Thomas Dylan - Dylan Thomas: a new life

THE OVERLOOK PRESS

New York

First published in the United States in 2004 by

The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.

New York

N EW Y ORK:

141 Wooster Street

New York, NY 10012

Copyright 2003 Andrew Lycett

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.

ISBN 978-1-46830-407-7

Qaddafi and the Libyan Revolution

(with David Blundy)

Ian Fleming

Rudyard Kipling

Between pages 178 and 179:

Between pages 242 and 243:

The author and the publishers offer their thanks to the following for their kind permission to reproduce images:

1 Swansea Grammar School Magazine/Swansea Library; 2 National Library of Wales; 3 Unknown; 4 Jeff Towns/Dylans Book Store Collection; 5 Lady Avebury; 6 Bill Brandt Archive; 7 Peregrine Banbury; 8 Topham Picturepoint; 9 National Portrait Gallery; 10 Reg and Eileen Evans; 11 John Deakin/Vogue/Conde Nast; 12 Hulton Picture Library; 13 Mary Ellidge; 14 University of Delaware; 15 BP; 16 John Jones Publishing Ltd.; 17 Oscar Williams/University of Indiana; 18 Lois Gridley/Andrew Lycett; 19 Rollie McKenna; 20 Swansea Little Theatre; 21 Kerith Trick; 22 Silvia Tharp; 23 Joan Rubeck; 24 Edward Marnier; 25 Nora Summers/Jeff Towns/Dylans Book Store Collection; 26 Harry Ransom Research Center/University of Texas; 27 G.D. Hackett/Jeff Towns/Dylans Book Store Collection; 28 Bunny Adler/Jeff Towns/Dylans Book Store Collection; 29 Geoffrey Madoc Jones; 30 Amelia Fell; 31 Molly Murray Threipland

Every book brings new friends, new acquaintances. In the former category I am privileged to count Swansea bookseller, Jeff Towns. He is an essential point of contact for anyone writing about Dylan Thomas. Im sure that when he heard someone else was embarking on a biography, he inwardly groaned. But, from the very first occasion I met him, he was a fountain of information, encouragement and superior gossip. He also generously made available his vast collection of Dylan Thomas books, letters (some unpublished) and other material. I doubt I could have written this book without him. However I am also glad to say that I surprised him with some hitherto unknown Dylan-related material and characters I discovered.

Even before meeting Jeff, I had been to visit Aeronwy Thomas, Dylans daughter, in Surrey. As everyone who meets her quickly recognises, she is a remarkable character humorous, tenacious and very fair-minded. Dylan is lucky to have her flying the flag for him.

So thanks to her for her support, and also to the following people to whom I am particularly grateful:

Bruce Hunter (who represents the Dylan Thomas estate at David Higham Associates), Reg and Eileen Evans (who allowed me to see their Dylan Thomas collection and use photographs from it), Rob and Cathy Roberts (who gave me access to the papers of Daniel Jones, Cathys father, was remarkable the model of the sort of relationship a biographer likes to have), and Professor Ralph Maud (who allowed me to read in proof form Where Have the Old Words Got Me? his summation of his lifetimes thinking about the poems of Dylan Thomas).

Andrew Holmess advice on computers was invaluable. I benefited from a grant from the Authors Foundation, a fund administered by the Society of Authors.

At my publisher I have again enjoyed the editorial expertise and backing of Ion Trewin. His very able assistant Victoria Webb has been a delight to work with. Margaret Body did two fine jobs first on the copy-editing and then on the index.

At home I have been spoiled by the love and support of Sue Greenhill.

I am happy to acknowledge my use of the comprehensive tape interviews made by the journalist Colin Edwards in the 1960s. Intending to write a biography that was never completed, he was able to talk to many people who knew Dylan but are no longer alive. His tapes were deposited in the National Screen and Sound Archive at the National Library of Wales by his widow. I am grateful to her and to the Library for permission to quote from them. In the same context, I drew on the excellent work done by Kent Thompson in producing his Ph.D thesis Dylan Thomas in Swansea for Swansea University in 1965. His background research papers are lodged in the university archives.

I would like to thank David Higham Associates (on behalf of the Dylan Thomas estate) for permission to quote for the works of Dylan Thomas.

In addition I would like to thank the following people who have all given me relevant permissions to quote:

Michael Taylor and Felicity Skelton (Haydn Taylor)

Professor Christopher Todd (Ruthven Todd)

Jacqui Lyne (Tom Herbert)

Nicola Schaefer (Cordelia Sewell)

Richard Brooks-Keene (Bunny Keene)

Charles Fisher

Julia Davies (Mary Ellidge)

Lady Avebury (Pamela Hansford Johnson)

Judy Gascoyne (David Gascoyne)

Gwen Watkins (Vernon Watkins)

Hilly Janes (Fred Janes)

Emeritus Professor Meic Stephens (Glyn Jones)

Alice Kadel (Mary Keene)

Sebastian Yorke (Henry Yorke)

Rob and Cathy Roberts (Daniel Jones)

Julius White (Augustus John)

Ben Shephard (Rupert Shephard and Lorna Wilmot)

Susan and Jane Bullowa (George Reavey)

Amelia Fell (Margaret Taylor)

Strephon Williams (Oscar Williams)

Peggy Fox (James Laughlin and New Directions)

Authors League Fund (Djuna Barnes)

Joseph Geraci (Emily Holmes Coleman)

Jeff Walden (BBC Written Archives)

Judith Dunscombe (Alfred Kazin)

American Academy for Arts and Letters (John Malcolm Brinnin)

Kerith Trick (Bert Trick)

The Masters, Fellows and Scholars of St Johns College Cambridge (Nashe Society)

Eva Rhys (Keidrych Rhys)

Francis Sitwell (Edith Sitwell)

Sir Reresby Sitwell, Bart, and Francis Sitwell (Sacheverell Sitwell)

Much of the work on a book of this kind is done in libraries. I would like to thank the following librarians for their help and their willingness to answer my questions:

Rebecca Johnson Melvin (University of Delaware)

Tara Wenger and John Fitzpatrick (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the

University of Texas at Austin)

Helen Cole (State Library of Queensland)

Marilyn Jones (Swansea City Library)

Robin Smith (National Library of Scotland)

Ceridwen Lloyd Morgan (Manuscripts/National Library of Wales)

Dafydd Pritchard (National Screen and Sound Archive/National Library of Wales)

Chris Penney (Birmingham University)

Bill Hetherington (Peace Pledge Union)

Adrian Glew (Tate Gallery)

Robert Bertholf (Lockwood Library, State University of New York at Buffalo)

Judith Priestman (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

Vincent Giroud (Yale University)

Tom Ford (Harvard University)

Michael Bott (Reading University)

Katherine Salzmann (Southern Illinois University)

Francis Lapka and Saundra Taylor (University of Indiana at Bloomington)

Stephen Crook (Berg Collection New York Public Library)