111-504: The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas , brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$ 46,000). It is open to published writers in the English language under the age of forty. The prize was originally awarded biennially but became an annual award in 2010. Entries for
222-436: A British Council commission and a bi-lingual production. These Are The Men (1943) was a more ambitious piece in which Thomas's verse accompanies Leni Riefenstahl 's footage of an early Nuremberg Rally . Conquest of a Germ (1944) explored the use of early antibiotics in the fight against pneumonia and tuberculosis . Our Country (1945) was a romantic tour of Britain set to Thomas's poetry. Thomas continued to work in
333-645: A Dawn Raid Was a Man Aged a Hundred (1941) - and for child victims of incendiary bombing raids in Ceremony After a Fire Raid (1944) and A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London (1945). They were collected in Deaths and Entrances , the fourth volume of his poetry, published in 1946. The sentiments expressed in his war poems were, according to Walford Davies, representative of “the real temper of
444-479: A coastal region, it experiences a milder climate than inland. Swansea is exposed to rain-bearing winds from the Atlantic , also cooling summer temperatures. From 1804 until the 1920s, Swansea experienced continuous population growth. The 1930s and 1940s was a period of slight decline. In the 1950s and 1960s, the population grew and then fell in the 1970s. The population grew again in the 1980s only to fall again in
555-857: A collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as The Map of Love . Ten stories in his next book, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940), were based less on lavish fantasy than those in The Map of Love and more on real-life romances featuring himself in Wales. Sales of both books were poor, resulting in Thomas living on meagre fees from writing and reviewing. At this time he borrowed heavily from friends and acquaintances. Hounded by creditors, Thomas and his family left Laugharne in July 1940 and moved to
666-475: A coma. He died on 9 November, and his body was returned to Wales. On 25 November, he was interred at St. Martin's churchyard in Laugharne , Carmarthenshire. Although Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language , he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic, and ingenious use of words and imagery. His position as one of
777-695: A congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished. On 29 September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the Third Programme , a high-culture network which provided opportunities for Thomas. He appeared in the play Comus for the Third Programme, the day after the network launched, and his rich, sonorous voice led to character parts, including the lead in Aeschylus's Agamemnon and Satan in an adaptation of Paradise Lost . Thomas remained
888-855: A dentist, Randy Fulleylove. The young Dylan also holidayed with them in Abergavenny , where Fulleylove had his practice. Thomas's paternal grandparents, Anne and Evan Thomas, lived at The Poplars in Johnstown, just outside Carmarthen . Anne was the daughter of William Lewis, a gardener in the town. She had been born and brought up in Llangadog , as had her father, who is thought to be "Grandpa" in Thomas's short story A Visit to Grandpa's , in which Grandpa expresses his determination to be buried not in Llansteffan but in Llangadog. Evan worked on
999-547: A few months before his birth. Thomas has written a number of accounts of his childhood growing up in Swansea, and there are also accounts available by those who knew him as a young child. Thomas wrote several poems about his childhood and early teenage years, including "Once it was the colour of saying" and "The hunchback in the park", as well as short stories such as The Fight and A Child's Christmas in Wales . Thomas's four grandparents played no part in his childhood. For
1110-627: A few months, about 100,000 people were converted. This revival in particular had a profound effect on Welsh society. Swansea is covered by the Swansea and Gower Methodist Circuit . The Ebenezer Baptist Church dates from November 1875 when the foundation stone was laid for Tabernacle chapel in Skinner Street. The first pastor, the Rev. J. D. Jones, was called in February 1876 and the new building
1221-479: A fleet of 500 oceangoing ships carrying out Welsh coal and bringing back metal ore from around the world. At that time most of the copper matte produced in the United States was sent to Swansea for refining. Smelters also processed arsenic, zinc, tin, and other metals. Nearby factories produced tinplate and pottery. The Swansea smelters became so adept at recovering gold and silver from complex ores that in
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#17327659461111332-516: A history of bringing up blood and mucus - proved to be the grounds for the military authorities to allocate him a C3 category medical exemption which meant that he would be among the last to be called up for service. He would subsequently be recognised as engaged in essential war work through his role in broadcasting for the BBC and documentary film making, work he took up in 1941 after he and Caitlin moved to London, leaving their son with Caitlin’s mother at Blashford . Thomas produced film scripts for
1443-485: A lifelong friendship. Thomas introduced Watkins, working at Lloyds Bank at the time, to his friends, now known as The Kardomah Gang . In those days, Thomas used to frequent the cinema on Mondays with Tom Warner who, like Watkins, had recently suffered a nervous breakdown . After these trips, Warner would bring Thomas back for supper with his aunt. On one occasion, when she served him a boiled egg, she had to cut its top off for him, as Thomas did not know how to do this. This
1554-419: A pair of stone cottages to which his mother's Swansea siblings had retired, and with whom the young Thomas and his sister, Nancy, would sometimes stay. A couple of miles down the road from Blaencwm is the village of Llansteffan, where Thomas used to holiday at Rose Cottage with another Welsh-speaking aunt, Anne Williams, his mother's half-sister who had married into local gentry. Anne's daughter, Doris, married
1665-482: A period of fertility that recalls the earliest days…[with a] great outpouring of poems", as well as a good deal of other material. His second biographer, Paul Ferris , agreed: "On the grounds of output, the bungalow deserves a plaque of its own." Thomas's third biographer, George Tremlett , concurred, describing the time in New Quay as "one of the most creative periods of Thomas's life." Walford Davies, who co-edited
1776-610: A popular guest on radio talk shows for the BBC, who regarded him as "useful should a younger generation poet be needed". He had an uneasy relationship with BBC management and a staff job was never an option, with drinking cited as the problem. Despite this, Thomas became a familiar radio voice and within Britain was "in every sense a celebrity". By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales and were living with various friends in London. In December, they moved to Oxford to live in
1887-523: A prize of £1,000 to be awarded annually. After several years, the prize was discontinued for lack of finance. It was revived, in a different form, in 2004, sponsored by Electronic Data Systems , at that time one of Swansea's largest employers. The prize honours its shortlisted finalists and annual winner for published work in the broad range of literary forms in which Dylan Thomas excelled, including poetry, prose, fictional drama, short story collections, novels, novellas, stage plays and screenplays. “We want
1998-525: A recurring event in the family's history, and it's said that she herself had lost a child soon after her marriage. But if Thomas was protected and spoiled at home, the real spoilers were his many aunts and older cousins, those in both Swansea and the Llansteffan countryside. Some of them played an important part in both his upbringing and his later life, as Thomas's wife, Caitlin, has observed: "He couldn't stand their company for more than five minutes... Yet Dylan couldn't break away from them, either. They were
2109-727: A relationship with Pamela Glendower, one of several affairs he had during his marriage. The affairs either ran out of steam or were halted after Caitlin discovered his infidelity. In March 1943, Caitlin gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy , in London. They lived in a run-down studio in Chelsea, made up of a single large room with a curtain to separate the kitchen. The Thomas family also made several escapes back to Wales. Between 1941 and 1943, they lived intermittently in Plas Gelli, Talsarn , in Cardiganshire. Plas Gelli sits close by
2220-634: A summerhouse on the banks of the Cherwell. It belonged to the historian, A. J. P. Taylor . His wife, Margaret, would prove to be Thomas's most committed patron. The publication of Deaths and Entrances in February 1946 was a major turning point for Thomas. Poet and critic Walter J. Turner commented in The Spectator , "This book alone, in my opinion, ranks him as a major poet". Swansea Swansea ( / ˈ s w ɒ n z i / SWON -zee ; Welsh : Abertawe [abɛrˈtawɛ] )
2331-445: A theory". Despite this, many of the group, including Henry Treece , modelled their work on Thomas's. In the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930s Thomas's sympathies were very much with the radical left, to the point of his holding close links with the communists ; he was also decidedly pacifist and anti-fascist. He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement and boasted about participating in demonstrations against
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#17327659461112442-538: A total population of 300,352, making it the third largest urban area in Wales and the 27th largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Over 218,000 individuals are white ; 1,106 are of mixed race ; 2,215 are Asian – mainly Bangladeshi (1,015); 300 are black ; and 1,195 belong to other ethnic groups . The Office for National Statistics 2010 mid-year population estimate for the City & County of Swansea
2553-877: A tour of Wales. Swansea obtained the further right to have a Lord Mayor in 1982. Within the city centre are the ruins of the castle , the Marina, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery , Swansea Museum , the Dylan Thomas Centre , the Environment Centre , and the Market , which is the largest covered market in Wales. It backs onto the Quadrant Shopping Centre , which opened in 1978, and the adjoining St David's Centre opened in 1982. Other notable modern buildings include
2664-550: A wood and asbestos bungalow on the cliffs overlooking Cardigan Bay. It was there that Thomas wrote a radio piece about New Quay, Quite Early One Morning , a sketch for his later work, Under Milk Wood . Of the poetry written at this time, of note is Fern Hill , started while living in New Quay, continued at Blaencwm in July and August 1945 and first published in October 1945 Thomas's nine months in New Quay, said first biographer, Constantine FitzGibbon, were "a second flowering,
2775-483: Is 232,500. In 2001, 158,457 people in the local authority area (71 per cent) stated their religion to be Christian , 44,286 (20 per cent) no religion , 16,800 (7.5 per cent) did not state a religion and 2,167 were Muslim . There are small communities of other religions, each making up a little under 1 per cent of the total population. Swansea is part of the Anglican Diocese of Swansea and Brecon and
2886-572: Is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales . It forms a principal area , officially known as the City and County of Swansea (Welsh: Dinas a Sir Abertawe ). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in the United Kingdom . Located along Swansea Bay in south-west Wales, with the principal area covering the Gower Peninsula , it is part of the Swansea Bay region and part of
2997-622: Is also a dual carriageway for much of its route through Swansea. Other notable local roads include the A484 , which provides a link from Fforestfach west to Llanelli , and the A4118 , the main route westwards from the city centre across Gower to Port Eynon . Swansea railway station is served by two train operating companies : Bus routes in the area are operated predominantly by First Cymru , with smaller operators such as Adventure Travel , South Wales Transport and DANSA also operate some routes in
3108-490: Is also an account of the young Thomas being taught how to swear in Welsh. His schoolboy friends recalled that "It was all Welsh—and the children played in Welsh...he couldn't speak English when he stopped at Fernhill...in all his surroundings, everybody else spoke Welsh..." At the 1921 census, 95% of residents in the two parishes around Fernhill were Welsh speakers. Across the whole peninsula, 13%—more than 200 people—spoke only Welsh. A few fields south of Fernhill lay Blaencwm,
3219-668: Is complex, providing diverse scenery. The Gower Peninsula was the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Apart from the southeast corner, the whole of the Gower Peninsula is within the AONB. Swansea has numerous urban and country parklands. The region has featured regularly in the Wales in Bloom awards. To the north are the Lliw uplands which are mainly open moorland, reaching
3330-528: Is derived from the Old Norse name of the original Viking trading post that was founded by King Sweyn Forkbeard ( c. 960 –1014). It was the name of the king, 'Svein' or 'Sweyn', with the suffix of '-ey' ("island"), referring either to a bank of the river at its mouth or to an area of raised ground in marshland. However, the Norse termination -ey can mean "inlet", and the name may simply refer to
3441-563: Is focused on a triangle defined by Gowerton , Gorseinon and Loughor along with the satellite communities of Penllergaer and Pontarddulais . About three-quarters of Swansea is on the coast—the Loughor Estuary , Swansea Bay and the Bristol Channel . The geology of the Gower Peninsula ranges from Carboniferous Limestone cliffs along its southern edge from Mumbles to Worm's Head and the salt-marshes and dune systems of
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3552-524: Is portrayed more accurately in his short story, The Peaches . Thomas also spent part of his summer holidays with Jim's sister, Rachel Jones, at neighbouring Pentrewyman farm, where he spent his time riding Prince the cart horse, chasing pheasants and fishing for trout. All these relatives were bilingual, and many worshipped at Smyrna chapel in Llangain where the services were always in Welsh, including Sunday School which Thomas sometimes attended. There
3663-449: The BBC during the late 1940s brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently featured by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene. Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950s; his readings there brought him a degree of fame, while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into
3774-572: The British Union of Fascists . Bert Trick has provided an extensive account of an Oswald Mosley rally in the Plaza cinema in Swansea in July 1933 that he and Thomas attended. In early 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–1994), a 22-year-old dancer of Irish and French Quaker descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and aged 18 joined the chorus line at
3885-537: The Llansteffan peninsula, a Welsh-speaking part of Carmarthenshire. In the land between Llangain and Llansteffan, his mother's family, the Williamses and their close relatives, worked a dozen farms with over a thousand acres between them. The memory of Fernhill, a dilapidated 15-acre farm rented by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, and her husband, Jim Jones, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem " Fern Hill ", but
3996-547: The London Palladium . Introduced by Augustus John , Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf pub on Rathbone Place in London's West End . Laying his head in her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. Thomas liked to assert that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met. Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and in
4107-526: The Loughor estuary to the north. The eastern, southern and western coasts of the peninsula are lined with numerous sandy beaches both wide and small, separated by steep cliffs. The South Wales Coalfield reaches the coast in the Swansea area. This had a great bearing on the development of the city of Swansea and other nearby towns such as Morriston. The inland area is covered by large swathes of grassland common overlooked by sandstone heath ridges including
4218-706: The Marina . In the Second World War , Swansea's industrial importance made it a target of German bombing; much of the town centre was destroyed during the Swansea Blitz on the 19, 20 and 21 February 1941 (the Three Nights Blitz ). ) In 1969, Swansea was granted city status to mark Prince Charles 's investiture as the Prince of Wales . The Prince made the announcement on 3 July 1969 during
4329-763: The Oscar Blumenthal Prize for Poetry; it was also the year in which New Directions offered to be his publisher in the United States. In all, he wrote half his poems while living at Cwmdonkin Drive before moving to London. During this time Thomas's reputation for heavy drinking developed. By the late 1930s, Thomas was embraced as the "poetic herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics . Thomas refused to align himself with them and declined to sign their manifesto. He later stated that he believed they were "intellectual muckpots leaning on
4440-475: The River Aeron , after whom Aeronwy is thought to have been named. Some of Thomas's letters from Gelli can be found in his Collected Letters whilst an extended account of Thomas's time there can be found in D. N. Thomas's book, Dylan Thomas: A Farm, Two Mansions and a Bungalow (2000). The Thomases shared the mansion with his childhood friends from Swansea, Vera and Evelyn Phillips. Vera's friendship with
4551-536: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Menevia . The Catholic see is based in Swansea at St. Joseph's Cathedral in the Greenhill area. Swansea, like Wales in general, has seen many Non-conformist religious revivals . In 1904, Evan Roberts , a miner from Loughor (Llwchwr), just outside Swansea, was the leader of what has been called one of the world's greatest Protestant religious revivals. Within
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4662-622: The Uplands area. Around 160 people in Swansea indicated they were Jewish in the 2011 census. The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Swansea according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses: The M4 motorway , with junctions 44 to 47, bypasses Swansea, replacing the A48 as the main east–west route. Both the M4 and the A48 connect with Neath , Port Talbot and Cardiff to
4773-573: The historic county of Glamorgan and the ancient Welsh commote of Gŵyr. The principal area is the second most populous local authority area in Wales, with an estimated population of 241,282 in 2022. Swansea, along with Neath and Port Talbot , forms the Swansea Urban Area , with a population of 300,352 in 2011. It is also part of the Swansea Bay City Region . During the 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea
4884-423: The "Warmley Broadcasting Corporation". This group of writers, musicians and artists became known as " The Kardomah Gang ". This was also the period of his friendship with Bert Trick, a local shopkeeper, left-wing political activist and would-be poet, and with the Rev. Leon Atkin , a Swansea minister, human rights activist and local politician. In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time. Thomas
4995-478: The "dull one". When he broadcast on Welsh BBC early in his career, he was introduced using this pronunciation. Thomas favoured the Anglicised pronunciation and gave instructions that it should be Dillan / ˈ d ɪ l ən / . The red-brick semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (in the respectable area of the Uplands ), in which Thomas was born and lived until he was 23, had been bought by his parents
5106-476: The "play for voices" Under Milk Wood . He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog . He became widely popular in his lifetime; and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet". Dylan Marlais Thomas
5217-456: The 1800s they received ore concentrates from the United States, for example from Arizona in the 1850s, and Colorado in the 1860s. The city expanded rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was termed "Copperopolis". From the late 17th century to 1801, Swansea's population grew by 500%—the first official census (in 1841) indicated that, with 6,099 inhabitants, Swansea had become significantly larger than Glamorgan 's county town, Cardiff , and
5328-551: The 1940s of Dylan singing Welsh hymns and songs, and of speaking a little Welsh. Thomas's father chose the name Dylan, which could be translated as "son of the sea" after Dylan ail Don , a character in The Mabinogion . His middle name, Marlais, was given in honour of his great-uncle, William Thomas, a Unitarian minister and poet whose bardic name was Gwilym Marles . Dylan, pronounced ˈ [ˈdəlan] (Dull-an) in Welsh, caused his mother to worry that he might be teased as
5439-475: The 1990s. In the 21st century, Swansea is experiencing a small amount of population growth; the local authority area had an estimated population of 228,100 in 2007. However, by the 2021 census, this population growth has reversed its trend very slightly with the population declining by 0.2% Around 82% of the population were born in Wales and 13% born in England; 13.4% were Welsh speakers. The population of
5550-521: The 1995 definitive edition of the play, has noted that New Quay "was crucial in supplementing the gallery of characters Thomas had to hand for writing Under Milk Wood ." Thomas’s horror of war, adumbrated in some of his poems of the 1930s and fuelled by his lived experience of the of bombing raids and fire storms of the Blitz in London, received full expression in his poems of the war period. These include elegies for an elderly man - Among Those Killed in
5661-897: The 2004 local elections until the 2012 council elections saw the council return to Labour control. For 2009/2010, the Lord Mayor of Swansea was Councillor Alan Lloyd, and in 2010/2011 Richard Lewis was the Lord Mayor. The Lord Mayor changes in May each year. The Senedd constituencies are: The city also falls under the South Wales West regional constituency which is served by Tom Giffard ( Conservative ), Sioned Williams ( Plaid Cymru ), Altaf Hussain (Conservative) and Luke Fletcher (Plaid Cymru). The UK parliamentary constituencies covering Swansea and their MPs are: Swansea may be divided into four physical areas. The geology
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#17327659461115772-498: The 20th century, heavy industries in the town declined, leaving the Lower Swansea Valley filled with derelict works and mounds of waste products from them. The Lower Swansea Valley Scheme (which still continues) reclaimed much of the land. The present Enterprise Zone was the result and, of the many original docks, only those outside the city continue to work as docks; North Dock is now Parc Tawe and South Dock became
5883-737: The 90 poems he published, half were written during these years. The stage was also an important part of Thomas's life from 1929 to 1934, as an actor, writer, producer and set painter. He took part in productions at Swansea Grammar School, and with the YMCA Junior Players and the Little Theatre , which was based in the Mumbles . It was also a touring company that took part in drama competitions and festivals around South Wales. Between October 1933 and March 1934, for example, Thomas and his fellow actors took part in five productions at
5994-687: The BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income. In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk titled "Reminiscences of Childhood" for the Welsh BBC. In December 1944, he recorded Quite Early One Morning (produced by Aneirin Talfan Davies , again for the Welsh BBC) but when Davies offered it for national broadcast BBC London turned it down. On 31 August 1945, the BBC Home Service broadcast Quite Early One Morning and, in
6105-435: The BT Tower (formerly the GPO tower) built around 1970, Alexandra House opened in 1976, County Hall opened in July 1982. Swansea Leisure Centre opened in 1977; it has undergone extensive refurbishment which retained elements of the original structure and re-opened in March 2008. The City and County of Swansea local authority area is bordered by unitary authorities of Carmarthenshire to the north, and Neath Port Talbot to
6216-512: The British people of the time - the resilience and the guts”. From September 1941 Thomas worked for the Strand Film Company in London. Strand produced films for the Ministry of Information and Thomas produced film scripts for six such films in 1942: This is Colour (on aniline dye processing), New Towns for Old , Balloon Site 568 (a recruitment film), CEMA (on arts organisation), Young Farmers and Battle for Freedom . He also scripted and produced Wales – Green Mountain, Black Mountain ,
6327-548: The Mumbles theatre, as well as nine touring performances. Thomas continued with acting and production throughout his life, including his time in Laugharne, South Leigh and London (in the theatre and on radio), as well as taking part in nine stage readings of Under Milk Wood . The Shakespearian actor, John Laurie , who had worked with Thomas on both the stage and radio thought that Thomas would "have loved to have been an actor" and, had he chosen to do so, would have been "Our first real poet-dramatist since Shakespeare." Painting
6438-437: The River Tawe, the manor of Kilvey beyond the Tawe, and the peninsula itself. In the following years, Henry built Swansea Castle c. 1106 , and minted coins bearing the names Swensi , Sweni and Svenshi c. 1140 . Swansea was designated chief town of the lordship and received its first borough charter sometime between 1158 and 1184 from William de Newburgh, 3rd Earl of Warwick . This charter contains
6549-429: The Strand Film Company, work which provided him with a much needed financial mainstay throughout the war years and his first regular source of income since working for the South Wales Daily Post . In February 1941, Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a "three nights' blitz". Castle Street was one of many streets that suffered badly; rows of shops, including the Kardomah Café, were destroyed. Thomas walked through
6660-472: The Swansea Little Theatre (see below) with the parts they were playing. Thomas's parents' storytelling and dramatic talents, as well as their theatre-going interests, could also have contributed to the young Thomas's interest in performance. In October 1925, Thomas enrolled at Swansea Grammar School for boys, in Mount Pleasant , where his father taught English. There are several accounts by his teachers and fellow pupils of Thomas's time at grammar school. He
6771-420: The Swansea built-up area within the unitary authority boundaries in 2011 was about 179,485 and the council population was 238,700. The other built-up areas within the unitary authority are centred on Gorseinon and Pontarddulais. In 2011, the Gorseinon built-up area had a population of 20,581 and the Pontarddulais built-up area had a population of 9,073. The wider urban area , including most of Swansea Bay , has
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#17327659461116882-439: The Thomases in nearby New Quay is portrayed in the 2008 film The Edge of Love . In July 1944, with the threat in London of German flying bombs , Thomas moved to the family cottage at Blaencwm near Llangain , Carmarthenshire, where he resumed writing poetry, completing "Holy Spring" and "Vision and Prayer". In September that year, the Thomas family moved to New Quay in Cardiganshire (Ceredigion), where they rented Majoda,
6993-400: The addition of part of the former Lliw Valley Borough. The new authority received the name City and County of Swansea ( Welsh : Dinas a Sir Abertawe ). Swansea was once a staunch stronghold of the Labour Party which, until 2004, had overall control of the council for 24 years. The Liberal Democrats were the largest group in the administration that took control of Swansea Council in
7104-409: The background from which he had sprung, and he needed that background all his life, like a tree needs roots.". Thomas's formal education began at Mrs Hole's dame school , a private school on Mirador Crescent, a few streets away from his home. He described his experience there in Reminiscences of Childhood : Never was there such a dame school as ours, so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with
7215-426: The bombed-out shell of the town centre with his friend Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, he concluded: "Our Swansea is dead". Thomas later wrote a feature programme for the radio, Return Journey , which described the café as being "razed to the snow". The programme, produced by Philip Burton , was first broadcast on 15 June 1947. The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war. In early 1943, Thomas began
7326-401: The burial mound at Cillibion and the hill fort at Cil Ifor. There are also the remains of a Roman villa also on the Gower peninsula. The area that would become Swansea was known as the Cantref Eginog in ancient times, located on the eastern edge of the cwmwd (commote) of Gwyr, the easternmost cantref of Ystrad Tywi . This area was noted for its valuable land and was highly contested by
7437-405: The centre of Swansea from its northern suburbs. Cefn Bryn , a ridge of high land, is the backbone of the Gower Peninsula. Rhossili Down, Hardings Down and Llanmadoc Hill are up to 193 metres (633 ft) high. The highest point is located Penlle'r Castell at 374 metres (1,227 ft) on the northern border with Carmarthenshire . Swansea has a temperate oceanic climate ( Cfb ). As part of
7548-402: The cinema in Uplands, took walks along Swansea Bay , and frequented Swansea's pubs , especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles. In the Kardomah Café , close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet Vernon Watkins and the musician and composer, Daniel Jones with whom, as teenagers, Thomas had helped to set up
7659-405: The city centre towards the north, south and west; along the coast of Swansea Bay to Mumbles ; up the Swansea Valley past Landore and Morriston to Clydach ; over Townhill and Mayhill to Cwmbwrla , Penlan , Treboeth and Fforestfach ; through Uplands , Sketty, Killay to Dunvant ; and east of the river from St. Thomas to Bonymaen , Llansamlet and Birchgrove . A second urbanised area
7770-402: The earliest reference in English to Sweynesse and gave it the status of a borough , granting the townsmen (called burgesses ) certain rights to develop the area. In 1215 King John granted a second charter, in which the name appears as Sweyneshe . A town seal which is believed to date from this period names the town as Sweyse . Another charter was granted in 1304. From the early 1700s to
7881-473: The early Welsh kingdoms. During the Viking Age , the mouth of the Tawe became a focus for trade, and a trade post may have been founded sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries. The settlement remained under Welsh control until the Norman Invasion of Wales , when Iestyn ap Gwrgant ceded the settlement as part of the new Lordship of Gower to Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick in the early 1100s. The Lordship included land around Swansea Bay as far as
7992-530: The east and Carmarthen to the west. The A483 dual carriageway links the city centre with the motorway at junction 42 to the east and junction 47 to the north-west. On departing Swansea to the north, the A483 multiplexes with the A48 before continuing through mid Wales and terminating at Chester . The A4067 connecting Mumbles with the city centre and continuing up the Swansea Valley towards Brecon
8103-401: The east. The Urban Subdivision of Swansea covers all urbanised areas within the city boundary, with a population of 179,485, it is considerably smaller than the unitary authority. The local government area is 378 square kilometres (146 sq mi) in size, about 2% of the area of Wales. It includes a large amount of open countryside and a central urban and suburban belt. In 1887, Swansea
8214-433: The film industry Thomas produced 28 film scripts (not all of which reached production) as well as acting as producer and director in some cases. When recession overtook the film industry in the late 1940s he lost his most reliable source of income. The experience he gained in his film work was a significant factor, according to Walford Davies, in the maturation of Under Milk Wood . Although Thomas had previously written for
8325-516: The film industry after the war, working on feature film scripts which included: No Room at the Inn (1948), The Three Weird Sisters (1948), The Doctor and the Devils (1944 - not produced until 1985) and Rebecca's Daughters (1948 - not produced until 1992). His screenplay for The Beach of Falesá , not produced as a film, received a BBC Radio 3 production in May 2014. Altogether in his work in
8436-580: The first ten years or so of his life, Thomas's Swansea aunts and uncles helped with his upbringing. These were his mother's three siblings, Polly and Bob, who lived in the St Thomas district of Swansea and Theodosia, and her husband, the Rev. David Rees, in Newton, Swansea, where parishioners recall Thomas sometimes staying for a month or so at a time. All four aunts and uncles spoke Welsh and English. Thomas's childhood also featured regular summer trips to
8547-474: The foothills of the Black Mountain range. To the east is the coastal strip around Swansea Bay . Cutting through the middle from the south-east to the north-west is the urban and suburban zone stretching from the Swansea city centre to the towns of Gorseinon and Pontarddulais . The most populated areas of Swansea are Morriston , Sketty and the city centre . The chief urbanised area radiates from
8658-658: The former St. Andrew's United Reformed Church. This would replace the existing central Mosque on St Helens Road and be in addition to the other three existing mosques (Swansea University Mosque, Hafod Mosque, Imam Khoei Mosque). Swansea is represented in Buddhism with the Dharmavajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre, Pulpung Changchub Dargyeling (Kagyu Tradition) and a branch of the international Dzogchen Community (Nyingma Tradition). Swansea Synagogue and Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall are both located in
8769-439: The great modern poets has been much discussed, and he remains popular with the public. Dylan Thomas was born on 27 October 1914 in Swansea , the son of Florence Hannah ( née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress , and David John 'Jack' Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher. His father had a first-class honours degree in English from University College, Aberystwyth , and ambitions to rise above his position teaching English literature at
8880-776: The home of critic John Davenport in Marshfield near Chippenham in Gloucestershire . There Thomas collaborated with Davenport on the satire The Death of the King's Canary , though due to fears of libel the work was not published until 1976. At the outset of the Second World War , worried about conscription , Thomas unsuccessfully sought employment in a reserved occupation with the Ministry of Information . However, an “unreliable lung”, as he described his chronic condition - coughing sometimes confined him to bed, and he had
8991-521: The invention of the reverbatory furnace in the late 1600s, copper smelting could use coal rather than the more expensive charcoal. At the same time, the mines of Cornwall were increasing copper production. Swansea became the ideal place to smelt the Cornish copper ores, being close to the coalfields of South Wales and having an excellent port to receive ships carrying Cornish copper ore. Because each ton of copper ore smelted used about three tons of coal, it
9102-488: The late 1800s, Swansea was the world's leading copper-smelting area. Numerous smelters along the River Tawe received copper and other metal ores shipped from Cornwall and Devon, as well as from North and South America, Africa, and Australia. The industry declined severely in the late 1800s, and none of the smelters are now active. The port of Swansea initially traded in wine, hides, wool, cloth and later in coal. After
9213-450: The local grammar school . Thomas had one sibling, Nancy Marles (1906–1953), who was eight years his senior. At the 1921 census, Nancy and Dylan are noted as speaking both Welsh and English. Their parents were also bilingual in English and Welsh, and Jack Thomas taught Welsh at evening classes. One of their Swansea relations has recalled that, at home, "Both Auntie Florrie and Uncle Jack always spoke Welsh." There are three accounts from
9324-721: The lower-grade ore could not support transportation to Swansea. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was built in 1804 to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles and coal from the Clyne valley to Swansea and to the markets beyond. It carried the world's first fare-paying rail passengers on the same day the British Parliament abolished the transportation of slaves from Africa. It later moved from horse power to steam locomotion, and finally converting to electric trams, before closing in January 1960, in favour of motor buses. Through
9435-577: The mouth of the river. The area around Swansea has a unique archaeological history dating back to the Palaeolithic . Finds at Long Hole Cave on the Gower Peninsula have been interpreted as those of the first modern humans in Britain, and the same area is also home to the oldest ceremonial burial in Western Europe, discovered at Paviland in 1823 and dated to 22,000 BC. The area also has many Bronze Age and Iron Age sites, such as
9546-549: The prize are submitted by the publisher, editor, or agent; for theatre plays and screenplays, by the producer. A Dylan Thomas literary prize was first awarded during the 1980s, known as the Dylan Thomas Award , following the campaign to have a plaque in the poet's memory placed in Westminster Abbey . Surplus income from a fund-raising concert sponsored by the television company HTV were donated to allow
9657-469: The prominent Cefn Bryn . The traditional agricultural landscape consists of a patchwork of fields characterised by walls, stone-faced banks and hedgerows. Valleys cut through the peninsula and contain rich deciduous woodland . Much of Swansea is hilly, with the main area of upland being located in the council ward of Mawr . Areas up to 185 metres (607 ft) in elevation range across the central section: Kilvey Hill , Townhill and Llwynmawr separate
9768-486: The publication of Thomas's first book, 18 Poems , in December 1934. The anthology was published by Fortune Press , in part a vanity publisher that did not pay its writers and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. 18 Poems was noted for its visionary qualities which led to critic Desmond Hawkins writing that the work was "the sort of bomb that bursts no more than once in three years". The volume
9879-455: The railways and was known as Thomas the Guard. His family had originated in another part of Welsh-speaking Carmarthenshire, in the farms that lay around the villages of Brechfa , Abergorlech , Gwernogle and Llanybydder , and which the young Thomas occasionally visited with his father. His father's side of the family also provided the young Thomas with another kind of experience; many lived in
9990-591: The school's mile race, held at St. Helen's Ground ; he carried a newspaper photograph of his victory with him until his death. In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post , where he remained for some 18 months. After leaving the newspaper, Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of
10101-539: The second half of 1936 were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance , Cornwall, on 11 July 1937. In May 1938, they moved to Wales, renting a cottage in the village of Laugharne , Carmarthenshire. They lived there intermittently for just under two years until July 1941, and did not return to live in Laugharne until 1949. Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on 30 January 1939. In 1939,
10212-777: The sets at the Little Theatre was just one aspect of the young Thomas's interest in art. His own drawings and paintings hung in his bedroom in Cwmdonkin Drive, and his early letters reveal a broader interest in art and art theory. Thomas saw writing a poem as an act of construction "as a sculptor works at stone," later advising a student "to treat words as a craftsman does his wood or stone...hew, carve, mould, coil, polish and plane them..." Throughout his life, his friends included artists, both in Swansea and in London, as well as in America. In his free time, Thomas visited
10323-570: The sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom, where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over undone sums, or to repent a little crime – the pulling of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick under the table during English literature. Alongside dame school, Thomas also took private lessons from Gwen James, an elocution teacher who had studied at drama school in London, winning several major prizes. She also taught "Dramatic Art" and "Voice Production", and would often help cast members of
10434-533: The three years beginning in October 1945, Thomas made over a hundred broadcasts for the corporation. Thomas was employed not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques. In the second half of 1945, Thomas began reading for the BBC Radio programme, Book of Verse , broadcast weekly to the Far East. This provided Thomas with a regular income and brought him into contact with Louis MacNeice ,
10545-552: The town's estuarine bleakness, and the dismal lives of the women cockle pickers working the shore around him. From 1933 onwards, poet Victor Neuburg edited a section called "The Poet's Corner" in a British newspaper, the Sunday Referee . Here he encouraged new talent by awarding weekly prizes. One prize went to the then-unknown Thomas, and the publisher of the Sunday Referee sponsored and Neuburg arranged for
10656-484: The towns of the South Wales industrial belt, including Port Talbot , Pontarddulais and Cross Hands . Thomas had bronchitis and asthma in childhood and struggled with these throughout his life. He was indulged by his mother, Florence, and enjoyed being mollycoddled, a trait he carried into adulthood, becoming skilled in gaining attention and sympathy. But Florence would have known that child deaths had been
10767-537: The west end and a single gothic church to the east end. It was originally built as a place of worship for Norwegian sailors when they visited the UK. It was relocated to Swansea in 1910 at a site directly opposite the Sainsbury's supermarket on the River Tawe. The city is home to 10% of the total Welsh Muslim population; Swansea's Muslim community is raising money to open a new central mosque and community centre in
10878-545: The world to be aware of the Welsh interest in promoting new writing. Our Prize provides an inspiration for a whole new generation of writers throughout the English-speaking world,” said Peter Stead , Chair of The Dylan Thomas Prize. Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night " and " And death shall have no dominion ", as well as
10989-663: Was a teenager when many of the poems for which he became famous were published: " And death shall have no dominion ", "Before I Knocked" and "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower". "And death shall have no dominion" appeared in the New English Weekly in May 1933. In May 1934, Thomas made his first visit to Laugharne, "the strangest town in Wales", as he described it in an extended letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson , in which he also writes about
11100-404: Was a township at the mouth of the river Tawe, covering 4,562 acres (1,846 hectares) in the county of Glamorgan . There were three major extensions to the boundaries of the borough: the first in 1835, when Morriston , St Thomas , Landore , St John-juxta-Swansea and part of Llansamlet parish were added; again in 1889, when areas around Cwmbwrla and Trewyddfa were included; and when the borough
11211-460: Was an undistinguished pupil who shied away from school, preferring reading and drama activities. In his first year one of his poems was published in the school's magazine, and before he left he became its editor. Thomas's various contributions to the school magazine can be found here: During his final school years he began writing poetry in notebooks; the first poem, dated 27 April (1930), is entitled "Osiris, come to Isis". In June 1928, Thomas won
11322-495: Was because his mother had done it for him all his life, an example of her coddling him. Years later, his wife Caitlin would still have to prepare his eggs for him. In December 1935, Thomas contributed the poem "The Hand That Signed the Paper" to Issue 18 of the bi-monthly New Verse . In 1936, his next collection Twenty-five Poems , published by J. M. Dent , also received much critical praise. Two years later, in 1938, Thomas won
11433-580: Was critically acclaimed, netting him new admirers from the London poetry world, including Edith Sitwell and Edwin Muir . When "Light breaks where no sun shines" appeared in The Listener in 1934, it caught the attention of three senior figures in literary London, T. S. Eliot , Geoffrey Grigson and Stephen Spender . The following year, in September 1935, Thomas met Vernon Watkins, thus beginning
11544-579: Was due to migration from within and beyond Wales—in 1881 more than a third of the borough's population had been born outside Swansea and Glamorgan, and just under a quarter outside Wales. Copper smelting at Swansea declined in the late 1800s for a number of reasons: copper mining in Cornwall declined; the price of copper dropped from £112 in 1860 to £35 in the 1890s; in the early 1900s, mining shifted to lower-grade copper deposits in North and South America, and
11655-480: Was enlarged in 1918 to include the whole of the ancient parish of Swansea, the southern part of Llangyfelach parish, all of Llansamlet parish, Oystermouth Urban District and Brynau parish. In 1889, Swansea attained county borough status and it was granted city status in 1969, which was inherited by the Swansea district when it was formed by the merger of the borough and Gower Rural District in 1974. In 1996, Swansea became one of 22 unitary authorities with
11766-446: Was more economical to ship the copper ore to Wales rather than sending the coal to Cornwall. The first copper smelter at Swansea was established in 1717, followed by many more. Once smelting was established, the smelters began receiving high-grade ore and ore concentrates from around the world. More coal mines opened to meet demand from northeast Gower to Clyne and Llangyfelach . In the 1850s Swansea had more than 600 furnaces, and
11877-402: Was opened in July that year. The church was served by a number of ministers until 1911 when the Rev. R. J. Willoughby came to the church. The church has an organ by Harrison & Harrison . The Norwegian Church is a Grade II listed building in the docklands area of the city. The church building was originally located at Newport Docks . The building consists of a Seaman 's Mission to
11988-480: Was still a teenager. In 1934, the publication of "Light breaks where no sun shines" caught the attention of the literary world. While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara ; they married in 1937 and had three children: Llewelyn, Aeronwy , and Colm. He came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, though he found earning a living as a writer difficult. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for
12099-486: Was the key centre of the copper-smelting industry, earning the nickname Copperopolis . The Welsh name , Abertawe , translates as mouth/estuary of the Tawe and this name was likely used for the area before a settlement was established. The first written record of the Welsh name for the town itself dates from 1150 and appears in the form Aper Tyui . The name Swansea , pronounced /ˈswɒnzi/ (Swans-ee, not Swan-sea),
12210-457: Was the second most populous town in Wales behind Merthyr Tydfil (which had a population of 7,705). However, the census understated Swansea's true size, as much of the built-up area lay outside the contemporary boundaries of the borough; the total population was actually 10,117. Swansea's population was later overtaken by Merthyr in 1821 and by Cardiff in 1881, although in the latter year Swansea once again surpassed Merthyr. Much of Swansea's growth
12321-500: Was the son of David John Thomas, a school master, and Florence Hannah Williams who married in 1903 and were living in Sketty Avenue, Sketty, Swansea when the 1911 Census was taken. Their daughter Nancy, born 1906, was not at home with them on Census Day. Dylan Thomas was born in Uplands, Swansea , in 1914, leaving school in 1932 to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post . Many of his works appeared in print while he
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