Cover of Dylan Thomas: A New Life

Dylan Thomas: A New Life

When he died in New York in 1953, Thomas was only thirty-nine years old, and the myths soon took hold: he became the Keats and the Byron of his generation—the romantic poet who died too young, his potential unfulfilled. Making masterful use of original material from archives and personal papers, Lycett describes the development of the young poet, brings invaluable new insights to Thomas's youthful poetry and the themes that continued to appear in his work, and unearth fascinating details about the poet's many affairs and his tempestuous marriage to his passionate Irish wife, Caitlin.

Read more

The result is a poignant yet stirring portrait of the chaos of Thomas's personal life and a welcome re-evaluation of the lyricism and experimentalism of his poetry, plays, and short stories.

Audience
adult
Length
long · 448 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Dylan Thomas: A New Life? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Dylan Thomas: A New Life. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Broken Tower: The Life of Hart Crane Shares biography, poetry, nonfiction
  2. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation Shares biography, nonfiction, memoir
  3. Dylan Thomas a Biography Shares biography, poetry, nonfiction
  4. E. M. Forster: A Life Shares biography, nonfiction, memoir

“People who read Dylan Thomas: A New Life tend to reach for these next.”

  1. T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life
  2. Hawthorne: A Life
  3. Shelley: The Pursuit
  4. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson

“If you want more of the same (biography), start with these.”

  1. T.S. Eliot
  2. Somerset Maugham: A Life
  3. The Red Hot Typewriter: The Life and Times of John D. MacDonald
  4. Celine: A Biography

“If it was the memoir that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets
  2. Mr Laurel & Mr Hardy: An Affectionate Biography
  3. A Short Walk from Harrods
  4. Shirley Temple: American Princess

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Letters to a Young Poet
  2. Betjeman: A Life
  3. How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry
  4. Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet