Discovering Dylan Thomas

Discovering Dylan Thomas
Author: John Goodby
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1783169648

Discovering Dylan Thomas is a companion to Dylan Thomas’s published and notebook poems. It includes hitherto-unseen material contained in the recently-discovered fifth notebook, alongside poems, drafts and critical material including summaries of the critical reception of individual poems. The introductory essay considers the task of editing and annotating Thomas, the reception of the Collected Poems and the state of the Dylan Thomas industry, and the nature of Thomas’s reading, ‘influences’, allusions and intertextuality. It is followed by supplementary poems, including juvenilia and the notebook poems ‘The Woman Speaks’, original versions of ‘Grief thief of time’ and ‘I fellowed sleep’, and ‘Jack of Christ’, all of which were omitted from the Collected Poems. These are followed by annotations beginning with a discussion of Thomas’s juvenilia, and the relationship between plagiarism and parody in his work; poem-by-poem entries offer glosses, new material from the fifth notebook, critical histories for each poem, and variants of poems such as ‘Holy Spring’ and ‘On a Wedding Anniversary’ (including a magnificent, previously unpublished first draft of ‘A Refusal to Mourn’). The closing appendices deal with text and publication details for the collections Thomas published in his lifetime, the provenance and contents of the fifth notebook, and errata for the hardback edition of the Collected Poems.

The Fifth Notebook of Dylan Thomas

The Fifth Notebook of Dylan Thomas
Author: Dylan Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1350103853

Between May 1930 and August 1935, Dylan Thomas kept numerous notebooks of poems. They contain the drafts of almost all of the work that would form his first two reputation-making collections, 18 Poems (1934) and Twenty-five Poems (1936), and many of those in his third collection, The Map of Love (1939). Thomas sold four of the notebooks, spanning May 1930 to May 1934, to the University of Buffalo in 1941. However, the existence of a fifth notebook, covering the period June 1934 to August 1935, was unknown until 2014, the centenary of his birth. The Fifth Notebook of Dylan Thomas makes this newly-discovered text available to readers and researchers for the first time. It contains the only existing MSS versions of Thomas's most challenging poems, 'I, in my intricate image' and 'Altarwise by owl-light', and fourteen other early poems. It contains facsimiles and full transcripts of the originals, is annotated throughout, and has a full scholarly introduction. Exploring the contexts of these brilliant and experimental lyrics – many with substantial reworkings and variant passages – this landmark publication sheds new light on the creative practice of one of the most important and well-known poets of the twentieth century.

The Poems of Dylan Thomas

The Poems of Dylan Thomas
Author: Dylan Thomas
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Total Pages: 543
Release: 2017-10-31
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0811227952

The most complete and current edition of Dylan Thomas' collected poetry in a beautiful gift edition celebrating the centenary of his birth The reputation of Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century has not waned in the fifty years since his death. A Welshman with a passion for the English language, Thomas’s singular poetic voice has been admired and imitated, but never matched. This exciting, newly edited annotated edition offers a more complete and representative collection of Dylan Thomas’s poetic works than any previous edition. Edited by leading Dylan Thomas scholar John Goodby from the University of Swansea, The Poems of Dylan Thomas contains all the poems that appeared in Collected Poems 1934-1952, edited by Dylan Thomas himself, as well as poems from the 1930-1934 notebooks and poems from letters, amatory verses, occasional poems, the verse film script for “Our Country,” and poems that appear in his “radio play for voices,” Under Milk Wood. Showing the broad range of Dylan Thomas’s oeuvre as never before, this new edition places Thomas in the twenty-first century, with an up-to-date introduction by Goodby whose notes and annotations take a pluralistic approach.

Why Bob Dylan Matters

Why Bob Dylan Matters
Author: Richard F. Thomas
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0062939459

“The coolest class on campus” – The New York Times When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated, while many others questioned the choice. How could the world’s most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter who wouldn’t even deign to attend the medal ceremony? In Why Bob Dylan Matters, Harvard Professor Richard F. Thomas answers this question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on Classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. Dylan’s Nobel Prize brought him vindication, and he immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight as a leading academic voice in all matters Dylanological. Today, through his wildly popular Dylan seminar—affectionately dubbed "Dylan 101"—Thomas is introducing a new generation of fans and scholars to the revered bard’s work. This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas’s famous course, and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of Classical poets. Asking us to reflect on the question, "What makes a classic?", Thomas offers an eloquent argument for Dylan’s modern relevance, while interpreting and decoding Dylan’s lyrics for readers. The most original and compelling volume on Dylan in decades, Why Bob Dylan Matters will illuminate Dylan’s work for the Dylan neophyte and the seasoned fanatic alike. You’ll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.

A Book of Days

A Book of Days
Author: Patti Smith
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2022-11-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0593448553

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids and M Train, featuring more than 365 images and reflections that chart Smith’s singular aesthetic—inspired by her wildly popular Instagram. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Variety, Pitchfork, PopSugar In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books she’s reading, the graves of beloved heroes—William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims. Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain, and a husband’s Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world. With over 365 photographs taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer, and performer. Hopeful, elegiac, playful—and complete with an introduction by Smith that explores her documentary process—A Book of Days is a timeless offering for deeply uncertain times, an inspirational map of an artist’s life.

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Author: Sylvia Plath
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 767
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307429504

The complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath—essential reading for anyone who has been moved and fascinated by the poet's life and work. "A genuine literary event.... Plath's journals contain marvels of discovery." —The New York Times Book Review Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons.

The Death of Dylan Thomas

The Death of Dylan Thomas
Author: James Nashold
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

When Dylan Thomas died in 1953 at the height of his fame, his death was widely believed to have been caused by his chronic alcoholism. This book explores recent discoveries which show that he was in fact a diabetic who was given the wrong treatment at his New York hospital - the treatment that this book claims led to his death. The book aims to establish what really happened, and to trace the life of his wife Caitlin following his death, when no one doubted she was equally to blame for his death, and she fled the country. The events of Caitlin's life after this are explored, from her settling in Italy, to her feuding with her children by Dylan and the trustees of his estate, her fourth child at the age of 49, and her refusal to marry again.

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Author: Maddie Mortimer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2022-06-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 198218177X

Lia, her husband, Harry, and their daughter, Iris, are a perfectly balanced family of three with a happy life. But when a devasting diagnosis threatens to derail their lives, the world around them begins to warp and transform, and Lia's carefully hidden secrets come rushing out.

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas
Author: Hannah Ellis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2014-09-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1472903110

Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration is a unique collection of specially commissioned essays celebrating the poet's life and work one hundred years after his birth in 1914. Edited by his granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, who introduces each section by theme, the book is divided into three parts concerning Thomas's early years, later life and his lasting legacy. Highlights include essays from noted biographers Andrew Lycett and David N. Thomas, National Poet for Wales Gillian Clarke on Under Milk Wood, and poetry by Archbishop Emeritus Rowan Williams. The book also includes essays by poet Owen Sheers and BBC Radio 6 presenter Cerys Matthews, as well as numerous testimonies and poems from the likes of former President of the United States Jimmy Carter, Phillip Pullman and actor Michael Sheen. With a foreword by comedian and former Monty Python Terry Jones, Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration is a rich and personal reflection on the lasting legacy of Britain's greatest poet.