Keeping Dylan Thomas’s Legacy Alive

Yousif Al Hamadi
The Welsh culture has been defined by its relationship with literature since the middle ages. Poets such
as Aneirin and Taliesin were honoring their Welsch poetic form in battles and wars by depicting tragedy
and defeats in their writing. Many famous and notable figures were born and raised in the region of
Swansea, and perhaps the most famous one during the 20th century was the poet and script writer
Dylan Thomas. His dedication to his writing has become of great interest noted by different institutions
and individuals in Swansea and overseas to honor and preserve his work in order to keep his legacy
alive.

I
t is easy to be aware of Thomas’s talent in Swansea. His name is printed on street signs, his photo is
drawn as graffiti over electricity boxes, his signature is printed on posters of events, and his statue
became a landmark next to the Swansea Marina. Swansea Council Literature Officer, Jo Furber, said
“Dylan Thomas’s story is an inspiration for young people and from a tourism point view he is important
because of the visitors he brings to Swansea”.

Professor John Goodby, a world authority on Dylan Thomas said, “For many years, the official policy was
to ignore him - he was seen as disreputable, a person who gave the town a bad image. When it became
clear, in the 1990s, that he had a tourist value, official attitudes changed and the Council supported the
creation of the Dylan Thomas Centre (the house of literature) in Swansea”. Thomas famed the world
over for his outrageous drunken behavior, but his poetry was always very lyrical, beautiful, and has its
own rhythm.

The people of Swansea found that Thomas can give Swansea some attention from the rest of Wales, the
UK, and internationally. In Goodby’s latest book, Discovering Dylan Thomas (2017), he said “Dylan
Thomas’s industry has changed”. While it used to consist of enthusiastic amateurs, who had at least
read Thomas's writings, it is now dominated by a small group of businessmen who run the Dylan
Thomas Society, which they use as a way of promoting their commercial interests locally. Swansea has
made great efforts in making Thomas’s poetry famous, but if this would have occurred in the peak of his
writing it would have restricted him to stay here. However, he left Swansea by the time he was twenty
since he had a love-hate relationship with the place, just as Swansea has had a love-hate relationship
with him.

Memories of Thomas’s childhood is evoked in his poetry such as in ‘Reminiscences of Childhood’, ‘The
Hunchback in the Park’, ‘An ugly, lovely town’, and ‘Fern Hill’. The last three lines of ‘Fern Hill’ are carved
on a stone in Cwmdonkin Park across the road from his birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive. The park
became famous because of its connection to Thomas, as part of his childhood, and as an inspiration in
his poems. Geoff Haden who owns the lease to the Dylan Thomas birthplace and leads tours in it said
“The house was taken by the City Council in 2000 and was advertised to the public in its horrifying
condition. It was the worst student bedsit. I negotiated with them and I took the house in 2005”. The
house has been restored to its previous condition of when the Thomas family lived there from 1914 to
1937 to give visitors the opportunity to feel engaged in the environment Dylan Thomas knew, and
where he wrote two thirds of his work. The house was awarded as one of the Best Places to Stay by
Hudson’s Heritage Awards 2017.

Thomas used to hang out with a circle of young artists and writers such as Fred Janes, Thomas Warner,
and John Prichard during the 1930s at the Kardomah café on Castle Street in Swansea, where they
would discuss art and politics. Goodby said “Thomas was the most successful one between the
Kardomah boys because he created a new poetic style – something which was very rare, since most
poets adapt a version of an already existing one”. He did this by the time he was nineteen, “in relative
isolation from the literary world, which was an astonishing achievement”. Unfortunately, the whole
street was bombed in 1941 during the Second World War, yet the Kardomah café re-opened later in
1954 at a different location in Swansea City Center.

The Dylan Thomas’s centenary celebration in 2014 returned Thomas’s legacy to the most. Different
books and biographies were published in the same year such as The Three Lives of Dylan Thomas by Hilly
Janes, The Code of Night by David Holbrook, and Dylan Thomas By Walford Davies. Additionally, The
Dylan Thomas Centre opened an exhibition called Love the Words, which tells the story of Thomas’s life,
work and cultural context, from his birth to his death in New York. “It has art, photography, manuscripts,
films, and lots of audio” Furber said. “The exhibition has original worksheets showing his process of
creating poems. Another very different and eye-catching item is his suit which he was wearing in New
York in 1953”.

“Swansea University is complicit in using Dylan Thomas as a way of selling itself to the outside world. It
works with the society, booksellers, and the Council to further its own interests,” Goodby said. The
university is the chief sponsor of the International Dylan Thomas Prize which was launched in 2006 to be
one of the most admired awards for young writers, aiming to encourage talents worldwide. The award is
£30,000 to the best published or produced literary work in the English language, and should be written
by an author under 40 years old. Dylan Thomas was suited to serve as an inspiration to the new
generation of young writers to emulate the quality of Thomas’s writing to never be lost.

It's important to understand that there is no single Welsh culture and identity. It's mixed, hybrid, plural.
And this is one of the reasons why Thomas is such an important writer. Goodby said, “Dylan Thomas’s
work is opposed to purity of identity. Like the term 'Anglo-Welsh' it's hyphenated, mongrel, and mixed”.
The energy of Thomas’s work comes from the fact that it includes cultures, languages, and
environments. The poems that best represent this aspect are some of the early ones as 'I see the boys of
summer', 'The force that through the green fuse', and 'I, in my intricate image'. Poems written later also
dealt with those aspect such as 'Over Sir John's hill', and 'In the White Giant's Thigh'.

Thomas spent most of his life in London and in North America. Memories of him are treated overseas
similarly to the way it is treated in Swansea. The University of Buffalo’s Library in New York State has a
wide variety of formats and other resources of digital collections of Dylan Thomas’s work to support the
teaching and learning activities of the university’s faculty and students. This allows them access to items
that may be rare, fragile, or delicate to be handled by the public. The Harry Ransom Center at the
University of Texas in Austin also has a significant digitized collection of 8,000 artefacts. In addition, his
apartment at Hotel Chelsea in New York where he died has been saved for posterity and can still be
visited.

The main person who is linking all these institutions and individuals is Hannah Ellis, Thomas’s
granddaughter. She is the creative director of his statue, runs his official website, the president of the
society, is involved in the annual prize competition, consultant for his exhibition at the Dylan Thomas
Center, and is integral to institutions overseas. Hannah Ellis along with multiple organizations and fans
worldwide are diligently making it one of their life passions to keep the legacy of Dylan Thomas alive.