His position as one of the great modern poets has been much discussed, and he remains popular with the public. ==Life and career== ===Early time=== Dylan Thomas was born on 27 October 1914 in Swansea, the son of Florence Hannah (née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress, and David John Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher.
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion"; the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.
By then he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet". Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1914.
His position as one of the great modern poets has been much discussed, and he remains popular with the public. ==Life and career== ===Early time=== Dylan Thomas was born on 27 October 1914 in Swansea, the son of Florence Hannah (née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress, and David John Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher.
In June 1928, Thomas won the school's mile race, held at St.
Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934.
Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on 30 January 1939. By the late 1930s, Thomas was embraced as the "poetic herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics.
Despite this, many of the group, including Henry Treece, modelled their work on Thomas'. During the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930s, Thomas' sympathies were very much with the radical left, to the point of holding close links with the communists, as well as decidedly pacifist and anti-fascist.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014. The Notebook Poems 1930–34, edited by Ralph Maud.
In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas, an undistinguished pupil, left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later.
In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Vol I: 1931–1939 Vol II: 1939–1953 Watkins, Vernon (ed) (1957), Letters to Vernon Watkins.
In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time. ===1933–1939=== Thomas was a teenager when many of the poems for which he became famous were published: "And death shall have no dominion", "Before I Knocked" and "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower".
"And death shall have no dominion" appeared in the New English Weekly in May 1933.
In 1934, the publication of "Light breaks where no sun shines" caught the attention of the literary world.
Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934.
When "Light breaks where no sun shines" appeared in The Listener in 1934, it caught the attention of three senior figures in literary London, T.
They contacted Thomas and his first poetry volume, 18 Poems, was published in December 1934.
He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement and boasted about participating in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists. ===Wartime, 1939–1945=== In 1939, a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as The Map of Love.
In 1954, the play won the Prix Italia for literary or dramatic programmes. Thomas's last collection Collected Poems, 1934–1952, published when he was 38, won the Foyle poetry prize.
His first published prose work, After the Fair, appeared in The New English Weekly on 15 March 1934.
In September 1935, Thomas met Vernon Watkins, thus beginning a lifelong friendship.
In December 1935 Thomas contributed the poem "The Hand That Signed the Paper" to Issue 18 of the bi-monthly New Verse.
In their 2004 book Dylan Remembered 1935–1953, Volume 2, David N.
In 1936, his next collection Twenty-five Poems, published by J.
It was the time that Thomas's reputation for heavy drinking developed. In early 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–94), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish and French descent.
Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and in the second half of 1936 were courting.
They married in 1937.
They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on 11 July 1937.
In 1938, they settled in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, and brought up their three children. Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, though he found earning a living as a writer was difficult.
In early 1938, they moved to Wales, renting a cottage in the village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.
Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on 30 January 1939. By the late 1930s, Thomas was embraced as the "poetic herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics.
He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement and boasted about participating in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists. ===Wartime, 1939–1945=== In 1939, a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as The Map of Love.
Jacob Korg believes that one can classify Thomas's fiction work into two main bodies: vigorous fantasies in a poetic style and, after 1939, more straightforward narratives. Korg surmises that Thomas approached his prose writing as an alternate poetic form, which allowed him to produce complex, involuted narratives that do not allow the reader to rest. ===Welsh poet=== Thomas disliked being regarded as a provincial poet and decried any notion of 'Welshness' in his poetry.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Vol I: 1931–1939 Vol II: 1939–1953 Watkins, Vernon (ed) (1957), Letters to Vernon Watkins.
His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940s brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene. Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950s.
Hounded by creditors, Thomas and his family left Laugharne in July 1940 and moved to the home of critic John Davenport in Marshfield, Gloucestershire.
Amis was far harsher, finding little of merit in his work, and claiming that he was 'frothing at the mouth with piss.' In 1956, the publication of the anthology New Lines featuring works by the British collective The Movement, which included Amis and Larkin amongst its number, set out a vision of modern poetry that was damning towards the poets of the 1940s.
Thomas supplemented his income by writing scripts for the BBC, which not only gave him additional earnings but also provided evidence that he was engaged in essential war work. In February 1941, Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a "three nights' blitz".
The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war. In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge: Green Mountain, Black Mountain, New Towns for Old, Fuel for Battle, Our Country and A City Reborn. In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London.
The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war. In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge: Green Mountain, Black Mountain, New Towns for Old, Fuel for Battle, Our Country and A City Reborn. In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London.
Strand produced films for the MOI; Thomas scripted at least five films in 1942, This Is Colour (a history of the British dyeing industry) and New Towns For Old (on post-war reconstruction).
Our Country (1945) was a romantic tour of Britain set to Thomas' poetry. In early 1943, Thomas began a relationship with Pamela Glendower; one of several affairs he had during his marriage.
In March 1943, Caitlin gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy, in London.
In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk entitled "Reminiscences of Childhood" for the Welsh BBC.
They lived in a run-down studio in Chelsea, made up of a single large room with a curtain to separate the kitchen. In 1944, with the threat of German flying bombs on London, Thomas moved to the family cottage at Blaen Cwm near Llangain, where Thomas resumed writing poetry, completing "Holy Spring" and "Vision and Prayer".
In December 1944, he recorded Quite Early One Morning (produced by Aneirin Talfan Davies, again for the Welsh BBC) but when Davies offered it for national broadcast BBC London turned it down.
The memory of Fernhill, a dairy farm owned by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem "Fern Hill".
The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war. In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge: Green Mountain, Black Mountain, New Towns for Old, Fuel for Battle, Our Country and A City Reborn. In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London.
Of the poetry written at this time, of note is "Fern Hill", believed to have been started while living in New Quay, but completed at Blaen Cwm in mid-1945. ===Broadcasting years 1945–1949=== Although Thomas had previously written for the BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income.
On 31 August 1945, the BBC Home Service broadcast Quite Early One Morning, and in the three years beginning in October 1945, Thomas made over a hundred broadcasts for the corporation.
Thomas was employed not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques. By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales and were living with various friends in London.
Turner commented in The Spectator, "This book alone, in my opinion, ranks him as a major poet". In the second half of 1945, Thomas began reading for the BBC Radio programme, Book of Verse, broadcast weekly to the Far East.
Retrieved 11 September 2010 "Poem in October"'' – recited by Dylan Thomas, BBC Radio, September 1945.
The publication of Deaths and Entrances in 1946 was a turning point for Thomas.
On 29 September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the Third Programme, a high-culture network which provided opportunities for Thomas.
In late 1946, Thomas turned up at the Taylors' again, this time homeless and with Caitlin.
The play was first broadcast on 15 June 1947.
After a three-month holiday in Italy, Thomas and family moved, in September 1947, into the Manor House in South Leigh, just west of Oxford.
Robert Lowell wrote in 1947, "Nothing could be more wrongheaded than the English disputes about Dylan Thomas's greatness ...
While often attributed to Thomas himself, this line actually comes from the character Owen Morgan-Vaughan, in the screenplay Thomas wrote for the 1948 British melodrama The Three Weird Sisters.
He is a dazzling obscure writer who can be enjoyed without understanding." Kenneth Rexroth said, on reading Eighteen Poems, "The reeling excitement of a poetry-intoxicated schoolboy smote the Philistine as hard a blow with one small book as Swinburne had with Poems and Ballads." Philip Larkin in a letter to Kingsley Amis in 1948, wrote that "no one can 'stick words into us like pins'... like he [Thomas] can", but followed that by stating that he "doesn't use his words to any advantage".
In May 1949, Thomas and his family moved to his final home, the Boat House at Laugharne, purchased for him at a cost of £2,500 in April 1949 by Margaret Taylor.
Just before moving into there, Thomas rented "Pelican House" opposite his regular drinking den, Brown's Hotel, for his parents who lived there from 1949 until 1953.
It was there that his father died and the funeral was held. Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on 25 July 1949. ===American tours, 1950–1953=== American poet John Brinnin invited Thomas to New York, where in 1950 they embarked on a lucrative three-month tour of arts centres and campuses.
His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940s brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene. Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950s.
It was there that his father died and the funeral was held. Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on 25 July 1949. ===American tours, 1950–1953=== American poet John Brinnin invited Thomas to New York, where in 1950 they embarked on a lucrative three-month tour of arts centres and campuses.
Despite Cleverdon's urges, the script slipped from Thomas's priorities and in early 1951 he took a trip to Iran to work on a film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
She bought a property, 54 Delancey Street, in Camden Town, and in late 1951 Thomas and Caitlin lived in the basement flat.
Thomas would describe the flat as his "London house of horror" and did not return there after his 1952 tour of America. Thomas undertook a second tour of the United States in 1952, this time with Caitlin – after she had discovered he had been unfaithful on his earlier trip.
The original 1952 recording of A Child's Christmas in Wales was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, stating that it is "credited with launching the audiobook industry in the United States". In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America.
Thomas' father died from pneumonia just before Christmas 1952.
Thomas' father "DJ" died on 16 December 1952 and his mother Florence in August 1958.
When he wrote to Stephen Spender in 1952, thanking him for a review of his Collected Poems, he added "Oh, & I forgot.
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion"; the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.
During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma.
He died on 9 November 1953 and his body was returned to Wales.
On 25 November 1953, he was interred at St Martin's churchyard in Laugharne. Although Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century.
Just before moving into there, Thomas rented "Pelican House" opposite his regular drinking den, Brown's Hotel, for his parents who lived there from 1949 until 1953.
The original 1952 recording of A Child's Christmas in Wales was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, stating that it is "credited with launching the audiobook industry in the United States". In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America.
Reitell's doctor, Milton Feltenstein, put his arm in plaster and treated him for gout and gastritis. After returning home, Thomas worked on Under Milk Wood in Wales before sending the original manuscript to Douglas Cleverdon on 15 October 1953.
Thomas flew to the States on 19 October 1953 for what would be his final tour.
In the first few months of 1953, his sister died from liver cancer, one of his patrons took an overdose of sleeping pills, three friends died at an early age and Caitlin had an abortion. ===Death=== Thomas arrived in New York on 20 October 1953 to undertake another tour of poetry-reading and talks, organised by John Brinnin.
Retrieved 11 September 2010 Audio files: Anthology Film Archives – including Dylan Thomas (drunk), Symposium at Cinema 16, 28 October 1953.
The first performance in Los Angeles in 1954 was introduced with a tribute to Thomas from Aldous Huxley. Thomas spent the last nine or ten days of his third tour in New York mostly in the company of Reitell, with whom he had an affair.
Richard Burton starred in the first broadcast in 1954, and was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film.
In 1954, the play won the Prix Italia for literary or dramatic programmes. Thomas's last collection Collected Poems, 1934–1952, published when he was 38, won the Foyle poetry prize.
Elder Olson, in his 1954 critical study of Thomas's poetry, wrote of "... a further characteristic which distinguished Thomas's work from that of other poets.
Despite the poet's heavy drinking, his liver showed no sign of cirrhosis. The publication of John Brinnin's 1955 biography Dylan Thomas in America cemented Thomas' legacy as the "doomed poet"; Brinnin focuses on Thomas's last few years and paints a picture of him as a drunk and a philanderer.
Amis was far harsher, finding little of merit in his work, and claiming that he was 'frothing at the mouth with piss.' In 1956, the publication of the anthology New Lines featuring works by the British collective The Movement, which included Amis and Larkin amongst its number, set out a vision of modern poetry that was damning towards the poets of the 1940s.
Thomas' father "DJ" died on 16 December 1952 and his mother Florence in August 1958.
He also cites that despite a brief period during the 1960s when Thomas was considered a cultural icon, that the poet has been marginalized in critical circles due to his exuberance, in both life and work, and his refusal to know his place.
William York Tindall, in his 1962 study, A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas, finds comparison between Thomas's and Joyce's wordplay, while he notes the themes of rebirth and nature are common to the works of Lawrence and Thomas.
FitzGibbon's 1965 biography ignores Thomas' heavy drinking and skims over his death, giving just two pages in his detailed book to Thomas' demise.
London: Dent 1971 Collected Stories, ed.
There Thomas collaborated with Davenport on the satire The Death of the King's Canary, though due to fears of libel the work was not published until 1976. At the outset of the Second World War, Thomas was worried about conscription, and referred to his ailment as "an unreliable lung".
David Lodge, writing about The Movement in 1981 stated "Dylan Thomas was made to stand for everything they detest, verbal obscurity, metaphysical pretentiousness, and romantic rhapsodizing". Despite criticism by sections of academia, Thomas's work has been embraced by readers more so than many of his contemporaries, and is one of the few modern poets whose name is recognised by the general public.
In 1982 a plaque was unveiled in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
London: Dent, 1983 Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, ed.
Ferris in his 1989 biography includes Thomas' heavy drinking, but is more critical of those around him in his final days and does not draw the conclusion that he drank himself to death.
London: Dent, 1989. Dylan Thomas: The Filmscripts, ed.
Thomas' fellow poet and long-time friend Vernon Watkins wrote The Times obituary. Thomas' widow, Caitlin, died in 1994 and was buried alongside him.
London: Dent 1995 Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Writings, ed.
London: Dent, 1995 ===Correspondence=== Ferris, Paul (ed) (2017), Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters, 2 vols.
Thomas' elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009 and his youngest son Colm in 2012. ==Poetry== ===Poetic style and influences=== Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements he refused to follow such creeds.
In their 2004 book Dylan Remembered 1935–1953, Volume 2, David N.
In 2004, the Dylan Thomas Prize was created in his honour, awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30.
In 2005, the Dylan Thomas Screenplay Award was established.
The original 1952 recording of A Child's Christmas in Wales was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, stating that it is "credited with launching the audiobook industry in the United States". In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America.
Thomas' elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009 and his youngest son Colm in 2012. ==Poetry== ===Poetic style and influences=== Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements he refused to follow such creeds.
In 2009, over 18,000 votes were cast in a BBC poll to find the UK's favourite poet; Thomas was placed 10th.
Retrieved 11 September 2010 "Poem in October"'' – recited by Dylan Thomas, BBC Radio, September 1945.
Retrieved 11 September 2010 Audio files: Anthology Film Archives – including Dylan Thomas (drunk), Symposium at Cinema 16, 28 October 1953.
Thomas' elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009 and his youngest son Colm in 2012. ==Poetry== ===Poetic style and influences=== Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements he refused to follow such creeds.
The plaque is also inscribed with the last two lines of Fern Hill. In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of Thomas's birth, the British Council Wales undertook a year-long programme of cultural and educational works.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014. The Notebook Poems 1930–34, edited by Ralph Maud.
Retrieved 5 August 2014 The Dylan Thomas Collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.
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