Wolf Solent was Powys's first successful novel.
There were six impressions of the first edition (American) between 1929 and 1930, three of the British.
A German translation appeared in 1930 and French in 1931.
However, Powys had to cut some 350 pages from his manuscript before Wolf Solent was published by Simon and Schuster.
Following the success of Wolf Solent three of Powys's works of popular philosophy were also best-sellers: The Meaning of Culture (1929), In Defence of Sensuality (1930), A Philosophy of Solitude (1933).

Prior to this Powys had published three apprentice novels: Wood and Stone (1915), Rodmoor (1916), Ducdame (1925), and had also written After My Fashion in 1920, though it was not published until 1980.
He had begun work on Wolf Solent in February 1925, It is "the first of the four Wessex novels which established John Cowper Powys's reputation", an  allusion not only to the place but to the influence of Thomas Hardy on him: his first novel, Wood and Stone was dedicated to Hardy.

In the Preface he wrote for the 1961 Macdonald edition of the novel Powys states: "Wolf Solent is a book of Nostalgia, written in a foreign country with the pen of a traveller and the ink-blood of his home.

Wolf Solent is set in Ramsgard, based on Sherborne, Dorset, where Powys attended school from May 1883, as well as Blacksod, modelled on Yeovil, Somerset, and Dorchester, Dorset and Weymouth, Dorset, both in Dorset, all places full of memories for him.

While Powys had been born in Shirley, Derbyshire and lived there for this first seven years of his life, his father then returned to his home county of Dorset, and, after a brief stay in Weymouth, the family resided in Dorchester from May 1880 until the Christmas of 1885.
Powys's paternal grandmother lived in nearby Weymouth.
For the rest of his youth Powys lived in Montacute, just over the Dorset border in Somerset.
Also in the 1961 Preface Powys records the fact that he and his brother Littleton would often "scamper home" on a Sunday from school in Sherborne via Yeovil: "Sherborne was five miles from Montacute; and Yeovil was five miles from Montacute".

The seaside resort of Weymouth is the main setting of his novel Weymouth Sands (1934, published as Jobber Skald in England) while Maiden Castle (1935), which alludes to Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, is set in Dorchester (Hardy's Casterbridge).
Powys had first settled in Dorchester, after returning from America in 1934.
These two works, along with Wolf Solent and A Glastonbury Romance (1932) make up Powys's four main Wessex novels.
A Further indication of the importance of familiar places in Powys's fiction is that Glastonbury is just a few miles north of Montacute.
Wolf Solent was Powys's first successful novel. There were six impressions of the first edition (American) between 1929 and 1930, three of the British. A German translation appeared in 1930 and French in 1931. However, Powys had to cut some 350 pages from his manuscript before Wolf Solent was published by Simon and Schuster. Following the success of Wolf Solent three of Powys's works of popular philosophy were also best-sellers: The Meaning of Culture (1929), In Defence of Sensuality (1930), A Philosophy of Solitude (1933).
Prior to this Powys had published three apprentice novels: Wood and Stone (1915), Rodmoor (1916), Ducdame (1925), and had also written After My Fashion in 1920, though it was not published until 1980. He had begun work on Wolf Solent in February 1925, It is "the first of the four Wessex novels which established John Cowper Powys's reputation", an  allusion not only to the place but to the influence of Thomas Hardy on him: his first novel, Wood and Stone was dedicated to Hardy.
In the Preface he wrote for the 1961 Macdonald edition of the novel Powys states: "Wolf Solent is a book of Nostalgia, written in a foreign country with the pen of a traveller and the ink-blood of his home. 
Wolf Solent is set in Ramsgard, based on Sherborne, Dorset, where Powys attended school from May 1883, as well as Blacksod, modelled on Yeovil, Somerset, and Dorchester, Dorset and Weymouth, Dorset, both in Dorset, all places full of memories for him.
While Powys had been born in Shirley, Derbyshire and lived there for this first seven years of his life, his father then returned to his home county of Dorset, and, after a brief stay in Weymouth, the family resided in Dorchester from May 1880 until the Christmas of 1885. Powys's paternal grandmother lived in nearby Weymouth. For the rest of his youth Powys lived in Montacute, just over the Dorset border in Somerset. Also in the 1961 Preface Powys records the fact that he and his brother Littleton would often "scamper home" on a Sunday from school in Sherborne via Yeovil: "Sherborne was five miles from Montacute; and Yeovil was five miles from Montacute".
The seaside resort of Weymouth is the main setting of his novel Weymouth Sands (1934, published as Jobber Skald in England) while Maiden Castle (1935), which alludes to Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, is set in Dorchester (Hardy's Casterbridge). Powys had first settled in Dorchester, after returning from America in 1934. These two works, along with Wolf Solent and A Glastonbury Romance (1932) make up Powys's four main Wessex novels. A Further indication of the importance of familiar places in Powys's fiction is that Glastonbury is just a few miles north of Montacute.
Wolf Solent