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The most important Welsh poet of the twentieth century, Thomas was born in Swansea, about which he remembered unkindly "the smug darkness of a provincial town." He attended Swansea Grammar School but received his real education in the extensive library of his father, a disappointed schoolteacher with higher ambitions. Refusing university study in favor of immediately becoming a professional writer, Thomas worked first in Swansea and then in London at a variety of literary jobs, which included journalism and, eventually, filmscripts and radio plays. In 1936 he began the satisfying but stormy marriage to the bohemian writer and dancer Caitlin MacNamara that would endure for the rest of his career. His life fell into a pattern of oscillation between work and dissipation in London and recovery and relaxation in a rural retreat, usually in Wales. Thomas worked in a documentary film unit during the war. Besides his poetry, he wrote plays and fiction. In the early 1950s, he gave three celebrated poetry-reading tours of the United States, during which his outrageous behavior vied with his superb reading ability for public attention. Aggravated by chronic alcoholism, his health collapsed during the last tour, and he died in a New York City hospital. In his poetry, Thomas embraced an exuberant romanticism in the encounter between self and world and a joyous riot in the lushness of language. His work falls into three periods---an early "womb-tomb" phase during which he produced a notebook, which he later mined for further poems, a middle one troubled by marriage and war, and a final acceptance of the human condition. The exuberant rhetoric of his work belies an equally strong devotion to artistry, what he once called "my craft or sullen art." His great "Fern Hill," for example, builds its imagery of the rejoicing innocence of childhood on a strict and demanding syllabic count. A recollection of boyhood holidays on the farm of his aunt and uncle, that poem places its emotion within an Edenic framework typical of Thomas's work. The impressive sonnet sequence "Altarwise by Owl-Light" (1936) combines the internal quest of romanticism with a more elaborate religious outlook in tracing the birth and spiritual autobiography of a poet. Almost at the end of his career he produced the moving elegy "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" (1952), written during the final illness of his father. Despite his periods of doubt and dissipation, Thomas celebrated the fullness of life. As he wrote in a note to his Collected Poems (1952), "These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusion, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't." (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas 1934-1952… (more)
Disambiguation Notice

Full name Dylan Marlais Thomas. On combining works of this author: Please take note that editions of the "Poems" can be different works (selections as opposed to complete works). Identical titles alone do not indicate identical works.

Under Milk Wood 2,625 copies, 34 reviews
A Child's Christmas in Wales 1,807 copies, 48 reviews
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog 1,016 copies, 16 reviews
The Collected Stories 471 copies, 5 reviews
Quite Early One Morning 466 copies, 2 reviews
The Doctor and the Devils 324 copies, 8 reviews
Adventures in the Skin Trade 182 copies, 2 reviews
Dylan Thomas (Everyman's Poetry) 117 copies, 2 reviews
Selected poems 95 copies, 1 review
Beach of Falesa 80 copies, 2 reviews
Deaths and Entrances 76 copies, 1 review
Rebecca's Daughters 75 copies, 1 review
Selected poems [Penguin] 75 copies, 1 review
The outing 66 copies
Miscellany Two 65 copies
Fern Hill and Other Poems 62 copies, 2 reviews
Selected Works 47 copies
Holiday Memory 42 copies
The Followers 36 copies, 2 reviews
El visitante y otras historias 29 copies, 2 reviews
Poesia Completa 16 copies
Alle verhalen 15 copies
Poesie inedite 12 copies
Poesie 10 copies
18 Poems 9 copies
Dylan Thomas at the BBC 7 copies, 1 review
Twenty Years a-Growing 7 copies, 1 review
26 poesie 5 copies, 2 reviews
Two tales 5 copies
Nitton dikter 4 copies
: (1934-1953) 3 copies
New Poems 3 copies
De terugreis 3 copies
steist lugu 2 copies
Gedichten 2 copies
The peaches 2 copies
Un natale 2 copies
30 dikt 1 copy
Speak Up #173 1 copy, 1 review
39 dikter 1 copy
Poetry 1 copy
Verhalen 1 copy
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (Contributor) 1,214 copies, 9 reviews
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (Contributor, some editions) 897 copies, 7 reviews
The Nation's Favourite Poems (some editions) 611 copies, 7 reviews
A Pocket Book of Modern Verse (Contributor, some editions) 429 copies, 1 review
The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories (Contributor) 418 copies, 2 reviews
The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology (Contributor) 381 copies, 3 reviews
The Faber Book of Modern Verse (Contributor, some editions) 281 copies, 2 reviews
The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse (Contributor, some editions) 260 copies, 3 reviews
The Art of Losing (Contributor) 190 copies, 20 reviews
Love Letters (Contributor) 178 copies, 1 review
British Poetry Since 1945 (Contributor, some editions) 162 copies, 2 reviews
A Literary Christmas: An Anthology (Contributor) 122 copies, 2 reviews
Lament for the Makers: A Memorial Anthology (Contributor) 49 copies, 1 review
A Quarto of Modern Literature (Contributor) 38 copies
Tell Me a Story: An Anthology (Contributor) 22 copies
Studies in Fiction (Contributor) 22 copies, 1 review
A Good Man: Fathers and Sons in Poetry and Prose (Contributor) 20 copies, 1 review
Loss: An Anthology (Contributor) 18 copies
Ellery Queen's Poetic Justice (Contributor, some editions) 18 copies
Welsh Short Stories (Contributor) 15 copies
31 Stories (Contributor) 12 copies, 2 reviews
Under Milk Wood [1972 film] (Original book) 12 copies
The Bedside Lilliput (Contributor) 11 copies
Poetry anthology (Contributor, some editions) 6 copies
The West Country Book (Contributor) 6 copies
Twenty-Three Modern Stories (Contributor) 4 copies

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Disambiguation notice
Full name Dylan Marlais Thomas. On combining works of this author: Please take note that editions of the "Poems" can be different works (selections as opposed to complete works). Identical titles alone do not indicate identical works.

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Dylan Thomas's book Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Dylan Thomas's book The Art of Losing was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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