Dylan Thomas

On 11 July 1937, Dylan Thomas married Caitlin Macnamara, a 22 year old dancer of Irish descent, who had run away from home to pursue a career in dance. Although they remained married until his death, they had a very tremulous relationship, each having multiple affairs outside marriage.

In spite of that, the couple had three children, Llewelyn, Aeronwy and Colm. Among them, their second child, Aeronwy Bryn Thomas-Ellis, grew up to be a translator of Italian poems.

During his last visit to the US in 1953, Thomas was scheduled to read poetries in forty university towns across the country. However, he was unwell from the beginning and relied heavily on inhalers. On 27 October 1953, while celebrating his thirty-ninth birthday in a restaurant in New York, he collapsed.

Dylan Thomas was born on 27 October 1914 in Swansea, South Wales. His father, David John Thomas, was an English teacher at Swansea Grammar School for Boys while his mother, Florence Hannah (née Williams), was a seamstress. He had one sister named Nancy Marles, eight years senior to him.

Although both his parents spoke Welsh, the children were taught only English. Even before Dylan learned to read, his father would recite Shakespeare to him. However, his childhood was also plagued by bronchitis and asthma, ailments that continued to trouble him throughout his life.

The boy began his formal education at Mrs. Hole's dame school, located near his home. Later he described the environment at the school to be ‘firm and kind.’ It is possible that he was often punished for little crimes like not finishing his sums or pulling fellow students’ hair.

In October 1925, he was enrolled at Swansea Grammar School, where his father was a teacher. He was an average student, who preferred to keep to himself. However, he loved to read and was keenly interested in local folk lore.

From his boyhood days, he was fascinated by poems and he soon gathered a great deal of knowledge about English Poetry. During this period, he befriended Daniel Jones. The two wrote hundreds of poems together. Later, Jones would edit a collection of Thomas's poetry.

In 1931, on leaving his school, Dylan Thomas became a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post. However, he did not remain there for long. In December 1932, eighteen months after he had joined his duty, he had to leave the job under pressure.

Thereafter, he concentrated on writing poems while supporting himself by freelance journalism. Sometime now, he also tried his hand at acting and joined an amateur dramatic group, which is now known as Swansea Little Theatre.

It was also during this period that he befriended Bert Trick, an amateur poet and grocer, who inspired him to write a poem on immortality, resulting in his famous poem, ‘And death shall have no dominion.’ It was written in April 1933 and published in ‘New English Weekly ‘on May 8.

‘Before I Knocked’, ‘The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower’ and ‘Light breaks where no sun shines’ are a few other popular poems of this period. Among these, the last mentioned poem, published in ‘The Listener’ in 1934, was noticed by T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Grigson and Stephen Spender.

They contacted Thomas and subsequently in April 1934, at the age of nineteen, Thomas won the Sunday Referee’s Poet’s Corner Prize. It included their sponsorship of the winner’s first book.

Thomas Dylan married Caitlin Macnamara in 1937 and moved to the fishing village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, early the next year. During his stay in the city, he wrote many short stories, which were published in various magazines.

In 1939, he had his third book published. Titled ‘The Map of Love’, it contained sixteen poems and twenty short stories, earlier published in various magazines.

Thereafter on 4 April 1940, he published his fourth book, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog’, containing stories, which were mostly autobiographical, based in Swansea. Unfortunately, both these books were initially commercial failures. Therefore, Thomas was forced to depend on his meager income from writing and reviewing.

To support his growing family, he now began to borrow money from friends. Unable to return them, he left Laugharne in July 1940 and put up with John Davenport in Marshfield, Gloucestershire.