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Title: Dylan Thomas: The Biography (New Edition) by Paul Ferris ISBN: 1-58243-075-6 Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: April, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Preoccupied with littleness
Comment: Having read John Malcolm Brinnin's account of Dylan Thomas in America and Caitlin Thomas's autobiographical work LEFTOVER LIFE TO KILL I find this biography fair and comprehensive. It contains appropriate scholarly apparatus. Both Dylan and his sister Nancy had great imaginations. Dylan's father came from a rural family. He became a schoolmaster. He grew to be an unhappy man. Thomas poems are songs about mysteries without solution. They are melancholy, Celtic, non-English. Thomas denied the influence of Gerard Manley Hopkins. He liked technical virtuousity. In school he was protected by being his father's son.
In 1935 he met Vernon Watkins and came to respect him as a poet and as a critic. Thomas also came to know Geoffrey Grigson, Norman Cameron, and A.J.P. Taylor. The idea developed that Thomas needed to be protected from women and drink and that he had difficulty with his lungs, bronchitis. Pamela Hansford Johnson was a girlfriend in the early years. In 1936 Edith Sitwell became Thomas's chief advocate.
In 1936 he met Caitlin. They married in 1937. As he grew older he wrote less quickly. By age twenty one he had written half of the poems in his COLLECTED POEMS. He wrote surrealist stories and reviews for which he was paid poorly. Caitlin was buxom and he was thin. In 1938 they went to Laugharne. For Thomas Wales was a place and a frame of mind. The reader is struck by how early in Dylan Thomas's career themes menacing survival surfaced. There are issues of poverty, drink, work for the BBC, revision of work to evade censors, and merry times in London versus periods of restraint and work in Wales. Stories for PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG DOG and ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE were set out and virtually completed when Thomas was in his early twenties.
Thomas managed to avoid service during World War II. The war interferred with the sale of his writings. He wrote film scripts. The work was facile. John Davenport felt that he had lost his lyrical gift and was left with nothing but a public personality.
Poetry returned at the end of the war. "Fern Hill" dates from 1945. UNDER MILK WOOD and "A Child's Christmas in Wales" were started. After the war he ws able to work for the Third Programme for the BBC. Roy Campbell found him to be the best reader. He was in demand as an actor and speaker. Edith Sitwell was aghast that he wanted to go to America. For the time being the family went to Italy.
In 1949 the Boat House at Laugharne came on the market. Dylan often spoke of dying young. Caitlin felt that he was never too keen on life. The family moved to the Boat House in 1949. "Over Sir John's hill" was produced. It was related to "Fern Hill" and "Poem in October."
Dylan received the long awaited invitation to America. UNDER MILK WOOD was still largely unwritten. He lived an eccentric life there without paying much attention to the country. His guide and advisor was John Malcom Brinnin. His reading while on the tour at Mount Hoyoke was described as a miracle. Once reading he took hold of himself. In 1950 Dylan Thomas's writing was more highly regarded than it was later.
Little of the money earned in America in 1950 found its way to Wales. In 1951 "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" was addressed to his father who was ill. Dylan and Caitlin arrived in America in January 1952. The visit was part farce, part tragedy. Social occasions were difficult. Dylan's favorite bar in New York City was the White Horse Tavern. Dylan and Caitlin stayed in the Chelsea Hotel.
Thomas entered into an agreement with Caedmon, a company started by two alert young women, and recorded "A Child's Christmas in Wales." COLLECTED POEMS 1934-1952 was published in November. The review that most pleased Dylan was by Stephen Spender. For understanding the magic of the poet's function Dylan was indebted to his father who was now dying.
In 1953, contrary to legend, Dylan was not really a penniless poet. He was, however, always uncertain of his powers, always consumed with his littleness. He returned to America in April 1953. He was still working on UNDER MILK WOOD. He returned to England in June. Milk Wood revisions dragged on through the summer.
In October 1953 Dylan returned to New York. His troubles had begun long before. His father and his sister died that year. He, too, was to die. Morphine, insult to the brain, something triggered the coma from which he did not emerge.
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Title: Dylan Thomas In America (Lost Treasure Series) by John Malcolm Brinnin, Brinnin ISBN: 1853753785 Publisher: Prion Books Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Portrait of the Artist As a Young Dog, by Dylan Thomas ISBN: 0811202070 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: January, 1975 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Collected Stories by Dylan Thomas, Leslie Norris, Daniel Jones ISBN: 0811209989 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1986 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Dylan Thomas CD : The Caedmon Collection by Dylan Thomas, Thomas Dylan ISBN: 0694526592 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title: Quite Early One Morning by Dylan Thomas ISBN: 0811202089 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: December, 1968 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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