Dimensions
165 x 240 x 48mm
New Edition
Dylan Thomas' letters, which span a life from Welsh childhood to the last fatal days in New York, are as remarkable for their poetry, style and vision as they are for their deviousness, jokes and self-caricatures. The schoolboy editor becomes the passionate show-off; the young would-be lecher turns into the husband of Caitlin Macnamara; the adolescent whose notebooks were full of poems is transmuted into the harassed freelance writer, rarely at peace with himself.
More than a hundred new letters have been added to this new edition. Thomas' adolescence in Swansea and his love affair with Caitlin are seen in sharper focus. He has important things to say about poetry and unkind things to say about other poets. A romantic with a devious charm, Dylan Thomas was at his best when addressing people he liked, who were often the sub-men he enjoyed drinking with. He had an unfailing eye for the frailties of human behaviour, including his own.
This collection offers an incomparable self-portrait of the enchanting, maddening and ultimately tragic poet.