Abbreviations

References to the following texts by their short title will be found in theendnotes:

WORKS BY DYLAN THOMAS

Broadcasts The Broadcasts, ed. Ralph Maud (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1991).

Letters Collected Letters, ed. Paul Ferris, rev. edn (London: J.M.Dent, 2000).

Collected Poems Collected Poems 1934–1953, ed. Walford Davies andRalph Maud (London: Everyman, 1989).

Collected Stories Collected Stories, ed. Walford Davies (London:Everyman, 1993).

Screenplays The Complete Screenplays, ed. John Ackerman(New York: Applause, 1995).

Early Prose Writings Early Prose Writings, ed. Walford Davies (London: J.M.Dent & Sons, 1971).

The Poems The Poems, ed. Daniel Jones (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1971).

Notebooks Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, ed.Ralph Maud (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1968).

Under Milk Wood Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, ed. Walford Davies(London: Penguin, 2000).

THE BIOGRAPHERS

Davies James A. Davies, A Reference Companion to DylanThomas (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1998).

Ferris Paul Ferris, Dylan Thomas: The Biography, secondedition (London: J.M. Dent, 1999).

Fitzgibbon Constantine Fitzgibbon, The Life of Dylan Thomas(London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1965).

Lycett Andrew Lycett, Dylan Thomas: A New Life (Woodstock& New York: The Overlook Press, 2003).

Dylan Remembered 1 David N. Thomas (ed.), Dylan Remembered: Interviewswith Colin Edwards, Volume One 1914–1934(Bridgend: Seren/Poetry of Wales Press, 2003).

Dylan Remembered 2 David N. Thomas (ed.), Dylan Remembered: Interviewswith Colin Edwards, Volume Two 1935–1953(Bridgend: Seren/Poetry of Wales Press, 2004).

193

Notes

Preface

1. The article was published in the weekend stable-mate of the South WalesEvening Post, Herald of Wales – Early Prose Writings, 102.

2. Dylan Thomas and John Davenport, The Death of the King’s Canary(London: Hutchinson, 1976), 52.

3. As quoted in Geoffrey Moore, ‘Dylan Thomas’, Kenyon Review, 17 (Spring1955), 261.

4. Ferris, xxiv, 21.5. Daily Mirror, 18 December 1953.6. Edith Sitwell, ‘Comment on Dylan Thomas’, in Dylan Thomas: The Legend

and the Poet, ed. E.W. Tedlock (London: Heinemann, 1960), 148–50 (148).7. Stephen Spender, Poetry since 1939 [1946] (London: Longmans, Green, for

the British Council, 1950), 44–6.8. Henry Treece, Dylan Thomas: ‘Dog Among the Fairies’ (London: Lindsay

Drummond, 1949), 63.9. Geoffrey Grigson, ‘How Much Me Now Your Acrobatics Amaze’, in

Tedlock, Dylan Thomas: The Legend and the Poet, 155–67 (164).10. Herman Peschmann, in his edition, The Voice of Poetry (London: Evans

Brothers, 1969), 14.11. David Perkins, A History of Modern Poetry, volume 2, Modernism and After

(Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard University Press, 1987), 171.12. C.J. Rawson, ‘Randy Dandy in the Cave of Spleen: Wit and Fantasy in

Thomas (with Comments on Pope, Wallace Stevens, and others)’, inDylanThomas: New Critical Essays, ed. Walford Davies (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1972), 73–106.

13. As quoted in Robin Skelton (ed.), Poetry of the Forties (London: Penguin,1968), 23–4.

14. I take my text here and throughout this study from Collected Poems1934–1952, ed. Walford Davies and Ralph Maud (London: Everyman,1993). The text for poems not in the Collected Poems will be signalledin footnotes.

15. Chris Baldick, The Modern Movement, The Oxford History of EnglishLiterature, Volume 10, 1910–1940 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,2004), 79.

16. As quoted in David Brooks, The Sons of Clovis: Ern Malley, Adoré Floupetteand a Secret History of Australian Poetry (St Lucia: University of QueenslandPress, 2011), 60. ‘In this romantic poetry of the forties, Dylan Thomas isthe most considerable figure to have arisen from English writers’, wroteMax Harris in his own defence. ‘He is chief figure of the Apocalypticschool whose chief intellectual commissars are Hendry and Treece’ (140).

194

Notes 195

17. Treece, Dylan Thomas: ‘Dog Among the Fairies’, 107.18. Letters, 397.19. Barbara Hardy, Dylan Thomas: An Original Language (Atlanta: University

of Georgia Press, 2000), 132.20. Early Prose Writings, 118.21. ‘The English Festival of Spoken Poetry’, Broadcasts, 198–200 (198).22. ‘Poets on Poetry’, Broadcasts, 55–62 (60).23. Fitzgibbon, 150.24. Ferris, 329.25. John Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas: Under the Spelling Wall

(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 3.

1 Uplands: Growing Up in Cwmdonkin Drive

1. In the interviews with Thomas’s friends and acquaintances conducted byColin Edwards and selectively published by David N. Thomas as DylanRemembered, Addie Drew appears under her married name, Addie Elliott.

2. In his answers to questions posed by a research student at the Universityof Texas in 1951, published in the Texas Quarterly, 4:4 (Winter 1961) andreprinted in Early Prose Writings, 154–60 (154).

3. Letters, 61.4. Ferris, 64.5. For Thomas’s family tree, see Dylan Remembered 1, 179–98.6. Lycett, 6–12.7. Lycett, 7.8. Ferris, 8.9. Lycett, 9–10.10. Dylan Remembered 1, 85.11. Davies, 6.12. Dylan Remembered 2, 187.13. Letters, 751.14. Dylan Remembered 1, 61.15. Dylan Remembered 1, 39.16. Dylan Remembered 1, 61.17. Davies, 6.18. Quoting John Morgan Williams in his interview with Colin Edwards,

Dylan Remembered 1, 57.19. Dylan Remembered 1, 286, note 18.20. Dylan Remembered 1, 53.21. Lycett, 23.22. Dylan Remembered 1, 41.23. Lycett, 134.24. Looking at the opening sentence of Thomas’s ‘Prologue to an Adventure’,

Saunders Lewis, Is There an Anglo-Welsh Literature? (Caerdydd: Guild ofGraduates of the University of Wales, 1939), 5.

25. As quoted in Fitzgibbon, 10.

196 Notes

26. Ferris, 159.27. Dylan Remembered 2, 164.28. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose, ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat

(New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), 516.29. See, for example, David Smith, ‘Writing Wales’, inWales between the Wars,

ed. Trevor Herbert and Gareth Elwyn Jones (Cardiff: University of WalesPress, 1988), 186, quoted below.

30. Screenplays, 299.31. Letters, 48.32. As quoted in Dylan Thomas: The Legend and the Poet, ed. E.W. Tedlock

(London: Heinemann, 1960), 8.33. Davies, 36.34. Kenneth O. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: A History of Modern Wales

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), 263.35. Letters, 953.36. Letters, 161–2.37. Times Literary Supplement, 28 November 1952, 776.38. Dylan Remembered 2, 48.39. ‘The Poetry of Dylan Thomas’ in Cox (ed.), Dylan Thomas: A Collection of

Critical Essays, 15.40. Letters, 935.41. Vernon Watkins (ed.), Dylan Thomas: Letters to Vernon Watkins (London:

J.M. Dent & Sons and Faber & Faber, 1957), 15.42. Dylan Remembered 1, 151.43. As quoted in Ferris, 104–5n.44. ‘TheWelsh Background’ in Cox (ed.),Dylan Thomas: A Collection of Critical

Essays, 29.45. See Anthony Conran (ed.), The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse (Harmonds-

worth: Penguin, 1967), 146.46. Valentine Cunningham, British Writers of the Thirties (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1988), 67.47. Roland Mathias, A Ride through the Wood: Essays on Anglo-Welsh Literature

(Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press, 1985), 72.48. Dylan Remembered 2, 62.49. Lycett, 134.50. Letters, 281.51. Andrew Webb, Edward Thomas and World Literary Studies: Wales,

Anglocentrism and English Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,2013), 24.

52. ‘According to Florence, his wife, he was offered a travelling scholarship’,Ferris, 9.

53. Ferris, 15.54. Dylan Remembered 1, 57.55. Dylan Remembered 1, 62.56. Davies, 7.57. Davies, 23.58. Fitzgibbon, 12.

Notes 197

59. Davies, 8.60. Dylan Remembered 1, 54.61. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation, 210.62. Lycett, 34.63. Davies, 10.64. David Smith, ‘Writing Wales’, 187, 186.65. David Smith, ‘Writing Wales’, 187.66. Ferris, 26.67. The Broadcasts, 179–89 (189).68. Dylan Remembered 1, 38.69. Dylan Remembered 1, 90.70. Early Prose Writings, 87–9.71. In June 1926, with a modest handicap, Thomas won the one-mile race for

under 15s and is said to have kept the clipping in his wallet for the restof his life – Ferris, 40; Davies, 16.

72. Ferris, 15.73. Letters, 61. A devotee of the hard-boiled American detective novel,

Thomas is teasing his untouchable middle-class lover with his imminentdeath.

74. Hansford Johnson is paraphrased in Ferris, 87. Cp. Mervyn Levy: ‘He likedto spread around the entirely romantic idea that he was dying of T.B’,quoted in Fitzgibbon, 181.

75. Fitzgibbon, 22.76. Letters, 61.77. The phrase ‘conscious woodbine’ is from his own radio feature, ‘Return

Journey’ (1947), The Broadcasts, 177–89 (183).78. Fitzgibbon, 23.

2 Truant Years: Going (and Not Going) to School

1. Dylan Thomas, from an uncollected poem written in 1946 while living inthe Taylors’ summer house in the grounds of Magdalen College, Oxford.As quoted in Lycett, 239.

2. Davies, 15.3. Ferris, 38.4. Letters, 123.5. Ferris, 37.6. Fitzgibbon, 43.7. Ferris, 37.8. Dylan Remembered 1, 61.9. Dylan Remembered 1, 65.10. Davies, 15.11. Dylan Remembered 1, 55.12. Davies, 15.13. Dylan Remembered 1, 159.14. See Ferris, 33; Lycett, 27.

198 Notes

15. Dylan Remembered 1, 5516. Lycett, 32.17. Davies, 16.18. Ferris, 50.19. Letters, 752.20. Davies, 87.21. Dylan Remembered 2, 63.22. Dylan Remembered 2, 108.23. As quoted in Fitzgibbon, 46.24. Caitlin Thomas, Leftover Life to Kill (London: Putnam, 1957), 53.25. Fitzgibbon, 296.26. Lycett, 2.27. Lycett, 84.28. Davies, 75.29. Lycett, 112.30. Fitzgibbon, 48.31. Fitzgibbon, 148. ‘Dylan had what can only be described as a fear and

a horror of the educated man’, according to Alban Leyshon, his con-temporary at Swansea Grammar and later a friend (Dylan Remembered 2,174).

32. As Thomas wrote in the Swansea and West Wales Guardian, 17January 1936.

33. As quoted in Lycett, 277.34. As quoted in Ferris, 95.35. Fitzgibbon, 148.36. Glyn Jones to Keidrych Rhys, 18 March 1937, as quoted in Lycett, 151.

Compare Rhys to Jones, 6 September 1937: ‘I’m afraid he’ll always remainan emotional brainless creature, nice, of course’ (Lycett, 153).

37. Dylan Remembered 2, 204.38. Thomas’s own dating, from the manuscript of a talk on poetry in the

Harry Ransom Center, Box 7:6.39. This poem, in Florence Thomas’s hand, can be found amongst the

manuscripts in the Harry Ransom Center, Box 3, Folder 12.40. Dylan Remembered 1, 77.41. As he said in answering questions posed to him by a US research student

in 1951. Thomas’s answers were published in the Texas Quarterly and arereprinted as ‘Poetic Manifesto’ in Early Prose Writings, 154–60 (156).

42. Early Prose Writings, 157.43. State University of New York, B435, F7, where it is heavily scored through

in pencil; reprinted in The Notebooks, 62. It was published in the SwanseaGrammar School Magazine, July 1930.

44. Harry Ransom Center, Box 2, Folder 10.45. Notebooks, 93.46. Letters, 93–4.47. From manuscripts in the Harry Ransom Center, Box 5, Folder 6.48. Ferris, 41.49. As quoted in Ferris, 42.

Notes 199

50. Lycett, 37.51. Ferris, 37.52. Letters, 219. Daniel Jones would become the editor of Dylan Thomas: The

Poems when it was brought out by the poet’s publisher, J.M. Dent & Sons,in 1971, and is also the author of a memoir, My Friend Dylan Thomas(1977).

53. See his long letter to Jones of 14 August 1935, Letters, 222–6.54. Lycett, 112, 166, 185–6. It was published in 1976.55. Fitzgibbon, 51, 303.56. Davies, 38.57. Ferris, 127.

3 ‘A Bit of a Shower-Off’: Performing in Swansea

1. Ferris, 58.2. Letters, 61.3. Davies, 21; Ferris, 56.4. Lycett, 53.5. Dylan Remembered 1, 120.6. ‘Return Journey’, Broadcasts, 183.7. Fitzgibbon, 70.8. Ferris, 57.9. See the Early Prose Writings, which reprints all the articles, 97–121 (102).10. Early Prose Writings, 118–19.11. Letters, 30.12. Davies, 21. Cp. Lycett, 57–8.13. Broadcasts, 177–89 (182–3).14. [February 1932], Letters, 19.15. Davies, 20.16. Lycett, 57.17. Letters, 61.18. Davies, 16.19. Fitzgibbon gives a selection of his performances and their criticism, 73–7.20. Davies, 23; Letters, 152, note 2.21. Herald of Wales, 19 September 1936, as quoted in Lycett, 57.22. Dylan Remembered 1, 74.23. Dylan Remembered 1, 98.24. Dylan Remembered 1, 112.25. Dylan Remembered 1, 101.26. ‘Return Journey’, in Broadcasts, 177–89 (180).27. The Poems, 255.28. Ferris, 73.29. This is uncertain, see Lycett, 71, Davies, 24.30. Dylan Remembered 1, 157.31. As quoted in Lycett, 70.32. Dylan Remembered 1, 163.

200 Notes

33. Dylan Remembered 1, 145–6.34. Wales between the Wars, ed. Herbert and Jones, 22.35. Letters, 169–70; 177–8.36. As quoted in Cunningham, British Writers of the Thirties, 183.37. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation, 284, 287.38. Dylan Remembered 1, 140–1.39. Dylan Remembered 1, 173.40. Letters, 197.41. Lycett, 87.42. [?mid-February 1935], Letters, 212.43. As quoted in Cunningham, British Writers of the Thirties, 31.44. Davies, 24.45. Dylan Remembered 1, 174.46. Dylan Remembered 1, 142–3.47. Lycett, 274.48. Letters, 111.49. Letters, 48.50. See Lycett, 151.51. Ferris, 86.52. Davies, 34.53. Letters, 61–2.54. Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5:1:5–18.55. Letters, 167.56. Davies, 36.57. As quoted in Lycett, 107, 110.

4 One-Track Mind: From Notebook Poems to 18 Poems

1. Dylan Remembered 1, 77.2. Four of the poetry notebooks Thomas kept are still extant, held in the

Poetry Library of the State University of New York, Buffalo, and availableto the public in the edition by Ralph Maud published the late 1960s. Howmany of these exercise books there were originally is unknown. Whatwe do know is that there is a gap between July 1932 and January 1933,and we can only speculate about the relation of these to later, publishedpoems.

3. Fitzgibbon, 67.4. Notebooks, 19–20.5. He proposed setting up a magazine called Verse and Prose, ‘original, high-

brow and funded by subscription’, though was unable to get more than12 out of the 200 subscribers necessary (Lycett, 50).

6. Davies, 25.7. Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 52.8. Ferris, 71.9. Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 53.10. Notebooks, 13–14.11. Notebooks, 66.

Notes 201

12. Notebooks, 97–8.13. Notebooks, 18. Cp. Goodby: ‘a glowering, gothic strain’, The Poetry of Dylan

Thomas, 61.14. Notebooks, 20.15. Lycett, 49.16. Notebooks, 120.17. As quoted in Ferris, 84.18. Notebooks, 239. ‘Turning’ becomes ‘Praising’ in 18 Poems.19. Letters, 208.20. See Rawson, ‘Randy Dandy in the Cave of Spleen’, in Dylan Thomas: New

Critical Essays, ed. Davies, 87.21. Cunningham, Poetry of the Thirties, 157.22. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman,

revised edition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1982), 50.

23. ‘Marjorie Adix’ in Dylan Thomas: The Poet and the Legend, ed. Tedlock, 61.24. Ferris, 54–5, 82.25. Davies, 27–8.26. Notebooks, 262. When the poem was published in 18 Poems, ‘grave’ in the

third line became ‘tomb’, doubtless for the half-rhyme with ‘worm’ andfull rhyme with ‘womb’.

27. Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 77–8.28. Letters, 57.29. Geoffrey Grigson, ‘How Much Me Now Your Acrobatics Amaze’ [1946],

reprinted in The Harp of Aeolus and Other Essays (London: Routledge,1948), 151–60.

30. Ferris, 83.31. M.L. Rosenthal, The Modern Poets (New York: Oxford University Press,

1965), 210.32. Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 79.33. Ferris, 82.34. I am quoting here from the version in Notebooks, 231–3, stanzas five

and nine of which were omitted from the published version, and themisspelling ‘armbour’ of line 55 corrected.

35. The Tempest, 4:1:148–58.36. Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne, ed. John Sparrow

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923), 35–6.37. Caitlin Thomas, Left Over Life to Kill, 99.38. William York Tindall, A Reader’s Guide to Dylan Thomas (London:

Thames & Hudson, 1962), 206–7.39. Elder Olson, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1954), 45.40. Text from John Donne’s Poetry, ed. Arthur L. Clements, second edition

(New York: Norton, 1992), 72.41. Letters, 99.42. Letters, 232. Church had written to Thomas: ‘Surrealism is to me an

anti-social activity, and therefore destructive. I am distressed to see itspernicious effect in your work, because I believe you to be outstanding

202 Notes

amongst your generation as a poet with an original personality and thefine fire of spiritual passion’ (as quoted in Fitzgibbon, 196). Cp. Thomasto Pamela Hansford Johnson, 11 November 1933, on Richard Rees,who found the poems ‘reminded him of automatic or trance-writing’:‘My facility, as he calls it, is, in reality, tremendously hard work. I write atthe speed of two lines an hour. I have written hundreds of poems, & eachone has taken me a great many painful, brain-racking & sweaty hours’,Letters, 68.

43. Grigson, ‘How Much Me Now Your Acrobatics Amaze’, 160.44. Olson, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 14.45. Perkins, A History of Modern Poetry, 2, 173.46. Letters, 328–9.47. Davies, 26.48. Dylan Remembered 2, 56.49. New Verse, 11 October 1934.50. Fitzgibbon, 241.51. Fitzgibbon, 61.52. Letters, 217.53. Letters, 90.54. Dylan Remembered 1, 71.55. See William Christie, ‘A Recent History of Poetic Difficulty’, English

Literary History, 67 (2000), 539–64.56. Rainer Maria Rilke, letter to Countess Margot Sizzo-Crouz [1926], as trans-

lated in The Modern Tradition, ed. Richard Ellman and Charles Feidelson,Jr (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 155.

57. George Steiner, Real Presences (London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1989),161.

58. See Boris M. Èjxenbaum [Eichenbaum], ‘The Theory of the FormalMethod’, in Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views,ed. Ladislav Matejka and Krystyna Pomorska (Ann Arbor, Mich.: MichiganSlavic Publications, 1978), 3–37 (13).

59. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose, ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Freistat(New York: Norton, 2002), 517.

60. Philip Davies Roberts,How Poetry Works, second edition (Harmondsworth:Penguin, 2000), 128.

61. Shelley’s Poetry and Prose, 533.62. Agenda, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Autumn 1989), 12.63. Dylan Remembered 1, 160.64. Letters, 122.

5 The Road out of Wales: Fame and Fitzrovia

1. Lycett, 90. Cp. Davies, 36.2. Lycett, 77; Ferris, 81.3. As quoted in Ferris, 93n.4. Lycett, 103.

Notes 203

5. Cunningham, Poetry of the Thirties, 108, 109.6. ‘I remember saying one night at the Cheshire Cheese, when more poets

than usual had come, “None of us can say who will succeed, or even whohas or has not talent. The only thing certain about us is that we are toomany” ’, in his Four Years (1921), reprinted in The Literature Network,http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/four-years/16/ [accessed 1 March2014].

7. Times Literary Supplement, 13 March 1935, 163.8. Ferris, xvi.9. Julian Symons, ‘Words as Narrative’, Twentieth Century Verse, 1 (January

1937), as quoted in Cunningham, British Writers of the Thirties, 31.10. Desmond Hawkins, Time and Tide, 16, 6 (9 February 1935), 206.11. Davies, 38.12. Letters, 48.13. T.S. Eliot, ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’, in his Selected Essays, third

edition (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), 13–22 (17, 20).14. See Notebooks, 175–6, where it is dated 1 March 1933. I am using the

published text.15. Lycett, 102.16. Dylan Remembered 1, 103.17. Dylan Remembered 2, 94.18. See Fitzgibbon, 178.19. See Lycett, 105.20. Quoted in Fitzgibbon, 146.21. Ferris, 191.22. Glyn Jones in the Western Mail in 1960, as quoted in Fitzgibbon, 137.23. Fitzgibbon, 183.24. Dylan Remembered 2, 38.25. Lycett, 89.26. 28 October 1937, Letters, 302.27. Ferris, 236; also quoted Lycett, 273.28. Letters, 43.29. Lycett, 108; Ferris, 112.30. Ferris, 113.31. Fitzgibbon, 295.32. Letters, 139.33. From the interview with Thomas in 1951 known as ‘Poetic Manifesto’,

Early Prose Writings, 155–6. Paul Ferris cites the Welsh tradition of ‘writingverses in fearsome metrical patterns for a knowledgeable audience thatexpects him to be a craftsman, chiselling away at the language. In thecorrect idiom, a writer who composes an englyn, a complex verse-form,is said to “chip” it, as a sculptor chips a stone’ (Ferris, 7).

34. Letters, 301.35. Letters, 217.36. Letters, 219.37. Dylan Remembered 2, 45.38. Goodby, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas, 240, 241.

204 Notes

39. ‘The Burning Baby’, Collected Stories, 36–41 (39).40. Lycett, 99.41. Ferris, 132–3. ‘Watkins was right’, Ferris continues, ‘TLS talked of the

meaninglessness of “How soon the servant sun” ’ (132).42. As quoted in Davies, 293.43. As quoted in Lycett, 131.44. See David Holbrook, Llareggub Revisited: Dylan Thomas and the State of

Modern Poetry (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1962) and Dylan Thomas: TheCode of Night (London: Althone Press, 1972).

6 ‘From Love’s First Fever’: Love and War, Guile and Beer

1. It is occasionally difficult to establish the notebook origin of a poem withcomplete confidence and commentators differ slightly – Notebooks, 41;Davies, 40. See the notes to the Collected Poems, 195–214.

2. Letters, 249. Watkins’s comments as quoted in Collected Poems, 195.3. As quoted in Ferris, who adds: ‘This was probably true’ (133).4. ‘The Generation of Violence: Review of the Collected Poems of Dylan

Thomas’, in The Kenyon Review, 15 (3) (Summer 1953), 478.5. In the broadcast, ‘On Reading One’s Own Poems’, Thomas said ‘I like to

think that the poems most narrowly odd are among those I wrote earliest,and that the later poems are wider and deeper’, Broadcasts, 214–16 (214).

6. As quoted in Davies, 291–2, and Ferris, 133.7. As quoted in Lycett, 136.8. See Davies, 246, 292.9. Lycett, 136; Davies, 292.

10. Letters, 348.11. Letters, 232.12. Lycett, 136.13. Letters, 366 and ff.; Ferris, 165–6.14. Lycett, 150.15. Fitzgibbon, 222.16. Lycett, 127.17. Letters, 294.18. As quoted in Lycett, 148.19. Ferris, 151.20. The Thomases received more hand-outs, and Thomas himself more

awards, than it is possible to itemize, or even to identify. Both theirfamilies contributed money; Norman Cameron started a ‘Dylan ThomasFlotation Fund’ in 1938 and, in 1940, when Thomas appealed to StephenSpender that he would lose all his possessions (at Sea View in Laugharne),Spender organized a ‘superior whip-around’ and raised £126 12s. 0d.;friends made loans with no expectations; Margaret Taylor made regularpayments, paid school fees, bought houses, and, in 1939, the AmericanEmma Swan, a young American poet, for ‘two or three years’ sent him$20 a month. On two occasions after the war the Royal Literary Fund con-tributed £150 and £300, respectively. Thomas also won numerous poetry

Notes 205

prizes, like the Blumenthal Poetry Prize of $US100 in 1938, the LevinsonPoetry Prize awarded by Poetry (Chicago) in 1945, and the £250 Foyle’sPoetry Prize and Etna-Taormina International Prize for Poetry in 1953(Ferris, 172; Lycett, 171, 311, 345; Fitzgibbon, 252, 253; Davies, 93).

21. Fitzgibbon, 254.22. Davies, 48.23. Writing in Leftover Life to Kill, as quoted in Fitzgibbon, 231.24. Letters, 302.25. New Directions abandoned the idea of a volume of poetry and opted for

a generous mixture of poetry and prose – 40 poems and 11 stories frompreviously published material. ‘The World I Breathe, published in Decem-ber 1939 in an edition of seven hundred copies. In the five years it was inprint, it earned Thomas forty-five pounds’ (Ferris, 165, 165n.).

26. As quoted in Lycett, 165–6.27. As quoted in Ferris, 160.28. Letters, 324.29. Harry Ransom Center, Box 4, Folder 9, MS 2; Early Prose Writings, 157.30. Ferris, 12.31. As quoted in Ferris, 170; Lycett, 176.32. As quoted in Lycett, 176.33. Thomas to John Davenport, 14 September 1939, Letters, 464.34. Davies, 52.35. Letters, 540.36. Letters, 494.37. Letters, 524.38. Lycett, 182.39. Letters, 511.40. Ferris’s speculation, 172.

7 ‘A Crucial Point in His Career’: ReinventingDylan Thomas

1. Dylan Remembered 2, 121.2. Letters, 524.3. Bret Trick, ‘The Young Dylan Thomas’, Texas Quarterly, 9 (Summer 1966),

36–49, as quoted in Ferris, 176.4. Gwen Watkins, Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins: Portrait of a Friendship

(Llandysul, Dyfed: Gomer Press [repr. Seattle: University of WashingtonPress], 1983), 115.

5. Fitzgibbon, 257.6. Letters, 548.7. Davies, 53.8. Letters, 546.9. Lycett, 158.10. Notebooks, 273, note 4.11. Letters, 542.

206 Notes

12. Letters, 541.13. Davies, 53.14. Ferris, 5.15. These fragile repositories of Thomas’s precocious experimentation, tran-

scribed and published by Ralph Maud in 1971 as Poet in the Making: TheNotebooks of Dylan Thomas, have long since fallen apart and as Sibyllineleaves to feature in select exhibitions will return to Wales for the first timein this, the centenary year of the poet’s birth.

16. Caitlin Thomas, with George Tremlett, Caitlin: Life with Dylan Thomas(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986), 83.

17. Fitzgibbon, 280–1.18. Frank Kermode, Romantic Image (London: Fontana Books 1971), 18.19. John Hadfield to Laurence Pollinger, 10 July 1941, as quoted in Ferris,

178–9.20. Ferris, 179.21. Lycett, 192.22. Ferris, 179.23. Lycett, 194–5.24. Lycett, 195–6.25. As quoted in Fitzgibbon, 286.26. As quoted in Screenplays, 38.27. Jonathan Fryer, Dylan: The Nine Lives of Dylan Thomas (London: Kyle

Cathie, 1993), 141. Thomas ‘almost certainly knew W.H. Auden’s clat-tering verse commentary on the Night Train for the GPO film unit’,Lycett, 195.

28. Screenplays, 27.29. Screenplays, 63.30. Screenplays, 73.31. Letters, 587–8.32. Letters, 567.33. As quoted in Fitzgibbon, 286.34. Screenplays, 230.35. On a different occasion, Harry Locke dated this incident during the

period when the Thomases were living in South Leigh in Oxfordshirein 1947–1949, see Dylan Remembered 2, 136 and 376, note 41. The Ulyssesreferred to may have been the adaptation of The Odyssey directed byMarioCamerini that came out in 1954; Joyce’s novel would not be adapted untilJoseph Strick’s film of 1967.

36. Screenplays, xi.37. Lycett, 196.38. Lycett, 213.39. The definitive account of this incident, and of the whole New Quay

period in the Thomases’ lives, can be found in David N. Thomas, DylanThomas: A Farm, Two Mansions and a Bungalow (Bridgend: Seren, 2000).

40. Ferris, 207–8.

Notes 207

8 ‘Radio’s a Building in the Air’: Lord Cut-Glass, Poet ofthe Airwaves

1. Ferris, 145.2. Lycett, 143.3. Poem ‘Forty One’ in the February 1933 notebook, Notebooks, 210.4. Fitzgibbon, 314.5. Fitzgibbon, 314.6. Broadcasts, 3. Broadcast 15 February 1943.7. Davies, 58.8. Broadcasts, 10. Broadcast 31 August 1945.9. Peter Lewis, ‘The radio road to Llareggub’, in British Radio Drama, ed. John

Drakakis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 72–110 (79).10. From the opening of the second version of ‘Reminiscences of Childhood’,

Broadcasts, 16.11. Dylan Remembered 2, 141.12. As quoted in Broadcasts, 178.13. Lycett, 23.14. Lycett, 23.15. Dylan Remembered 1, 41.16. Quoting his master, John Morgan Williams, Dylan Remembered 1, 60.17. From the reproduction of her diary held at the Harry Ransom Center,

Box 18, Folder 7.18. As quoted in Lycett, 249.19. Dylan Remembered 2, 106.20. Dylan Remembered 1, 99.21. Ferris, 210.22. As quoted in Lycett, 286.23. As quoted in Ferris, 211.24. Davies, 22.25. Dylan Remembered 2, 147.26. As quoted in Lycett, 237.27. Dylan Remembered 2, 143.28. Dylan Remembered 2, 145.29. Anon. [Vernon Watkins], review of Quite Early One Morning in the Times

Literary Supplement, 19 November 1954, 731.30. [Watkins], review of Quite Early One Morning, 731.31. ‘His feeling about Adventures in the Skin Trade, Under Milk Wood and all the

others, including that book he did for a film script, to him that was justsheer junk’ – Oscar Williams, quoted in Dylan Remembered 2, 221–2.

32. Davies, 60.33. Fitzgibbon, 314.34. Dylan Remembered 2, 142.35. Ferris, 190.36. Dylan Remembered 2, 119.37. ‘Dylan Thomas and Radio’, in the Adelphi, 1954.

208 Notes

38. From the interview with Thomas in 1951 known as ‘Poetic Manifesto’,Early Prose Writings, 154.

39. ‘The Festival of Spoken Poetry’, Broadcasts, 198.40. As quoted in Ferris, 97–8.41. Dylan Remembered 2, 116.42. Dylan Remembered 2, 148.43. Dylan Remembered 2, 58.44. Letters, 94.45. The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E.L. Griggs, Volume 2

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 864.46. Louis Baughan Murdy, Sound and Sense in Dylan Thomas’s Poetry (The

Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966), 195.47. Letters, 581.48. John Malcolm Brinnin, Dylan Thomas in America (London: J.M. Dent &

Sons 1957), 104.49. Early Prose Writings, 158.50. Chris Baldick, The Modern Movement, The Oxford History of English Lit-

erature, Volume 10, 1910–1940 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004),79.

51. Davies, 68.52. G.S. Fraser, Dylan Thomas (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1957, p. 25).53. Biographia Literaria, The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 7,

ed. James Engell and W. Jackson Bate (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 1983), 80–1.

54. Letters, 633.55. Walford Davies, Dylan Thomas: The Poet in His Chains (Swansea: Univer-

sity College of Swansea, 1986), 26.56. Davies, 54, 71; Fitzgibbon, 302, 314.57. As quoted in Davies, 296.58. Lycett, 225.59. Dylan Remembered 2, 60.

9 ‘My Seashaken House on a Breakneck of Rocks’: TheRoad to Laugharne

1. I am indebted throughout this account to the work of Theodore Ell on‘Dylan Thomas in Italy: An Untold Story’, published in the newsletter ofthe Dylan Thomas Society of Australia, Down Under Milk Wood, 12:2 (July2010), 7–9.

2. Dylan Remembered 2, 110.3. Ell, ‘Dylan Thomas in Italy: An Untold Story’, 9.4. Letters, 706.5. Ell, ‘Dylan Thomas in Italy: An Untold Story’, 8.6. Dylan Remembered 2, 105.7. Letters, 706.8. Fitzgibbon, 325.

Notes 209

9. Letters, 218.10. Lycett, 250.11. Lycett, 235.12. Lycett, 233.13. Ferris, 222.14. Ferris, 221.15. Fitzgibbon, 336.16. Ferris, 223.17. Harry Ransom Center, Box 8, Folder 3.18. Harry Ransom Center, Box 9, Folder 7. Another letter from Lloyds fol-

lowed the day after, declaring them unable to honour cheques to fourpeople amounting to £17.

19. Davies, 61.20. Dylan Remembered 2, 12721. Harry Ransom Center, Box 5, Folder 4.22. Letters, 516.23. Dylan Remembered 2, 155.24. Dylan Remembered 2, 156.25. Letters, 781.26. Letters, 766.27. Letters, 744.28. Lycett, 161–2.29. Letters, 162.30. Lycett, 162.31. M.H. Abrams, ‘Structure and Style in the Greater Romantic Lyric’, in

From Sensibility to Romanticism, ed. Frederick W. Hilles and Harold Bloom(New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 535–6.

32. As You Like It, 2:1:16–7.33. Maud, Entrances to Dylan Thomas’s Poetry, 109.34. Cunningham, British Writers of the Thirties, 192.35. Fitzgibbon, 261.36. Notebooks, 29.37. Brinnin, Dylan Thomas in America, 128.38. Fitzgibbon, 17.39. Don Juan, Canto 1, l. 1065.

10 ‘O My America! My New-Found-Land’: The Poeton Tour

1. Letters, 604.2. Brinnin, Dylan Thomas in America, 1–2; Ferris, 207; Lycett, 269.3. Cunningham, Poetry of the Thirties, 182, 177.4. Davies, 87.5. Letters, 836–7. For a convenient list of his performances, see Fitzgibbon,

Appendix 3, 403–410. Original records can be found in Box 27 of theDylan Thomas collection at the Harry Ransom Center.

210 Notes

6. Broadcasts, 275.7. Broadcasts, 277.8. Ferris quotes Ray B. West, Thomas’s host in Iowa: ‘He was not uniformly

good with all poems. He read them all the same, round-bodied, fluent,intense’ (250).

9. Lycett, 291.10. A convenient selection of the poems that Thomas read publicly is avail-

able: The Colour of Saying: An Anthology of Verse Spoken by Dylan Thomas,ed. Ralph Maud and Aneirin Talfan Davies (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1963). A more complete list can be found amongst his papers in the HarryRansom Center, Box 8, Folder 3.

11. Baldick, The Modern Movement, 8012. Harry Ransom Center, Box 4, Folder 1.13. As quoted in Fitzgibbon, 354–5.14. Ferris, 245.15. Harry Ransom Center, Box 3, Folder 14.16. As quoted in Ferris, 248.17. Davies, 85.18. Fitzgibbon, 351.19. Fitzgibbon, 352; Ferris, xxi; Lycett, 303; Dylan Remembered 2, 16.20. As quoted in Ferris, 248.21. As quoted in Ferris, Caitlin: The Life of Caitlin Thomas (London:

Hutchinson, 1993), 135.22. Dylan Remembered 2, 123.23. Ferris, 247.24. Ferris, 259.25. Fitzgibbon, 360.26. Harry Ransom Center, Box 7, Folder 15.27. Davies, 83.28. Letters, 903.29. Fitzgibbon, 380.30. Dylan Remembered 2, 237.31. Dylan Remembered 1, 86.32. The cause of Thomas’s death has been the source of disagreement and

controversy amongst friends and biographers. The most comprehensivetreatment to date is David N. Thomas’s Fatal Neglect: Who Killed DylanThomas? (Bridgend: Seren, 2008), which concludes that ‘Dylan Thomasdied from a severe chest infection with extensive and advanced pneumo-nia, complicated by morphine and possibly alcohol, leading to oxygenstarvation and cerebral oedema. | Self-neglect and medical neglect wereboth implicated’ (111). The ill-informed administration of three doses ofmorphine would have exacerbated an advanced, undetected condition,which David Thomas feels should have been recognized and addressedby Thomas and his friends in the two weeks leading up to his death. Forfifty years after his death there have been various attempts to cover up theexact circumstances of his collapse and death. The story of Thomas’s hav-ing drunk eighteen straight whiskies prior to his collapse has long beendiscredited.

Notes 211

33. Fitzgibbon, 374.34. Fitzgibbon, 382–3. These numbers, of course, were nothing compared

with sales after the poet’s death – of the Collected Poems, in the firstinstance, but subsequently of all his prose works as well.

35. As quoted in Ferris, 291; Davies, 300.36. From the insert preface to The Caedmon Collection of Dylan Thomas

(New York: HarperCollins, 2002).37. Ferris, 285.38. Fitzgibbon, 382–3.39. Harry Ransom Center, Box 9, Folder 7.40. As quoted by Fitzgibbon, 386.41. Fitzgibbon, 390.42. Fitzgibbon, 391.43. Harry Ransom Center, Box 9, Folder 7.44. As quoted in Ferris, 315.45. Dylan Remembered 1, 73.46. Dylan Remembered 1, 28.47. Dylan Remembered 1, 133.48. Caitlin Thomas, Double Drink Story: My Life with Dylan Thomas (London:

Virago, 1998), 152.49. Early Prose Writings, 102.50. Dylan Remembered 2, 49.51. State University of New York (Buffalo), MS B431F19, 2.52. As quoted in John Ackerman, ‘The Welsh Background’, in Dylan Thomas:

Twentieth Century Views, ed. C.B. Cox (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,1966), 25–44 (25).

53. Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Defence of Poetry’, Shelley’s Poetry and Prose, ed.Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat (New York: Norton, 2002), 509–35(530).

54. Though the ‘blindness’, it should be said, was metaphorical; D.J. Thomasdid not actually go blind until just before he died.

55. Not including what Ferris calls the ‘affectionate doggerel’ of an unpub-lished piece to Caitlin on her birthday, 8 December 1952 (292–3).

56. Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957), 253(Part fourth, Chapter 1).

11 The Road to Milk Wood

1. Ferris, 302.2. The editors of the ‘definitive’ edition of 1995, Ralph Maud and Walford

Davies, ill-advisedly elected to conflate these two Voices into one. For mytext throughout this chapter, therefore, I will use the Penguin Classicsedition edited by Walford Davies in 2000.

3. Dylan Remembered 1, 165.4. Collected Stories, 39.5. Collected Stories, 42.

212 Notes

6. Harry Ransom Center, Box 6, Folder 3.7. Dylan Remembered 2, 75.8. Letters, 385.9. Broadcasts, 9–14 (11,14).10. Letters, 600.11. Broadcasts, 75–91 (91).12. Ferris, 209–10.13. As quoted in Lycett, 229.14. Letters, 744.15. Harry Ransom Center, Box 5, Folder 8.16. Dylan Remembered 2, 95.17. Letters, 904–6.18. In a review in the Saturday Review of Literature, 6 June 1953, as quoted in

Lewis, ‘The radio road to Llareggub’, 101.19. In the Western Mail, 28 July 1927.20. Lycett, 361.21. Ackerman, ‘Welsh Dylan’, in Dylan Thomas: Twentieth Century Views, ed.

Cox, 25.22. See Colin Edwards’ interview with Sada Thompson and Nancy Wickwire,

Dylan Remembered 2, 226.23. Dylan Remembered 1, 84.24. Dylan Remembered, 132.25. Dylan Remembered 2, 75.26. Harry Ransom Center, Box 6, Folder 2.27. Hardy, Dylan Thomas: An Original Language, 57.28. See Thomas to E.J. King-Bull, 26 December 1946, Letters, 679.29. David Holbrook, Dylan Thomas and the Code of Night (London: Athlone

Press, 1972), 236.30. Brinnin, Dylan Thomas in America, 182.31. Harry Ransom Center, Box 6, Folder 4.32. As quoted in Lewis, ‘The radio road to Llareggub’, 101.33. Notebooks, 246.34. Letters, 906.35. Paradise Lost, 12, l. 649.36. For a detailed and sympathetic reading of this passage, see Hardy, Dylan

Thomas: An Original Language, 55–6.37. Dylan Remembered 1, 77.38. Gwen Watkins, Portrait of Friendship, 115.39. Davies, 83.40. John Goodby, ‘ “Very profound and very box-office”: the Later Poems and

Under Milk Wood’, in Dylan Thomas: New Casebooks, ed. John Goodby andChris Wigginton (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), 192–220 (210).

41. Goodby, ‘Very profound and very box-office’, 213.42. Raymond Williams, ‘Dylan Thomas’s Play for Voices’, in Dylan Thomas:

Twentieth-Century Views, ed. Cox, 95.43. Paradise Lost, 1, ll. 254–5.44. Ferris, 202.45. Letters, 854.46. I have used the text in the Harry Ransom Center, Box 1, Folder 17.

Compare Broadcasts, 258.47. Ferris, 3.

Notes 213

Epilogue

1. Dylan Remembered 2, 242.2. ‘the magic in a poem is always accidental. No poet would labour inten-

sively at the intricate craft of poetry unless he hoped that, suddenly, theaccident of magic would occur’, ‘Poets on Poetry’, Broadcasts, 60.

Bibliography

The Works

Thomas, Dylan, Adventures in the Skin Trade (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1965).Thomas, Dylan, The Broadcasts, ed. Ralph Maud (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1991).

Thomas, Dylan, A Child’s Christmas in Wales (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1968).

Thomas, Dylan, Collected Letters, ed. Paul Ferris, rev. edition (London: J.M.Dent, 2000).

Thomas, Dylan, Collected Poems 1934–1953, ed. Walford Davies and RalphMaud (London: Everyman, 1989).

Thomas, Dylan, Collected Stories, ed. Walford Davies (London: Everyman,1993).

Thomas, Dylan, The Complete Screenplays, ed. John Ackerman (New York:Applause, 1995).

Thomas, Dylan, Early Prose Writings, ed. Walford Davies (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1971).

Thomas, Dylan, The Poems, ed. Daniel Jones (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1971).

Thomas, Dylan, Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, ed. RalphMaud (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1968).

Thomas, Dylan, Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, The Definitive Edition, ed.Walford Davies and Ralph Maud (London: Phoenix, 1995, 2000).

Thomas, Dylan, Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, ed. Walford Davies(London: Penguin, 2000).

Thomas, Dylan, and John Davenport, The Death of the King’s Canary (London:Hutchinson, 1976).

The Biographers

Ackerman, John, Dylan Thomas: His Life and Work, third edition (Basingstoke:Macmillan, 1996).

Brinnin, John Malcolm, Dylan Thomas in America (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1956).

Davies, James A., A Reference Companion to Dylan Thomas (Westport, CT:Greenwood Press, 1998), Part I, ‘Life’, 1–104.

Ferris, Paul, Dylan Thomas: The Biography, second edition (London: J.M. Dent,1999).

Fitzgibbon, Constantine, The Life of Dylan Thomas (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1965).

214

Bibliography 215

Fryer, Jonathan, Dylan: The Nine Lives of Dylan Thomas (London: Kyle Cathie,1993).

Heppenstall, Rayner, Four Absentees (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1960).Lycett, Andrew, Dylan Thomas: A New Life (Woodstock & New York: TheOverlook Press, 2003).

Sinclair, Andrew, Dylan the Bard: A Life of Dylan Thomas (London: Constable,1999).

Tedlock, E.W. (ed.), Dylan Thomas: The Legend and the Poet (London:Heinemann, 1960), Part One: ‘The Man’, 1–87.

Thomas, Caitlin, Double Drink Story: My Life with Dylan Thomas (London:Virago, 1998).

Thomas, Caitlin, Left Over Life to Kill (London: Putnam, 1957).Thomas, Caitlin, Not Quite Posthumous Letter to My Daughter (London: Putnam,1963).

Thomas, Caitlin, with George Tremlett, Caitlin: Life with Dylan Thomas(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986).

Thomas, David N. (ed.), Dylan Remembered: Interviews with Colin Edwards,Volume One 1914–1934 (Bridgend: Seren/Poetry of Wales Press, 2003).

Thomas, David N. (ed.), Dylan Remembered: Interviews with Colin Edwards,Volume Two 1935–1953 (Bridgend: Seren/Poetry of Wales Press, 2004).

Thomas, David N., Dylan Thomas: A Farm, Two Mansions and a Bungalow(Bridgend: Seren, 2000)

Thomas, David N., Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas? (Bridgend: Seren,2008)

Trick, Bert, ‘The Young Dylan Thomas’, Texas Quarterly, 9 (Summer 1966),36–49.

Watkins, Gwen, Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins: Portrait of a Friendship(Llandysul, Dyfed: Gomer Press [repr. Seattle, WA: University of WashingtonPress], 1983).

The Critics

Ackerman, John, Dylan Thomas: His Life and Work, third edition (Basingstoke:Macmillan, 1996).

Ackerman, John, Welsh Dylan: Dylan Thomas’s Life, Writing, and His Wales(London: Granada, 1980).

Baldick, Chris, The Modern Movement, The Oxford History of English Litera-ture, Volume 10, 1910–1940 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Bold, Alan (ed.),Dylan Thomas: Craft or Sullen Art (London: Vision Press, 1990).Cox, C.B. (ed.), Dylan Thomas: A Collection of Critical Essays, Twentieth-Century Views (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966).

Cunningham, Valentine, British Writers of the Thirties (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1988).

Davies, Aneirin Talfan, Dylan: Druid of the Broken Body (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1964).

Davies, Walford, Dylan Thomas (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1972).

216 Bibliography

Davies, Walford, Dylan Thomas (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986).Davies, Walford (ed.), Dylan Thomas: New Critical Essays (London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1972).

Emery, Clark, The World of Dylan Thomas (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1971).Fraser, G.S., Dylan Thomas (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1957).Gaston, Georg (ed.), Critical Essays on Dylan Thomas (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall &Co., 1989).

Goodby, John, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas: Under the Spelling Wall (Liverpool:Liverpool University Press, 2013).

Goodby, John, and Chris Wigginton (eds), Dylan Thomas: ContemporaryCritical Essays, New Casebooks (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001).

Hardy, Barbara, Dylan Thomas: An Original Language (Atlanta: University ofGeorgia Press, 2000).

Heaney, Seamus, Dylan the Durable? On Dylan Thomas (Bennington, VT:Bennington College, 1992).

Herbert, Trevor, and Gareth Elwyn Jones (eds),Wales between the Wars (Cardiff:University of Wales Press, 1988).

Hewison, Robert, Under Siege: Literary Life in London 1939–45 (London:Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1977).

Holbrook, David, Dylan Thomas: The Code of Night (London: Althone Press,1972).

Holbrook, David, Llareggub Revisited: Dylan Thomas and the State of ModernPoetry (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1962).

Jones, T.H., Dylan Thomas (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1963).Kershner, R.B., Jr, Dylan Thomas: The Poet and His Critics (Chicago, IL:American Library Association, 1976).

Korg, Jacob, Dylan Thomas (New York: Twayne, 1965).Lewis, Peter, ‘The radio road to Llareggub’, in British Radio Drama, ed. JohnDrakakis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 72–110.

Maud, Ralph, Dylan Thomas in Print: A Bibliographical History (Pittsburgh, PA:University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970).

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Morgan, Kenneth O., Rebirth of a Nation: A History of Modern Wales (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1981).

Moynihan, William T., The Craft and Art of Dylan Thomas (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press, 1966).

Murdy, Louis Baughan, Sound and Sense in Dylan Thomas’s Poetry (The Hague:Mouton & Co., 1966).

Olson, Elder, The Poetry of Dylan Thomas (Chicago, IL: University of ChicagoPress, 1954).

Perkins, David, A History of Modern Poetry, Volume 2, Modernism and After(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987).

Peschmann, Herman (ed.), The Voice of Poetry (London: Evans Brothers, 1969).Rosenthal, M.L., The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1965).

Bibliography 217

Scarfe, Francis, Auden and After: The Liberation of Poetry 1930–1941 (London:George Routledge & Sons, 1942).

Schimanski, Stefan, and Henry Treece (eds), A New Romantic Anthology(London: Grey Walls Press, 1949).

Spender, Stephen, Poetry since 1939 [1946] (London: Longmans, Green, for theBritish Council, 1950).

Stanford, Derek, Dylan Thomas (New York: The Citadel Press, 1964).Tedlock, E.W. (ed.), Dylan Thomas: The Legend and the Poet (London:Heinemann, 1960).

Tindall, William York, A Reader’s Guide to Dylan Thomas (London: Thames &Hudson, 1962).

Treece, Henry, Dylan Thomas: ‘Dog Among the Fairies’ (London: LindsayDrummond, 1949).

Wardi, Eynel, Once Below a Time: Dylan Thomas, Julia Kristeva, and OtherSpeaking Subjects (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000).

Webb, Andrew, Edward Thomas and World Literary Studies: Wales, Anglocentrismand English Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2013).

Wigginton, Chris, Modernism from the Margins: The 1930s Poetry of LouisMacNiece and Dylan Thomas (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007).

Index

Note: The letter ‘n’ following locators refers to notes.

Abbott, Charles D., librarian andbenefactor, 113

Abrams, M.H., (quoted) 150Ackerman, John, critic and

biographer of DT, (quoted)10, 123

Adelphi, 73, 74Agate, James, critic, 107Aldington, Richard, poet, 53Andrews, Leslie H., accountant of

DT, 145Anglo-Welsh literature, 7, 9, 11Anstey, Edgar, film critic, (quoted)

119–20, 120–1ap Gwilym, Daffyd, see Daffyd ap

GwilymApocalyptic movement, xi-xiii, 75,

88, 106, 193Archer, David, publisher and

bookshop owner, 73–4Arlott, John, radio producer and

cricket commentator, 130;(quoted) 133

Ars Poetica (Horace), 85As You Like It (Shakespeare), 150Atkin, Rev. Leon, friend of DT, 43, 46Auckland, Hedley, cousin of DT,

(quoted) 13, 15, 163Auden, W.H., 24, 29, 30, 75, 81, 97,

120, 126, 160; (quoted) 29Austen, Jane, 101

Baldick, Chris, critic, (quoted) xii,136–7, 160

The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd(Watkins), 86

Barker, George, poet, 159

BBC (British BroadcastingCorporation), xv, 72, 101, 108,112, 126–33, 143, 144, 158, 175,176, 178, 189, 190

The Beaux’ Stratagem (Farquhar), 37Belloc, Hilaire, 160Betjeman, John, 97, 160The Bible, 27, 62, 65, 67, 111,

116, 153Bigongiari, Piero, poet, 140, 141,

142; (quoted) 141Blake, William, xiv, 27, 48, 83, 94,

130, 131, 192; (quoted) 57Botteghe Oscure, 49, 178Bottrell, Ronald, friend of DT, 141Box, Sydney, film producer, 143Brinnin, John Malcolm, 156–7, 158,

162, 173, 183; (quoted)136, 155

Brontë children, 30Burton, Philip, radio producer, 131;

(quoted) 128–9, 131, 132, 163Byron, George Gordon (Lord), 27,

74, 81; (quoted) 155

Caedmon, record label, 164, 166Caetani, Margeurite, editor, 49, 178Cameron, Norman, writer and

critic, 86Campbell, Roy, friend of DT, poet

and radio producer, 130;(quoted) 131

Cassidy, John, poet, (quoted) 69Cazalet, Victor, philanthropist, 108Chaplin, Charlie, 15, 16, 131Church, Richard, publisher, 64, 96;

(quoted) 102, 201–2n. 42Clark, Sir Kenneth, 108

218

Index 219

Cleverdon, Douglas, radio producer,129, 131, 178

The Cocktail Party (Eliot), 78Cohen, Barbara, record label owner,

164, 165Coleman, Emily, patroness of DT, 49Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 150;

(quoted) 135, 139, 191Connelly, Cyril, writer and critic, 84;

(quoted) 106–7, 164Connor, William, journalist,

(quoted) ixConrad, Joseph, (quoted) 171‘Comus’ (Milton), 130Cook, Arthur, trade unionist, 43Crawford, Cheryl, theatre

producer, 166Crowley, Aleister, 73Cummings, E.E. (e.e. cummings),

81, 82Cunningham, Valentine, critic,

(quoted) 10, 57, 74, 153, 158Cwmdonkin Drive (number 5),

childhood home of DT, 1, 4, 20,30, 42, 76

Cwmdonkin Park, 14–15, 76,117, 128

Czechoslovakian Writers Union, 147

Daffyd ap Gwilym, 10Daiches, David, critic, 10, 161;

(quoted) 161Daily Express, 107Daily Mirror, ixDavenport, Clement, wife to John

Davenport, 107, 112, 114Davenport, John, friend of DT, 23,

32, 112, 141, 142, 184; (quoted)22, 132, 178

Davies, Aneirin Talfan, radioproducer, 130, 175; (quoted) 10,131, 134

Davies, Eileen Llewelyn,acquaintance of DT, (quoted) 37

Davies, Idris, poet, 160

Davies, James A., biographer of DT,(quoted) 5, 9, 12, 12–13, 14, 19,20, 21, 22, 33, 35–6, 36, 45, 47,57, 66, 75, 99, 113, 114, 128,131, 132, 137, 139, 145, 161,162, 187

Davies, Lorraine, radio producer, 128Davies, W. Emlyn, acquaintance of

DT, (quoted) 42Davies, W.H., poet, 160Davies, W.S. (Soapy), Classics master

at Swansea Grammar School, 12Davies, Walford, critic, 211n. 2;

(quoted) 139Davin, Dan, friend of DT, 23;

(quoted) 23, 81Day Lewis, C., 126de la Mare, Walter, 30, 130, 160de Walden, Howard, benefactor of

DT, 124Death’s Jest-Book (Beddoes), 54Dent, J.M., & Sons, publisher, see

J.M. Dent & SonsDickens, Charles, xiv, 131, 162, 181,

185, 187Dillon, Francis, radio producer, 130Donne, John, xiv, 182, 192; (quoted)

52, 63, 156Drew, Addie, see Addie ElliottDryden, John, 131Dubliners (Joyce), 103–4The Dunciad (Pope), xi, 81

Edwards, Colin, interviewer on DT,5, 7, 42, 78, 111, 134, 193,195n. 1

Electra (Sophocles), 39Eliot, T.S., 28, 30, 41, 63, 64, 72, 81,

82, 97, 131, 160; (quoted)76–7

Ell, Theodore, critic, (quoted)141, 142

Elliott, Addie (née Drew), Thomasfamily maid, 1, 14, 195n. 1

Empson, William, critic, 139Enemies of Cant (MacNeice), 130

220 Index

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers(Byron), 81

English language, 4–5, 6, 7, 11, 18,130, 142, 145, 149, 160, 174

English, school and universitysubject, 4, 5, 11, 19, 21, 25, 30

Ern Malley hoax, xii-xiiiEuropean Quarterly, 74Evans, Caradoc, 89, 101

Farr, Freddie ‘Half-Hook’, journalistwith DT, 36

Ferris, Paul, biographer of DT,(quoted) ix, xv, 2, 3, 7, 19, 31,41, 53, 57, 59, 75, 80, 104, 106,109, 114, 118, 125, 130, 132,145, 176, 189, 190

Fisher, Charles, friend of DT, 32, 41,56; (quoted) 37, 67, 167

Fitzgibbon, Constantine, friend andbiographer of DT, (quoted) xv,12, 17, 18, 22, 23–4, 33, 52, 66,67, 80–1, 85, 97, 99, 112,114–15, 127, 132, 154, 155, 161,162, 164, 165–6

Frankenstein (Whale), 122Fraser, G.S, critic, (quoted) 137Freud, Sigmund, 44, 88, 192

Gainsborough Films, 123, 144Garbo, Greta, 15, 40Gascoyne, David, poet, 73, 74, 81, 90Gilliam, Laurence, BBC director, 176Glover, C. Gordon, journalist, 21Goodby, John, critic, (quoted) xv,

53, 60, 88, 187Golding, William, 45Gottlieb, Mr, correspondent of

DT, 176Goulden, Mark, editor, 73Greene, Graham, 119Grigson, Geoffrey, early friend and

later critic of DT, 66, 72, 87;(quoted) x, 59, 64, 90

Gryphon Films, 119, 123, 127

Hadfield, John, publisher, 117, 118Hansford Johnson, Pamela,

confidant and lover of DT, 2, 45,46–51, 73, 84, 86, 89; letters ofDT to, 2, 8, 18, 29–30, 34, 37,44, 46–7, 48–9, 58–9, 81–4, 85,134, 149; (quoted) 17, 129

Hardy, Barbara, critic, (quoted)xiii, 181

Hardy, Thomas, xiv, 89, 160Harper’s Bazaar, 162Harris, Harold, poet, 35Hawkins, Desmond, critic and friend

of DT, 32, 103, 104, 107;(quoted) 75, 95

Hay Fever (Coward), 37Hendry, J.F., Apocalyptic poet, 194n.

16; (quoted) xiiHeppanstall, Rayner, friend of DT, 22Herald of Wales, 35, 36, 38, 39Herbert, George, xiv, 192A High Wind in Jamaica

(Hughes), 148Higham, David, literary agent of DT,

97, 101, 145, 178‘His Affliction’ (Daffyd ap

Gwilym), 10Holbrook, David, critic, 91Hole, Mrs, first teacher of DT, 5–6,

22, 129Homer, 83, 123Hopkins, Gerard Manley, x, xiv, 30,

131, 160, 192Hughes, Eric, schoolfellow of DT,

(quoted) 34Hughes, Frances, wife of Richard

Hughes, 147Hughes, Richard, writer and

Laugharne neighbour of DT,148, 175; (quoted) 45,167, 180

Hughes, T. Rowland, BBCdirector, 175

Hughes, Trevor, friend of DT, 10, 48;letters of DT to, 35, 36;(quoted) 10

Index 221

Hughes, W.T. Mainwaring, merchantand Swansea towncouncillor, 43

‘If—’ (Kipling), xiiIn Parenthesis (Jones), 130, 178International Surrealist

Exhibition, 90

J. Arthur Rank, film company, 143J.M. Dent & Sons, publisher of DT,

64, 97, 102, 117James, Esther, acquaintance of DT,

(quoted) 6James, Gwen, elocution teacher of

DT, 6, 129Janes, Fred, friend of DT, 41, 44,

78–9Jannings, Emil, 15, 41John, Augustus, 98John O’London, literary society, 44Johnson, Pamela Hansford, see

Hansford Johnson, PamelaJones, Ann, aunt of DT, 103,

104–6, 151Jones, Daniel, friend of DT, 30–3, 39,

40, 47, 85; (quoted) 23Jones, Glyn, writer and friend of DT,

9, 19, 70, 88–9, 134, 148, 160;(quoted) 23, 24, 47, 88, 134, 167

Joyce, James, xiv, 30, 81, 82, 103,123, 181

Kardomah Café (Swansea), 40–1, 167Kazin, Pearl, lover of DT, 162Keats, John, 27, 54, 115, 150, 172;

(quoted) 138, 154, 155Kent, Rockwell, artist, 87Kermode, Frank, critic, (quoted) 116Keynes, John Maynard, 44Killik, Vera (née Phillips), friend of

DT, 41, 124Killik, William, 124Kipling, Rudyard, xii

Latham, Bill, acquaintance of DT,(quoted) 167

Latham, Jack, acquaintance of DT,(quoted) 130

Laugharne, Welsh village, 87, 102,112, 134, 147–9, 156

Laughlin, James, US publisher of DT,101, 143, 156

Laughton, Charles, 15, 130Lawrence, D.H., xiv, 27, 30, 44, 64,

81, 160, 192Lewis, Alun, poet, 160Lewis, Saunders, founder of Welsh

Nationalist Party, 6–7, 195n. 24;(quoted) 7

Levy, Mervyn, friend of DT, 41,78–9; (quoted) 55, 80, 197n. 73

Lindsay, Jack, (quoted) 80Lindsay, Philip, 119Lines Written a Few Miles above

Tintern Abbey (Wordsworth), 154The Listener, 72, 139Little Theatre (Mumbles), 36–8, 39,

81, 130Litvin, Natasha, pianist, 124Livi, Augusto, poet, (quoted) 162Locke, Harry, friend of DT, 206n. 35Lockwood Memorial Library

(Buffalo), 113–14London Mercury, 95Lowell, Robert, (quoted) 24, 191Luzi, Mario, poet, 22, 130, 140, 141,

142, 145Lycett, Andrew, biographer of DT,

(quoted) 3, 6, 22, 23, 31, 24, 45,46, 72, 96, 108, 118, 119, 123,129, 143, 144, 148, 149, 159

The Mabinogion, Welsh epic, 5MacCarthy, Desmond, writer and

critic, 84MacGregor, Robert, publisher, 166Maclaren-Ross, Julian, friend of DT,

119; (quoted) 123Macnamara, Francis, father of

Caitlin Thomas, 97, 98

222 Index

Macnamara (née Majolier), Yvonne,mother of Caitlin Thomas, 97,101, 124

MacNeice, Louis, poet and radioproducer, 130

Martine (Bernard), 37Marx, Karl, 44Marx Brothers, 15Mathias, Roland, critic, 10Maud, Ralph, critic and editor, 53,

54, 211n. 2; (quoted) 53, 55, 152McAlpine, Bill and Helen, friends of

DT, 49, 141McAuley, James, see Ern Malley hoaxMechanical Operation of the Spirit

(Swift), 56Midsummer Night’s Dream

(Shakespeare), (quoted) 49Milligan, Spike, 31Milton, Evelyn, childhood friend of

DT, (quoted) 4Milton, John, 140; (quoted) 188Mirador (Crescent) school, 5, 19, 41

see also Mrs HoleModernism, x, xiMoffat, Ivan, friend of DT, 119Montale, Eugenio, 141Moore, George, 101Morgan, Frances, acquaintance of

DT, (quoted) 37Morgan, Kenneth O., historian, 9,

14, 43Morning Post, 50Mosley, Oswald, 42–3; (quoted) 42–3Mucha, Jirí, writer, (quoted) 147

Nemerov, Howard, critic,(quoted) 93

Neuburg, Victor, early supporter ofDT, 59, 73; (quoted) 59

New Directions, US publishingcompany, 101, 143, 166

New English Weekly, 72, 103New Statesman, 93, 176–7New Verse, 66, 74, 95New World Writing, 166

Nims, John and Bonnie, friends ofDT, 189

‘1929’ (Auden), 29

The Odyssey (Homer), 123Old Dark House (Whale), 122Oliver Cromwell (Drinkwater), 37Olson, Elder, critic, (quoted) 63, 64Orage, A.R., critic, 72, 73Ormond, John, friend of DT, 148,

177Owen, Trevor, Head of Swansea

Grammar School, 19Owen, Wilfred, xiv, 30Oxford Marxists, 29, 75

Paradise Lost (Milton), 130, 185, 188Parronchi, Alessandro, poet, 140,

141; (quoted) 111, 133Parton’s Bookshop, 73–4Perkins, Major and Mrs Bertie,

Swansea residents, 38, 39Perkins, David, (quoted) x–xi, 64Peschmann, Herman, critic,

(quoted) xPeter and Paul (Rubenstein), 37Peter Lunn, publishers, 176Phillips, Evelyn (‘Titch’), friend of

DT, 41Picture Post, 121Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (Welsh

Nationalist Party), 6, 108Pocock, Robert, friend of DT,

(quoted) 7‘Poet’s Corner’, see Sunday RefereePollinger, Laurence, literary agency

of DT, 117, 118Pope, Alexander, xi, 131‘Portrait of a Lady’ (Eliot), 28Pound, Ezra, 81, 82Powell, Anthony, novelist, 84Powys, John Cooper, 101Prichard, John, friend of DT, 41Pritchard, Llewellyn, poet, 35

Index 223

Rawson, Claud, critic, xiRead, Herbert, critic, (quoted) 107Rees, Rev. David, uncle of DT, 84Rees, Sir Richard, editor, 73,

201–2n. 42Reifenstahl, Leni, 119Reitell, Elizabeth, lover of DT, 163Rhys, Keidrych, writer and friend of

DT, 11, 81, 97; (quoted) 11, 24,97, 198n. 36

Rilke, Rainer Maria, (quoted) 68Rimbaud, Arthur, poet, 118Roberts, Philip Davies, critic and

poet, (quoted) 68Roethke, Theodore, poet, 49, 73,

160; (quoted) 160Roney, Marianne, record label

owner, 164, 165; (quoted) 164Rosenthal, M.L., critic, (quoted) 59Rota, Bertram, rare books and

manuscripts dealer, 113–14Royal Literary Fund, 97Russian linguists and formalists, 68

Sackville-West, Edward, critic,(quoted) 176–7

Seven, 107Shakespeare, William, xiv, 4–5, 18,

27, 61, 140, 150, 181; (quoted)34, 49

‘She walks in Beauty like the night’(Byron), 27

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 27, 172;(quoted) 8, 68, 69, 171

Shklovsky, Viktor, 68Sitwell, Edith, 30, 95–6, 97, 130, 140;

(quoted) x, 95Sitwell, Osbert, xiv, 30Sitwell, Sacharavell, 30, 53Skoumal, Aloys, Czech cultural

attaché, (quoted) 147Smart, Percy, friend of DT, 5, 21, 26,

48, 52; (quoted), 5–6, 52, 53, 186Smith, David, critic, (quoted) 14Society of Authors, 23, 140Songs of Innocence (Blake), 27

South Leigh (Oxfordshire), 87, 129,143, 146, 147, 148, 156

The Spectator, 74Spender, Stephen, x, 9, 72, 97, 108,

124, 126, 142, 147South Wales Daily Post (later South

Wales Evening Post), ix, 34–6, 37,40, 52, 180

Starkie, Enid, university teacher,(quoted) 129

Stein, Gertrude, 101Steiner, George, (quoted) 68Stewart, Douglas, see Ern Malley

hoaxStrand Films, 119Strange Orchestra (Ackland), 37Stravinsky, Igor, 40, 165–6Strife (Galsworthy), 14Sunday Referee (with ‘Poet’s Corner’),

47, 59, 73–4Sunday Times, 94–5, 164Swan, Emma, patroness of DT,

204n. 20Swansea, 1, 4, 8, 14, 32, 34–45, 73,

79, 84, 87, 98, 111–12, 113, 118,126, 128, 179

Swansea Grammar School, 4, 5, 11,14, 20–1, 22, 34, 37, 129

Swansea Grammar School Magazine, 5,16, 19, 20, 21, 26, 34, 35, 52,88, 186

Swansea and West Wales Guardian, 42‘Sweet William’ (by ‘Ern Malley’),

(quoted) xii-xiiiSwift, Jonathan, xi, 56–7, 81, 83Swinburne, Algernon, 27Symons, Julian, writer and critic,

(quoted) 75Symphony for Full Orchestra (Hansford

Johnson), 73

Taig, Thomas, theatre director anduniversity lecturer, 37, 39, 41;(quoted) 38, 78

224 Index

Taylor, A.J.P. (Alan), historian,married to Margaret Taylor, 86,87, 124

Taylor, Donald, film-maker, 119,121, 122, 123, 127

Taylor, Haydn, brother-in-law of DT,12, 37

Taylor, Margaret (née Adams),patroness of DT, 49, 86–7,124–5, 141, 143, 148, 167,204n. 20

The Tempest (Shakespeare), (quoted)34, 61

This Happy Breed (Lean), 176Thomas, Aeronwy, daughter of DT,

99, 124Thomas, Caitlin (née Macnamara),

wife of DTattitude to work of DT in film and

on radio, 132, 161–2basic cooking, 102in bombed out Swansea with

DT, 112character and marriage to DT,

97–100, 144, 146, 163, 182from DT in America, 158, 162introduced to Taylors, 124in Italy, 140in Laugharne entertainment, 175letters of DT to, 92, 98, 122, 147,

157; (quoted) 22, 63, 100,101, 114, 161–2, 167, 180, 187

maternal responsibilities, 2nagging, 157‘On a Wedding Anniversary’, 146in poetry of DT, 76reliance on mother, 101resentment, 171stays with Frances Hughes, 147–8telegram to, 16to Laugharne with DT, 148with DT in America, 163

Thomas, Colm, son of DT, 99Thomas, David John (D.J.), father of

DTacademic distinction, 4

character and influence, 1, 11–13,74, 182

and death of DT, 172; (quoted) 99devotion of DT, 112‘Do not go gentle into that good

night’ addressed to, 169, 171drinks alone, 32family background, 2–5indulges young DT, 13, 20–1influence of his illness on poetry

of DT, 57, 60in personal poetry of DT, 74his library, 29–30reaction to marriage of DT, 99reciting Shakespeare, 4–5, 18retirement, 124secures job for DT, 34, 36undemonstrative, 21

Thomas, David N. critic, 210n. 32;(quoted) 167

Thomas, DylanLife: acting, 36–8; alcoholism, 79,

80, 144–7, 162–4, 167, 172; inAmerica, 156–63; ancestry, 2;anxiety of poetic impotence,25, 162, 168; attitude to war,107, 108, 110–12;bohemianism, 36, 43, 47, 79,90, 167, 172; bombing ofSwansea, 111–12; Caedmonrecords, 164–5; childhoodwriting, 16, 18, 19, 25, 27, 29,31; childhood, 13–14, 88, 128,137; cousins, 13, 15; hisdeath, 163, 166–7, 172, 210n.32; English language, 4–7, 11,18, 19, 21, 38, 149, 174;father, D.J or Jack Thomas,1–5, 11, 18, 20, 29, 60, 99,124, 172; finances, 87, 99,113–14, 118, 123–4, 126, 140,143–7, 162, 164–5; friendship,sociability, social delinquency,22–4, 30–3, 40, 44, 47, 48, 51,73, 78, 79, 80, 84–6, 87, 100,101; and gender roles, 2, 50,

Index 225

182; great uncle GwilymMarles, 3–5; health, 17–19, 79,87, 109, 167; Italian sojourn,140–3; journalism, 34–6, 50;Laugharne, 102, 147–9;laziness and ignorance, 21–4;‘lies and legends’, ix, xiv, 35,40, 161, 167; London, 76–9,84, 87, 89, 100, 108, 112–3,118, 124, 148; maid, AddieDrew, 1; marriage, 97–9, 102,122, 132, 144–7, 157, 162–3;mother, Florence, 1–4, 17, 20,21, 79, 124; New Quay, 124; asparent, 99, 101, 118, 122, 124;park and cinema inchildhood, 14–17, 88;patronage, 49, 86–7, 124–5,141, 143, 148, 167, 204n. 20;planned Stravinsky opera,165–6; politics, 41–5, 75, 119,120, 147, 158; reading outloud, 129–31, 133; religion,154–5; self-mockery, 81–3,103, 168; selling hisnotebooks, 113–15; sister,Nancy, 1, 2, 12; smoking, 18,167; South Leigh, 143;Swansea Grammar School, 4,5, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,20, 21, 33, 34, 37, 88; visit toCzechoslovakia, 147; voice,38, 129–30, 131–4; Wales andWelshness, 6–11, 14, 18, 34,47, 76, 84, 127, 137, 149, 162,174, 178–80, 190; andwomen, 2, 182, 184–5

Writing (general): Apocalypticmovement, xi–xiii, 75, 88,106, 193; Augustanism, xi, 56,81, 83; crucial point in hiswriting career, 117–18;difficulty of his poetry, 39, 63,66–71, 92, 93–6; earlyimitation, 27–9; early metricalfacility, 25–6; early stories,88–9; experimentation with

Dan Jones, 30–1;impersonality of poetry, 35,76–7; journalism, 35; laterstyle, 134–7; letter writing,46–50, 76; library, 29–30;Modernism, 53, 70;(Neo-)Romanticism, x–xv;notebook poems, 16, 25, 31,39, 51, 52–71, 72, 74, 76, 87,88, 92, 104, 112, 113–18, 127,134, 155, 179, 180, 184, 187;poetry as sculpture, 86, 106,154, 203n. 33; ‘process’poems, 53, 57–60, 65–6, 75,94, 139; radio features,127–31; ‘Rimbaud ofCwmdonkin Drive’, 113, 114,118; satire, 81–4;scriptwriting, 118–24, 143,144–5, 148; Surrealism, xiii,43, 64, 90, 91, 201–2n. 42;Welshness, 6–11; writing andperformance, 132–4

Individual Works: 18 Poems, 51,53, 58, 73–76, 84, 89, 92, 95,97, 115, 137, 139; ‘After thefuneral’, 104–6, 151;Adventures in the Skin Trade,113, 117, 166, 206n. 31;‘Altarwise by owlight’, 89–90,95–6; Altarwise by owlight(sequence of sonnets), 9, 57,90, 143; ‘Among those Killedin the Dawn Raid was a ManAged a Hundred’, 9, 119; ‘Anddeath shall have nodominion’, xi–xii, 65, 72, 95,160; Balloon Site 568, 120; TheBeach of Falesá, 123, 144;‘Before I knocked’, 60–4, 70,93; ‘The Burning Baby’, 88–9,174; The Burning Baby(projected collection), 101; AChild’s Christmas in Wales,128, 179; Collected Poems1934–1952, 9, 93, 114, 164,191; ‘The Conversation of

226 Index

Thomas, Dylan – continuedPrayers’, 139; ‘Conversationsabout Christmas’, 128; Deathsand Entrances, 52, 115, 134–5,139, 146; The Death of theKing’s Canary (with JohnDavenport), ix, 32, 112; TheDoctor and the Devils, 13,122–3, 144; ‘Do not go gentleinto that good night’, 10, 76,168–71, 191; ‘Elegy’ [for hisfather], 136; ‘Fern Hill’, xiv, 9,136, 137–9, 160; ‘The forcethat through the green fusedrives the flower’, 59–60, 70,73, 75, 93, 152; ‘From love’sfirst fever to her plague’, 62,70; ‘Greek Play in a Garden’,39, 77; ‘High on a hill’, 55;‘Holiday Memory’, 176; ‘Howshall my animal’, 54, 104;‘How soon the servant sun’,90, 92, 203n. 40; ‘Thehunchback in the park’, 16,54, 76, 112, 115–17; ‘Idreamed my genesis’, 9; ‘Ihave come to catch yourvoice’, 53; ‘I have longed tomove away’, 77–8, 93; ‘I, inmy intricate image’, 10, 62,132; ‘I make this in a warringabsence’, 76, 101; ‘I see theboys of summer in their ruin’,57, 70; ‘If my head hurt ahair’s foot’, 101; In CountrySleep, 141; ‘In my craft orsullen art’, 139, 160; ‘Into herlying down head’, 76, 147; ‘LaDanseuse’, 27–8; ‘Lament’, 72;‘Letter to My Aunt, Discussingthe Correct Approach toModern Poetry’, 81–4, 113;‘Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed’, 9;‘Light breaks where no sunshines’, 72; ‘The Londoner’,176; The Map of Love, 54, 104,106, 115; ‘Margate – Past and

Present’, 176; Me and My Bike,144–5; ‘Memories ofChristmas’, 128; ‘My herobares his nerves’, 56–7, 70; NoRoom at the Inn, 144; ‘On theMarriage of a Virgin’, 52, 112,115; ‘On a WeddingAnniversary’, 146; ‘Once itwas the colour of saying’, 101;‘One Warm Sunday’, 103; OurCountry, 120–1; ‘TheOrchards’, 174; ‘Our eunuchdreams’, 17, 57, 95; ‘Out ofsighs a little comes’, 54; ‘OverSir John’s hill’, 149–54; ‘ThePeaches’, 103; ‘Poem inOctober’, xiii–xiv, 1, 135–6,137, 141, 151, 160; Portrait ofthe Artist as a Young Dog, 8, 36,102–4, 112, 117, 180, 187; ‘Aprocess in the weather of theheart’, 57–8; ‘Prologue to anAdventure’, 97, 194n. 24;‘Prologue’ to Collected Poems,10, 87, 140, 155, 168, 178–9;‘Quite Early One Morning’,128, 175, 176; Quite Early OneMorning (collection), 131;Rebecca’s Daughter, 144; ‘ARefusal to Mourn the Death,by Fire, of a Child in London’,110–11, 139, 160;‘Reminiscences of Childhood’,127–8, 179; ‘Reminiscences ofChildhood’ (second version),126; ‘Return Journey’, 15, 38,128–9, 131, 179; ‘TheRomantic Isle’, 72; ‘A saintabout to fall’, 101; SelectedWritings of Dylan Thomas, 143;‘A Story’ [aka ‘The Outing’],178, 187; These Are the Men,43, 119, 120; ‘This bread Ibreak’, 93–4; This is Colour,120; ‘This side of truth’, 139,154, 189; The Three WeirdSisters, 8, 144; ‘Trust, in the

Index 227

first, the desert hills’, 184–5;Twenty Years A-Growing, 123;Twenty-five Poems, 91, 92–6,97, 101; ‘Twenty-four years’101, 104; Under Milk Wood, 15,104, 121, 128, 129, 131, 132,148, 173–90; ‘A Visit toGrandpa’s’, 102–3; Wales –Green Mountain, BlackMountain, 120; ‘When all myfive and country senses see’, 9;‘When, like a running grave,time tracks you down’, 141;‘Where once the twilight locksno longer’, 70; ‘A Winter’sTale’, 139; The World I Breathe,101, 204n. 25

Thomas, Evan, paternal grandfatherof DT, 3

Thomas, Florence (née Williams),mother of DT, 1, 2–5, 17, 20, 79,143; (quoted) 4

Thomas, Llewelyn, son of DT, 87, 99,101, 102, 124, 154

Thomas, Nancy, sister of DT, 1, 2, 4,6, 12, 37, 129; (quoted) 12

Thomas, William (aka GwilymMarles), great uncle of DT, 3–4,5, 111

Times Literary Supplement, 74;(quoted) 9, 74, 95

Tindall, William York, critic, 63‘To J.H. Reynolds, Esq.’ (Keats), 154‘To Lizbe Browne’ (Hardy), 160Todd, Ruthven, friend of DT,

(quoted) 33, 73Treacher, Barbara, cousin of DT,

(quoted) 5, 15Treece, Henry, Apocalyptic poet and

acolyte of Thomas, x, xi, xiii, 65,194n. 16; (quoted) xi

Trick, Bert, friend of DT, 32, 41–2,43, 72, 85, 134, 174; letters ofDT to, 31–2, 67, 87, 143;(quoted) 20–1, 42, 45, 69

Triumph Des Willens(Reifenstahl), 119

Turgenev, Ivan, 101Twenty Years A-Growing (Maurice

O’Sullivan), 123

Ulysses (Joyce), 30, 104, 123University College of Wales

(Aberystwyth), 4University College of Wales

(Swansea), 6, 30, 37Urbánek, Zdenêk, Czechoslovakian

writer, (quoted) 7

Vaughan-Thomas, Wynford, friendof DT, 41, 126

Visions of the Daughters of Albion(Blake), 57

Wales (journal), 27, 97The Waste Land (Eliot), 82Watkins, Gwen, wife of Vernon

Watkins, 33; (quoted) 78–9,112, 187

Watkins, Vernon, friend of DT, 11,32, 33, 40, 41, 84–6, 90, 160;(quoted) 10, 11, 66, 131, 134,139; letters of DT to, 85–6, 92,99, 101, 107, 108, 110, 111,113, 136

Waugh, Evelyn, 84The Way of the World (Congreve), 37Webb, Andrew, critic, (quoted) 11Welsh language and literature, xiv,

2–11, 14, 35, 82, 89, 97, 120,137, 160, 174

Welsh Nationalist Party, see PlaidGenedlaethol Cymru

Whale, James, film director, 122White, Eric Walter, correspondent of

DT, 100Williams, Ebie, acquaintance of

DT, 149Williams, George, maternal

grandfather of DT, 3

228 Index

Williams, Ivy, friend of DT, 4, 145,149, 180

Williams, J.D., newspaper editor,36–37, 39

Williams, John Morgan, SwanseaGrammar schoolmaster,(quoted) 5, 12, 21

Williams, John Morys, SwanseaGrammar schoolmaster,(quoted) 5

Williams, Raymond, critic,(quoted) 188

Witt-Diamant, Ruth, friend ofDT, 163

Wodehouse, P.G., 101Wordsworth, William, xiv, 178;

(quoted) 154

Yeats, W.B., xiv, 24, 27, 30, 53, 72,160; (quoted) 74, 78, 189, 202