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FITZGIBBON, CONSTANTINE: : Selected Letters of DYLAN THOMAS

LONDON.J.M. DENT & SONS LTD.,1966.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.VG+/VG.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj. Subject,colour portrait by Agustus John, illustrated upper wrap,press reviews to rear wrap,with shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners,some minimal chipping+ rubbing to all extremities - corners, edges,head+foot of spine/backstrip - with miniscule loss.Author's+publisher's names to head+foot of spine/backstrip respectively,minimally affected.Described hard but fairly and honestly - dw/dj is 99.9% present! Top edge coloured,fore-edge slightly aged/toned - as usual/normal; contents bright,tight and clean - no owner annotation,underlining etc.,the underlining is in the printing process. Bright,generally clean,publisher's original,plain black cloth boards with crisp,bright,stamped gilt letters to spine /backstrip and clean plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xiipp+1-420pp [paginated] includes author introduction,a chronology,letters and index,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and dedication (to Pamela Hansford Johnson). Although Dylan Thomas's fame is that of a poet he was,like many other poets,a master of prose as well.His letters are perhaps his finest prose,as they are his longest. Being a perfectionist he could not write even the simplest note without making it quite deliberately into a minor work of art.Towards the end of his life he was occasionally,perhaps frequently,drafting and redrafting letters in a manner that recalls his method of writing poems. 'The Selected Letters' contained in this volume must therefore be judged on literary as well as biographical grounds. As with Oscar Wilde and Byron in their more personal writings,these letters contain not only the man's thoughts,but also the tone of his voice; a quite deliberate and conscious expression of his personality.This volume embraces approximately half Dylan Thomas's letters which still exist (then 1966),and which will eventually be published as 'Collected Letters'.The method of selection has been to draw primarily upon those letters which reflect the creative mind and outlook of the poet,and those that have a unique bearing on his life, adding further to the personal portrait so admirably set out by Constantine Fitzgibbon in his recently published 'Life of Dylan Thomas (1965.). Dylans's was a complex character,as readers of the 'Life' will have realized, but the many sides to it are here revealed with a clarity and impact that are normally gained only in direct conversation.Letters from such a poet,it goes without saying,could never be dull - but they are performing a unique service to his memory by publication,helping still to settle what kind of man Dylan really was,as opposed to dying legend.The volume opens with the first letter that has been preserved,dated June 1931,when he was a little over sixteen and a half years old. He was then in his last term at Swansea Grammar School,where he edited the school magazine - most of which he wrote himself - but was for the rest uninterested in school activities,scholarly or otherwise, he was about to get a job on a local newspaper,the Swansea Daily Post,and he was living in his parents' home.He hoped, however,to continue to be an editor and he planned to start a literary periodical to be called 'Prose and Verse'.He therefore advertised both for contributions and for subscriptions.One of the first contributions that he received was from Trevor Hughes,a young Swansea writer only a few years older than himself.They were to become and remain fast friends for several years.Trevor Hughes indeed was perhaps the first grown man to recognize Dylan's literary talents.The last contribution in the volume is the cable he sent to Mrs Ellen Stevenson,dated 25th, October 1953.He lapsed into a coma on the night 4th - 5th November and died on 9th November without ever regaining consciousness.His body was taken back from New York to Laugharne,and he is buried in Wales. Please contact seller,because of the weight and value of this item,for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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