Child's Christmas In Wales, A: And Five Poems

Thomas, Dylan

ISBN 10: 0060514663 ISBN 13: 9780060514662

Publisher: Caedmon, 2002

Synopsis

First recorded in February of 1952, this remastered recording of Dylan Thomas reading his A Child's Christmas in Wales recalls all of the sights, smells, and sounds of a long-ago-Christmas.

Thomas's wonderful recollection of this holiday in the seaside town of his youth is captured in this vivid performance. Also included are five other selected poems read by Dylan Thomas, including his well-known Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

Whether sharing his wistful memory of a holiday spent with people long past, or addressing the perennial problem of our mortality, Thomas gives us great pleasure in our personal and common memories while affirming life with a resounding "Yes!"

Contents:
A Child's Christmas in Wales
And five poems: Fern Hill; Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night; In The White Giant's Thigh; Balad of the Long-Legged Bait; Ceremony After a Fire Raid

About this title

About the Author:

Dylan Thomas, born in 1914, began his career as a journalist in his native Swansea, Wales. He then moved to London where he worked in broadcasting and wrote film scripts, prose and drama to earn enough money to enable him to write what he most wanted to—poetry.

He lived colorfully, even recklessly, until his untimely death in New York City in 1953. One of the 20th century’s most treasured writers, Dylan Thomas was a master craftsman of poetic complexity and richly obscure imagery. Thomas’s genius is made clear in this landmark recording through the everlasting gift he has given the word—his voice.

From AudioFile:

Larger-than-life Dylan Thomas possessed a delicate aptness of detail in his writing, and his poetic sensibility shows in every crafted description in "A Child's Christmas in Wales." The story avoids sentiment or nostalgia and gets right to the sublime nature of new snow and mischief with friends and the difference between "useful gifts" (scratchy woolens) and the much more desirable useless ones (gobs of candy and perhaps a small ax). Thomas's deep, thunderous voice belies his sense of humor, which is amply evident in "A Child's Christmas." Caedmon's 1952 recording is without frills, but still a fine one, with a faint echo following each of Thomas's booming pronouncements, and the digitally remastered CD is a keepsake. The five poems are a bonus, and the stirring "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" might just be the perfect rumination for the cold, quiet nights creeping toward the new year. J.M.D. -- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Caedmon
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060514663
• ISBN 13: 9780060514662
• Binding: Audio Cassette