An accessible introduction to the life and work of the inventive Welsh poet.
 
Dylan Thomas—author of some of the century’s greatest poetry, stories, and film scripts as well as one of the greatest radio features ever broadcast, Under Milk Wood—is often characterized as self-indulgent. This concise and up-to-date biography challenges this depiction with a fresh portrait of the artist as a consummate professional. John Goodby and Chris Wigginton locate the source of Thomas’s daring and inventive style in the poet’s Anglo-Welsh origins as well as his historical, cultural, and social contexts: the Great Depression and 1930s literary London, surrealism, World War II, and Cold War popular culture. The result is a revealing and fresh introduction to the life and work of this important Welsh writer.

John Goodby is professor of arts and culture at Sheffield Hallam University. The leading authority on Dylan Thomas, he has written extensively on his work and edited his Collected Poems. Chris Wigginton is pro-vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. His books include Modernism from the Margins: The 1930’s Poetry of Louis MacNeice and Dylan Thomas.