Dylan Thomas (Penguin Literary Biographies) [Paperback]

Paul Ferris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1985 | Series: Penguin Literary Biographies

First published in 1977, this biography is regarded by many as the definitive account of Dylan Thomas' life. As the editor of Thomas' letters, Paul Ferris had access to many of the intimate sources and, since Caitlin Thomas' death, has discovered 90 unpublished letters, many to Caitlin herself.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This new edition of Paul Ferris's perceptive biography, which was originally published in 1977, is primarily notable for its frank portrait of the poet's marriage to Caitlin Macnamara Thomas, who died in 1994. "The essential truth about the Dylan-Caitlin relationship," Ferris writes, "was that his dependent nature left him vulnerable in later years when his wife withdrew her affection and became blatantly promiscuous." Yet the author is not unsympathetic to Caitlin, whose biography he wrote in 1993. The accounts of Thomas's raucous, drunken visits to America, where he died in 1953 at age 39, will certainly incline readers to forgive anything his wife did in revenge. The book's principal strengths remain what they were in 1977: a knowledgeable, in-depth account of the poet's childhood in Wales (Ferris himself was born a mile from Thomas's childhood home); a lucid disentangling of myth from fact in both interviews and contemporary sources; and a sensitive understanding that "behind the public cavortings was a private agony." This is Ferris's real subject, the agony of a boy who was "pretty ... spoiled ... the darling of the family," and who never managed to grow up enough to create a life that would support his poetic gifts. It's a sad story but a fascinating one. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Based on massive research in this country and the U.S., it puts paid to the myth of the rollicking, beer-swilling bard and makes a sad, funny, poignant story." -- Observer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam~trade (October 31, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140580212
• ISBN-13: 978-0140580211
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,542,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Preoccupied with littleness, July 23, 2003

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dylan Thomas: The Biography (New Edition) (Hardcover)

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.