The Collected Letters

FERRIS, Paul (editor)

ISBN 10: 0586085785 / ISBN 13: 9780586085783

Published by U.K / Paladin, 1987

About this Item

The collection of Dylan Thomas's letters bring the poet and his times to life in a way that almost no biography can. The book received exceptional reviews, both for the scholarship of the editor, and for the quality of the collection. The letters begin in the poet's schooldays, and end just before his death in New York at the age of 39. In between, he loved, wrote, drank, begged and borrowed his way through a flamboyant life. He was an enthusiastic critic of other writers' work and the letters are full of his thoughts on his own work and on his friends, as well as unguarded and certainly unpolitical comments on the work of his contemporaries - T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden & Stephen Spender among others. This cast Thomas's adolescence in Swansea and his love affair with Caitlin into sharper focus. Thomas's letters tell a remarkable story, each letter taking the reader a little further along the path of the poet's self-destruction, but written with such verve and lyricism that somehow the reader's sympathies never quite abandon him. A 1st edition paperback in good condition-crease to the front&back covers & edges of the cover a little scuffed. (984 pages). This is a heavy book, over 1.1kg so there will be an extra postage charge.

Seller Inventory # 4604

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Collected Letters
• Publisher: U.K / Paladin
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0586085785
• ISBN 13: 9780586085783
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • LITERARY BIOGRAPHY & ASSORTED
  • POETRY
  • BRITISH HISTORY

About this title

Synopsis

Dylan Thomas's letters bring the poet and his times to life in a way that almost no biography can. First published by J. M. Dent in 1985, Thomas's Collected Letters received exceptional reviews, both for the scholarship of the editor, and for the quality of the collection. This new edition will bring the letters back into print at a time when interest is renewed in the life of this exceptional writer. The letters begin in the poet's schooldays, and end just before his death in New York at the age of 39. In between, he loved, wrote, drank, begged and borrowed his way through a flamboyant life. He was an enthusiastic critic of other writers' work and the letters are full of his thoughts on his own work and on his friends, as well as unguarded and certainly unpolitical comments on the work of his contemporaries - T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender among others. ('Spender should be kicked...Day-Lewis hissed in public and have his balls beaten with a toffee hammer') More than a hundred new letters have been added since Paul Ferris edited the first edition of the Collected Letters in 1985. They cast Thomas's adolescence in Swansea and his love affair with Caitlin into sharper focus. Thomas's letters tell a remarkable story, each letter taking the reader a little further along the path of the poet's self-destruction, but written with such verve and lyricism that somehow the reader's sympathies never quite abandon him.

About the Author

Paul Ferris was born in Swansea in 1929. He is the author of an acclaimed biography of Dylan Thomas, reissued by Dent in 1999. He lives in Wales and London. Paul Ferris was born in Swansea in 1929. He is the author of an acclaimed biography of Caitlin Thomas and the editor of The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas (Dent).