Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters Volume 1: 1931-1939

by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas's letters bring the fascinating and tempestuous poet and his times to life in a way that no biography can. The letters begin in the poet's schooldays and end just before his death in New York at the age of 39. In between, he loved, wrote, drank, begged and borrowed his way through a flamboyant life. He was an enthusiastic critic of other writers' work and the letters are full of his thoughts on the work of his contemporaries, from T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden to Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. A lifetime of letters tell a remarkable story, each taking the reader a little further along the path of the poet's self-destruction, but written with such verve and lyricism that somehow the reader's sympathies never quite abandon him.

512 pages, Paperback

Published September 14, 2017

About the author

Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh poet who wrote in English. Many regard him as one of the 20th century's most influential poets.

In addition to poetry, Thomas wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, with the latter frequently performed by Thomas himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his booming, at times, ostentatious voice, with a subtle Welsh lilt, became almost as famous as his works. His best-known work includes the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood and the celebrated villanelle for his dying father, "Do not go gentle into that good night." Appreciative critics have also noted the superb craftsmanship and compression of poems such as "In my craft or sullen art" and the rhapsodic lyricism of Fern Hill.

Reviews

[Catrina Prager · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read for DT fans. Mind you, it is dense stuff, with a lot of "nerdy" information. If you like his poetry, for instance, but don't feel like learning about every contact he made in the literary industry and which old-timey journals first published "Fern Hill", this book is probably not for you.

But yeah, as a lifelong DT fan, I found this a wonderful, fun read. Looking forward to the second volume, covering the war years, and his America trips. As expected, Ferris is a wonderful, thoughtful editor.