and spends weekends with them at their homes in East Hampton and Snedens Landing, New York. Works much of the year on novel Angels on Toast, writing part of it in a Coney Island hotel.

Angels on Toast published by Scribner's, to good reviews and marginal sales. Begins work on A Time To Be Born, based in part on the career of Clare Boothe Luce.

After a dream about her childhood in late January starts to sketch out what becomes My Home Is Far Away, a novel closely based on childhood experiences. At year's end, she helps rewrite a musical comedy, The Lady Comes Across; other participants in the project include composer Vernon Duke, lyricist John Latouche, choreographer George Balanchine, and actors Jessie Matthews, Mischa Auer, Joe E. Lewis, and Gower Champion.

The Lady Comes Across closes in January after two performances. John Latouche remains one of Powell's closest friends. A Time To Be Born, published by Scribner's, becomes Powell's best-selling book to date by far, and is reprinted four times in the first year. The family moves in September to duplex at 35 East Ninth Street.

Works steadily on My Home Is Far Away, which she envisions as the beginning of a trilogy. Writes in her diary: "In the new book, I want to trace corruption, private and public, through innocence and love—possibly learning that only by being prepared for all evil can evil be met." Begins work on novel "The Destroyers," later retitled The Locusts Have No King.

My Home Is Far Away is published; it is dedicated to her cousin John Franklin Sherman, who was also raised by Orpha May Steinbrueck and is serving overseas. Begins "Marcia," the second volume of her projected trilogy (the novel is never finished, and less than 100 pages of draft survive). Edmund Wilson publishes a mixed review of My Home Is Far Away in The New Yorker in November; review hurts Powell deeply and nearly ruptures their friendship.

In the summer, visits Ohio for what will be the last reunion with her two sisters.

Incorporates the fascination and horror she feels listening to radio broadcasts of the United States atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll into the final scene of The Locusts Have No King, which she now plans as a deliberately "post-war" novel. Takes an automobile trip to Florida with Margaret De Silver, where they visit with Esther Andrews, Canby Chambers, and Pauline Pfeiffer Hemingway. Undergoes a hysterectomy in the fall; tells friends she has been "spayed." Works on The Locusts Have No King throughout the year.

Meets Malcolm Lowry during his visit to Manhattan to promote his recently published novel Under the Volcano; the two become friends and correspondents. Max Perkins dies in June. Powell attends to John Dos Passos after an automobile accident in September on Cape Cod, which costs him an eye and kills his wife, Katy. Hospitalized for more than two weeks after being attacked and badly beaten by Jojo in November.

The Locusts Have No King is published by Scribner's. Powell deems it an "admirable, superior work—no holes of plot as in other works—and a sustained intelligence dominating the farcical and exaggerated so that it had more unity and structural solidity than anything I ever did." The novel receives favorable reviews but sales are mediocre. To Powell's surprise, her English publisher, John Constable, rejects the book. Visits Haiti and Key West in March.

Pressure within Powell's chest is finally diagnosed as a teratoma, a rare tumor that often includes fragments of hair and teeth, which has become so acute that her ribs are cracking from its pressure. Tumor is successfully removed in April. Powell believes the growth a "failed twin" and nicknames it "Terry Toma." Accepts a month-long residency during the summer at the MacDowell Colony, but is irritated by the colony's regulations and traditions and remains stymied in her work on "Marcia." Sister Mabel Powell Pocock dies in October.

Unable to make headway with her new project, a "novel of Washington Square" entitled The Wicked Pavilion. Feeling the need for a drastic change, moves in October with financial aid from Margaret De Silver to Paris, where she lives at the Hotel Lutetia on the Left Bank. Renews old friendships with Eugene Jolas and Libby Holman, and meets Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir; dislikes France and finds Parisians "the most moralizing people in the world." Cuts her stay short when Chinese intervention in the Korean War suggests to her that a global conflict may be imminent.

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