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Dylan Thomas:

An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



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Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Creator: Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953
Title: Dylan Thomas Collection
Dates: 1920-1991
Extent: 28 document boxes, 1 oversize box, 10 galley folders, 2 oversize folders (13.34 linear feet)
Abstract: The collection of Welsh poet and dramatist Dylan Thomas consists of manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, drawings, financial records, photographs, proofs, and broadcast scripts.
RLIN Record #: TXRC06-A2
Language: English

Administrative Information

Acquisition:

Purchases and gifts, 1960-2006

Processed by:

Amanda Price, 2006

Restrictions

Access:

Open for research

Biographical Sketch

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in the Uplands district of Swansea, Wales, on October 27, 1914. Before his birth, Thomas's parents, David John (D. J.) and Florence Hannah, had moved to the primarily Anglophone suburb from rural Welsh-speaking Carmarthenshire. Although both D. J. and Florence were bilingual, they raised Dylan and his sister Nancy to speak only English, even sending the children to elocution lessons.

Dylan was an unremarkable student at the local grammar school in Swansea where his father taught English. Given unlimited access to his father's library at home, however, he engaged a precocious interest in English literature and began composing poetry, publishing some of it in school magazines. At sixteen, he left school to work for the local evening paper as a reporter. Journalism proved an unsuitable occupation for Thomas, and he quit the following year.

Between the ages of sixteen and twenty, Thomas kept a series of notebooks (now at the Lockwood Memorial Library in Buffalo) in which he developed the challenging and dense style of his earliest adult poetry. As a teenager his poems were published in New Verse and in the Sunday Referee's " Poets' Corner." In 1934, Thomas received the " Poets' Corner" Prize, an award that included the publication of a first book of poetry.

During the mid-1930s--the years between the publication of his first two volumes of poetry, 18 Poems (1934) and Twenty-five Poems (1936)--Thomas embedded himself in the London artistic scene, earning a reputation as a poet, drinker, and storyteller. Sometime in 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara, an aspiring dancer and former mistress of the painter Augustus John. The following year they eloped in Penzance, Cornwall. The couple were penniless and often lived off the money and housing they could borrow from family and friends. Shortly before Caitlin learned she was pregnant with their first child, Llewelyn, they moved to the Carmarthenshire fishing village of Laugharne.

During the war years, Thomas managed to avoid military service, probably on medical grounds. He moved between Laugharne and London, having secured work as a scriptwriter for Donald Taylor's Strand Films, a contractor for the Ministry of Information. Thomas's lifestyle in wartime London was relatively controlled and predictable; for the first time since his teenage foray into journalism, he was earning a steady income.

Following the war, however, Thomas's life became more chaotic. Deaths and Entrances (1946), a pocket-sized volume of poems in a more accessible style, was an immediate success. Despite this, Thomas's domestic life grew more problematic: he and Caitlin were struggling to support two children (daughter Aeronwy was born in 1943), and the pair's relationship was becoming increasingly dysfunctional. Thomas no longer had the steady income from his wartime documentaries, and he began to rely instead on income from scriptwriting for feature films and radio broadcasts for the BBC. In 1949, the Thomases moved back to Wales and into the Boat House, a property in Laugharne purchased for them by their benefactor Margaret Taylor. In July of that year, a third child, Colm, was born.

In 1949 John Malcolm Brinnin, director of the Poetry Center at the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association in New York, invited Thomas to visit the United States and cash in on his growing fame in America. He traveled there in 1950, giving readings at the Poetry Center and at college campuses as far west as San Francisco and Vancouver.

Three more American tours followed, one in 1952 and two in 1953. By this time, Thomas had been drafting for several years a play for voices about a day in the life of Llareggub, a fictional Welsh town with a backwards-reading name. During his third American tour, Thomas more or less finished the play, by then titled Under Milk Wood, and it was first performed on stage at Harvard University in May 1953. Under Milk Wood would posthumously become his best-known work.

Meanwhile, Thomas's health and marriage were deteriorating; years of heavy drinking were exacting a cumulative toll. As he began his fourth and final American tour in October 1953, his marriage appeared to be unsalvageable, and Thomas succumbed to despair. He began a regimen of self-destructive behavior, drinking copiously and often to the point of delirium. On November 4, after a doctor's well-intentioned but ultimately fatal injection of morphine, Thomas collapsed and fell into a coma. He died on November 9, 1953, at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City.

Sources:

Ferris, Paul. Dylan Thomas: The Biography. New York: Dial Press, 1977.

-----. " Thomas, Dylan Marlais (1914-1953)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com (accessed 24 July 2006).

Middleton, David E. "Dylan Thomas." Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, http://galenetgroup.com (accessed 22 March 2006).

Scope and Contents

The Dylan Thomas Collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, drawings, financial records, photographs, galley proofs, page proofs, and broadcast scripts. The collection is arranged in four series: I. Works, ca. 1920s to 1954 (8 boxes), II. Career-Related Materials and Personal Papers, ca. 1934-1953 (2 boxes), III. Correspondence, ca. 1935-1953 (2 boxes), and IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence, ca. 1930s-1991 (17 boxes). This collection was previously accessible through a card catalog but has been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project.

The collection contains a miscellany of works, correspondence, and personal papers. Present are manuscripts for a number of Thomas's best known works, including Under Milk Wood, " Poem on His Birthday," " Lament," " In the White Giant's Thigh," " Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," and " Elegy," the unfinished poem he was writing during the last year of his life. Also present are a selection of juvenilia, work for radio and film, and a significant body of correspondence from Thomas to his literary agents David Higham Associates. Series IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence contains material concerning Dylan Thomas, including works and correspondence of his wife Caitlin and letters sent between mutual friends immediately following his death. The bulk of this series documents the research processes of two of Thomas's early biographers, Constantine FitzGibbon and Bill Read. Located at the end of this guide are three indices: an Index of Correspondents, an Index of Works, and an Index of Works by Other Authors.

Elsewhere in the Ransom Center are sixty-four Vertical File folders containing material related to Thomas, including newspaper and magazine clippings, printed materials, announcements, posters, souvenirs, and playbills for productions of Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas Growing Up, and the Group Theatre's Homage to Dylan Thomas.

The Literary Files of the Photography Collection contain more than 280 photographs related to Thomas. Included are portraits of Dylan and Caitlin, their children, other family members, friends, and associates, as well as photographic reproductions of sketches by Thomas, scenes from a production of Under Milk Wood, and views of Laugharne, Wales.

The Art Collection's holdings under Thomas's name contain doodles, cartoons, self-portraits, portraits, and sculpture, including twenty-seven works by Thomas and depictions of Thomas by Michael Ayrton, Robert Colquhoun, Rosa Freedman, Gordon T. Stuart, Oloff de Wet, and Gordon Ziegler. One painting by an unidentified artist depicts the house of novelist Constantine FitzGibbon, one of Thomas's biographers. Depictions of Thomas can also be found in the art collections of Zdzislaw Czermanski, Mervyn Levy, Ivan Oppfer, and Oloff de Wet.

Related Material

Additional materials relating to Dylan Thomas may be found in the following manuscript collections at the Ransom Center:

Other collections of Dylan Thomas manuscripts are housed at the Lockwood Memorial Library at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Harvard University's Houghton Library, the New York Public Library, the British Library, and the National Library of Wales.

Index Terms

People

Davenport, John, 1908-1966
David Higham Associates, Ltd.
Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965
FitzGibbon, Constantine, 1919-
Jones, Daniel
McAlpine, Helen
Read, Bill, 1917-
Sitwell, Edith, Dame, 1887-1964
Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971

Subjects

English poetry
Poets, Welsh. 20th century

Document Types

Cartoons (humorous images)
Drawings
Galley proofs
Juvenilia
Negatives
Photographs
Postcards
Scripts

Container List

Series I. Works, ca. 1920s-1954

Series I. Works, ca. 1920s to 1954 (8 boxes)

Series I. Works is composed of Thomas's poetry, fiction, criticism, radio plays, broadcast scripts, and film scripts. Materials are arranged alphabetically by title. An Index of Works, arranged by title, is available at the end of this guide.

In cases where no single title applies and a descriptive title was imposed by the original cataloger for the card catalog records--for instance, [Six poems sent to the Baron Howard de Walden], [Parodies], and [Poems: 16 corrected typescripts]--those titles have been preserved and are indicated in brackets. In instances where changes have been made to the naming of works or where the original title has been replaced by a more accurate one, there is a cross-reference from the previous title to the new one in the Index of Works.

Poetry in the Works series includes drafts, workings, and handwritten manuscripts of "In Country Heaven," "In Country Sleep," and "Poem on His Birthday"; a revised manuscript of "In the White Giant's Thigh"; miscellaneous handwritten workings and fragments of "Lament"; handwritten manuscripts of "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"; and a handwritten manuscript and typescript of "Prologue." Also present are more than seventy pages of drafts, fragments, and workings for "Elegy," the poem Thomas was drafting at the time of his death.

Also notable among the poetry in this collection is a selection of juvenilia, representing some of Thomas's earliest poetic output. There are four fair copies in the hand of his mother Florence-- "Little Dreams," "The Mishap," "My Party," and "The Secret Whisky Cure"--and five presumably later pieces in Thomas's own hand-- "The Maniac," "Decision," "Inspirations," "Five Limericks," and "La Danseuse." Each of these poems is filed under its individual title.

Materials related to Under Milk Wood, Thomas's play for voices, include extensive notes, workings, outlines, and an incomplete early draft, along with a revised manuscript. Several printed scripts from posthumous productions of the play are also present. There are also manuscripts for the radio play "The Town That Was Mad," an early version of Under Milk Wood. Elsewhere in the collection, in Series IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence, there is a program by the for the production of Under Milk Wood at the Poetry Center of the YM-YWHA.

Dylan Thomas's prolific work for the radio is present in handwritten manuscripts, notes, and annotated scripts for a number of BBC broadcasts and reminiscences, including "Home Town--Swansea," "Laugharne," and "Welsh Poetry." Work for the broadcast "The International Eisteddfod" is present in several stages, including the BBC press pass and notebook Thomas carried with him at the poetry festival in Llangollen, Wales, in the summer of 1953. Also present is a group of nine scripts with notes in the hand of radio producer Aneirin Talfan Davies. Davies's revisions also appear in the typescript for Quite Early One Morning, the collection of Thomas broadcasts he compiled and published in 1954.

Thomas's work on film scripts is well represented and includes several manuscripts for The Beach of Falesá, his 1948 Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation. Also present are revised page proofs of The Doctor and the Devils and scripts for wartime documentaries written for the Ministry of Information, Our Country and The Unconquerable People.

Manuscripts resulting from the collaboration between Thomas and his Swansea friend Daniel Jones include four poetry notebooks featuring work under the joint pseudonym Walter Bram. Other pieces include "W. B. C. (Warmley Broadcasting Company)," "Voiceless Frolic," and "Musical and Literary recital." "Bismuth"--a script embellished by bawdy doodles--was composed sometime after 1950, according to Jones's explanatory notes that accompanied the original acquisition.

Prose fiction is represented in the collection in the manuscripts and workings for several of his stories, including "The Fight," "In the Direction of the Beginning," and "A Story." Also present is the revised typescript of The Death of the King's Canary, a comic detective novel written jointly by Thomas and his friend John Davenport. The typescript dates from the summer of 1940, when Dylan and Caitlin stayed at Marshfield, Davenport's country home.

BoxFolder
1 1 A-C
2 Adventures in the Skin Trade (stories), handwritten draft fragments with revisions, nd, 2pp
3 The art of conversation (lecture intended for broadcast), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 22pp
4 "Ballad of the long-legged bait" (poem), handwritten book version executed by W. Emlyn Davies, 1946, 16pp
The Beach of Falesá (film script based on story by Robert Louis Stevenson)
BoxFolder
1 5 Typed carbon copy title page with handwritten revision, 1948, 1p; handwritten fragment with revision, 1948, 1p
6 Handwritten manuscript with revisions and insert, 1948, 62pp; contains latter half of script
7 Incomplete carbon copy typescript with revision on one attached sheet, 1948, 64pp; contains latter half of script
8 Carbon copy typescript (revised version), 1948, 74pp
Folder
* Composite handwritten and carbon copy typed manuscript (137pp) with inserts (3pp), 1948 (*bound volume, removed to Box 26)
BoxFolder
1 9 Bismuth (play by Dylan Thomas and Daniel Jones), handwritten manuscript in small exercise book with drawings by Thomas and Jones, nd, 22pp
Broadcasts (see also Quite Early One Morning)
BoxFolder
1 10 A-Z
11 [Broadcasts], nine mimeo scripts, some with handwritten notes and revisions by Aneirin Talfan Davies, 1949-1953
12 " The Festival Exhibition," two mimeo scripts with revisions, 1951, 8pp
13 "Home town--Swansea" (also known as "A painter's studio"), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 6pp; handwritten draft fragments with revisions, nd, 8pp
"The International Eisteddfod"
BoxFolder
1 14 Handwritten notes in notebook, 1953, 19pp
Folder
* Handwritten notes and drafts, nd, 24pp; included with this: printed version (*bound volume, removed to Box 28)
BoxFolder
1 15 Handwritten manuscript with author revisions, insertion, and notes by Aneirin Talfan Davies, nd, 5pp
"Laugharne"
BoxFolder
1 16 Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 2pp; included with this: mimeo script with notes by Aneirin Talfan Davies
Folder
* Handwritten notes and drafts with revisions, nd, 9pp; included with this: mimeo broadcast version (*bound volume, removed to Box 29)
BoxFolder
1 17 " Spoon River Anthology," handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 7pp
   
2 1 "Three poems" (also known as "Poetry programme"), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 4pp; mimeo script, 1950, 15pp
"A visit to America"
BoxFolder
2 2 Handwritten notes with revisions ( 'Notes toward a synthesis'), nd, 6pp; included with this: printed version
3 Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 9pp; included with this: mimeo broadcast script with handwritten notes by Aneirin Talfan Davies
"Welsh poetry"
BoxFolder
2 4 Composite handwritten and mimeo script with revisions, 1946, 14pp
5 Mimeo script inscribed to John Arlott, 1946, 24pp
6 "Wilfred Owen," composite handwritten and typed manuscript with revisions and annotation, nd, 5pp; mimeo script with director's revisions inscribed by Thomas to John Arlott, 1946, 14pp
7 Chard Witlow (verse parody), handwritten manuscript with handwritten note by T. S. Eliot, nd, 2pp
8 Collected Poems, typed manuscript with printer's marks, 1952, 15pp
9 "A conversation about Christmas" (story), handwritten manuscript with revisions, 1947, 16pp
10 D-H
11 The death of the king's canary (novel by Dylan Thomas and John Davenport), typescript with both authors' handwritten revisions, 1940-1941, 138pp
12 "Deaths and entrances" (poem), composite handwritten and typed manuscript with revisions, nd, 5pp
13 "Do not go gentle into that good night" (poem)
Handwritten manuscript, nd, 2pp
Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 1p; included with these: handwritten copy in unidentified hand; carbon copy typescript of Rashad Rushdy's Arabic translation
BoxFolder
2 14 The Doctor and the Devils (film script), page proofs with handwritten revisions, 1953, 139pp
"Elegy" (poem)
BoxFolder
3 1 Handwritten workings, nd, 1p
Handwritten drafts and workings, nd, 4pp
Handwritten draft fragment with revisions, 1953, 2pp
BoxFolder
3 2 Handwritten drafts and workings with revisions, nd, 52pp on 32 leaves and 20pp in notebook
3 "Fern Hill" (poem), handwritten manuscript, 1946, 1p
4 "The fight"(story), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 20pp
5 "How to be a poet" (article), handwritten manuscript with revisions, [1949], 12pp; included with this: handwritten explanatory note by John Davenport
6 I-J
7 "In country heaven" (poem)
Handwritten drafts and workings, nd, 18pp
Handwritten draft with revisions, nd, 1p
Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 2pp
BoxFolder
3 8 "In country sleep" (poem)
Handwritten manuscript, nd, 5pp; on verso: handwritten fragments of "Lament"
Handwritten fair copy manuscript in exercise book, 1947, 14pp
Handwritten manuscript with revisions, 1947, 7pp; included with this: final typescript with printer's notes
Handwritten manuscript, 1948, 2pp
Printed version with handwritten corrections, nd, 4pp
BoxFolder
3 9 "In the direction of the beginning" (story), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 15pp
"In the white giant's thigh" (poem)
BoxFolder
3 10 Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 140pp (variant versions)
11 Handwritten manuscript, nd, 4pp, with author's handwritten note regarding composition of the poem, nd, 3pp
Handwritten fair copy manuscript, 1950, 5pp
BoxFolder
3 12 L
13 "Lament" (poem), miscellaneous handwritten workings and fragments, nd, 52pp total; included with these: photocopies of handwritten worksheets, nd, 4pp
14 Lectures
   
4 1 M-O
2 "On a wedding anniversary" (poem), bound handwritten manuscript, nd, 1p
3 "Once below a time" (poem), handwritten manuscript, nd, 1p
4 Our Country (film script), handwritten manuscript with carbon copy typescript page and handwritten notes, 1944, 11pp
5 P
6 [Parodies], miscellaneous handwritten manuscripts, nd, 5pp
"Poem on his birthday" (poem)
BoxFolder
4 7 Miscellaneous handwritten manuscripts, drafts, and workings, nd, 30pp total; included with this: printed version with author's handwritten revisions, nd, 3pp
Folder
* Handwritten drafts and workings with revisions, nd, 107pp (includes final draft) (*bound volume, removed to Box 26)
BoxFolder
4 8 [Poems: 16 corrected typescripts], typescripts with handwritten revisions, 1933, 18pp
9 [ Poetic manifesto]
Handwritten draft with revisions, nd, 8pp
Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 9pp; included with this: list of questions in unidentified hand
BoxFolder
4 10 Poetic workings and fragments
Poetry notebooks (see also Voiceless frolic by Walter Bram and These vines of star by Walter Bram)
BoxFolder
4 11 [Poems by Walter Bram], handwritten manuscript in the hand of Daniel Jones, nd, 29pp
12 [Poetry notebook I of Walter Bram], handwritten manuscript in the hands of Dylan Thomas and Daniel Jones, nd, 24pp
13 [Poetry notebook II of Walter Bram], handwritten manuscript in the hands of Dylan Thomas and Daniel Jones, nd (one item dated 1929), 23pp
14 [Poetry notebook], handwritten workings signed by Dylan and Caitlin Thomas, 1949 and 1951, approx. 63pp
"Prologue" (poem)
BoxFolder
4 15 Handwritten manuscript with pencil markings and note, 1952, 2pp
16 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 2pp; included with this: facsimiles of three manuscripts
   
5 1* Quite Early One Morning (collection of broadcasts), typescript with handwritten notes and revisions by Aneirin Talfan Davies and printer's markings, 1954, 122pp (*some items removed to galley folder)
2 R-S
3 The Shadowless Man (film script), handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 26pp
4 [Six poems sent to the Baron Howard de Walden], handwritten manuscript and typescripts with revisions, nd, 9pp total; included with this: handwritten letter by Thomas to Lord Howard, 1940, 2pp
5 "A story" (story)
Handwritten draft fragment with revisions, nd, 2pp
Handwritten notes and drafts, nd, 26pp total; included with this: printed version
BoxFolder
5 6 T-Z
7 These vines of star by Walter Bram (poem), notebook in the hand of Daniel Jones, nd, 22pp
The town that was mad (radio play, early version of Under Milk Wood)
BoxFolder
5 8 Handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 8pp
9 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 19pp with 1 insertion; mimeo typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 18pp
10 The Unconquerable People (film script), handwritten manuscript with revisions, 1944, 7pp; included with this: handwritten letter from Thomas to Donald Taylor, 1944, 2pp
Under Milk Wood (radio play)
BoxFolder
6 1 Miscellaneous handwritten drafts and notes, nd, 5pp total
2 [Notes, scenes, ideas, etc.], handwritten notes with revisions, nd, 54pp
3 [Notes, suggestions, outlines], handwritten notes with revisions, nd, 43pp
4 [Incomplete early draft], handwritten manuscript with revisions, nd, 44pp
Folder
* Handwritten manuscript with revisions and three typed pages, nd, 163pp (*bound volume, removed to Box 28)
BoxFolder
6 5 Photostat of typescript with handwritten inserts and revisions, nd, 74pp total
6 Mimeo script with corrections in unidentified hand, 1954, 72pp (signed by principal actors)
7 Mimeo script signed by Louis MacNeice, nd, 70pp
8 Bound mimeo script, 1954, 42pp (shortened version submitted for the Italia Prize; on verso of these pages: Au bois lacte, the French translation by Jacques B. Bruncius)
   
7 1-3 Three mimeo scripts with handwritten notes by Douglas Cleverdon, 1954
4 Mimeo script, nd, 72pp (script for BBC Third Programme broadcast produced by Douglas Cleverdon, 1954 January 25)
5 Intill Mjolkhagen (Swedish translation by Thomas Warburton), mimeo script, nd, 72pp
6 Voiceless frolic by Walter Bram (poem), notebook in the hand of Daniel Jones, nd, 28pp
7 Unidentified and untitled poems
8 [Untitled early poems], two handwritten manuscripts with revisions written in a printed copy of Osbert Sitwell's Argonaut and Juggernaut, nd and 1931, 1p each


Series II. Career-Related Materials and Personal Papers, ca. 1934-1953

Series II. Career-Related Materials and Personal Papers, ca. 1934-1953 (2 boxes)

The materials in Series II. deal primarily with Thomas's private life and with the details of his tours and public appearances. Items here range from the mundane (scraps and jottings) to the highly personal (documents concerning Thomas's death while on tour and the subsequent removal of his body from New York). Career-related materials include fair copies of others' poems from which Thomas read at public performances, a contract with Harper's Bazaar, and date and address books from his first two American lecture tours in 1950 and 1952. Filed under the generic title Notes and Lists is a variety of items of interest, including a betting slip, lists of words used by Thomas while composing poetry, and mock recital programs. Several amusing self-portraits and caricatures by Thomas are filed under Drawings.

BoxFolder
7 9 Bill for operation on Aeronwy Thomas, typed invoice, 1953
10 Date book, handwritten notebook, 1946
11 Documents concerning his death, 1953
12 Drawings
Dylan and Caitlin Thomas, pencil sketch, nd, 1p
Queen Edith Sitwell and Princess Marianne Moore on their first meeting, facsimile, 1952 (date of original)
Self portrait, pencil sketch, nd
Self caricature sketched on dust wrapper of 18 Poems, nd
BoxFolder
7 13 Exemption certificate, printed form, signed, 1949-1951
14 Goodwin, Ernest, The Devil among the Skins, printed book with handwritten notes by Dylan Thomas and Richard Hughes; included with this: handwritten workings on verso of letter from Laurence Pollinger to Thomas, typed revisions, typed fragment of script, and copy of program
15 Income tax return for third American tour, printed form, signed, with handwritten list in unidentified hand, 1953
   
8 1 Memories of Early Days, agreement for purchase of literary material between Harper's Bazaar and Dylan Thomas, nd
2 [Notebook: 1941], handwritten notebook, 1941, 22pp
3 Notes and lists (includes facsimiles)
Folder
* Personal records of his two lecture tours, two handwritten date and address books, 1950 and 1952 (*bound volumes, removed to Box 27)
BoxFolder
8 4 Poems by others, fair copies in the hand of Dylan Thomas
Folder
* Poems read at his public performances, handwritten copies of 81 poems with handwritten notes (*bound volume, removed to Box 29)


Series III. Correspondence, ca. 1935-1953
Series III. Correspondence, ca. 1935-1953 (2 boxes)

Outgoing correspondence comprises all but one of the folders in this series. Letters and unfinished drafts from Thomas to a variety of correspondents are present, most notably the more than 120 letters from Thomas to his literary agents David Higham Associates, and approximately forty pieces of correspondence to John Davenport. Other recipients include Caitlin Thomas, Daniel Jones, T. S. Eliot, Theodore Roethke, Wyn Henderson, Geoffrey Grigson, and Margaret Taylor. Included among the incoming correspondence are letters from Igor Stravinsky, Sarah Caldwell, and David Higham. Both outgoing and incoming correspondence are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. An Index of Correspondents is located at the end of this guide.

Outgoing, ca. 1935-1953
BoxFolder
8 5 A-F
6-8 Davenport, John
9 David Higham Associates, Ltd.
10 G-J
11 Grigson, Geoffrey
   
9 1 K-R
2 S-Z
3 Taylor, Margaret
4 Unidentified recipient
Drafts, never sent
BoxFolder
9 5 [Letters of 25 August 1953], handwritten drafts
6 [Nine letters], handwritten drafts, 1953
7 Incoming, 1952-1953


Series IV. Third-Party Works & Correspondence, ca. 1930s-1991

Series IV. Third-Party Works and Correspondence, ca. 1930s-1991 (17 boxes)

Occupying seventeen boxes, the fourth series of the Dylan Thomas Collection is the largest. Materials are arranged alphabetically by primary author or correspondent. Third-party correspondence is indexed in the Index of Correspondents, and a separate index of third-party works, arranged alphabetically by author, is available at the end of this guide.

The manuscripts and research materials of Thomas's biographer Constantine FitzGibbon comprise the bulk of the fourth series. These include the notes, handwritten manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs for both The Life of Dylan Thomas (1965) and Selected Letters of Dylan Thomas (1966). There are several boxes of transcripts and photocopies of Dylan Thomas correspondence used by FitzGibbon while writing Selected Letters, including correspondence not published in the final version. Also present are research photocopies of manuscripts whose originals are elsewhere, including extracts from the diary of Pamela Hansford Johnson, an early Thomas love interest, as well as photocopies of Dylan Thomas manuscripts obtained by FitzGibbon from the British Museum.

Series IV. also contains the research materials of Bill Read, boyfriend of John Malcolm Brinnin at the time of Thomas's American tours. This includes correspondence from a variety of persons in Wales, England, and the United States who knew Thomas, often interfiled with carbon copies of Read's letters to them. Correspondents include Caitlin Thomas, Bert Trick, Pamela Hansford Johnson, and Thomas's mother-in-law Yvonne Macnamara. The notes and typescript for The Days of Dylan Thomas (1964), the work that resulted from Read's extensive research, are also present. The revised typescript of John Malcolm Brinnin's Dylan Thomas in America (1955) is also located in this series, filed under Brinnin's name.

The materials of Bill and Helen McAlpine, close friends of the Thomases, can be found in this series as well. Since the Ransom Center acquired the McAlpine papers relatively recently, they remained uncataloged until now. Included with letters from Caitlin Thomas to Helen are an undated photograph of Caitlin, letters from Dylan to Helen, and from Caitlin to Dylan, as well as three undated poems by Caitlin. Revealing letters sent to the McAlpines from other friends--including George Reavey, John Davenport, and Margaret Taylor--offer an intimate glimpse into the shock that immediately followed Thomas's sudden death. Also present is an album of twenty snapshots, sixteen with original negatives, of Dylan, Caitlin, Dylan's parents, and the McAlpines.

The manuscripts of Caitlin Thomas filed under her own name include the typescripts for her memoirs Leftover Life to Kill (1957) and Not Quite Posthumous Letter to My Daughter (1963). There is also a handwritten manuscript of a poem signed by Caitlin entitled "Self Portrait."

Manuscripts of Dylan's mother Florence Thomas include letters to BBC documentary producer John Ormond and a datebook in which she notes the deaths of her husband, daughter, and son--events that occurred within the span of one year.

Filed under the Dylan Thomas Memorial Fund are materials relating to the recital Homage to Dylan Thomas at the Globe Theatre in January 1954. Included are manuscripts of tributes by Cyril Connolly and Edith Sitwell; correspondence between the editor and anthologist Leonard Russell (organizer of the tribute) and Edith Sitwell, T. S. Eliot, Daniel Jones, Richard Burton, and others; a handwritten note by Augustus John concerning his portrait of Thomas; and a copy of the program, inscribed to Russell by the producers and signed by Augustus John and Louis MacNeice.

BoxFolder
10 1 A-D
2 Ap Ivor, Denis, Cantata, handwritten musical score, 1951, 154pp
3-4 Brinnin, John Malcolm, Dylan Thomas in America, typescript with handwritten author revisions and printer's marks and notes, 1955, approx. 300pp
5 Campbell, Roy
6 Davenport, John
* Davies, Aneirin Talfan, [Untitled article on Dylan Thomas], galley proofs, nd, 3pp (*removed to galley folder)
7* Dylan Thomas Memorial Fund, Papers relating to raising money for funds and production of Homage to Dylan Thomas, 1953-1956 (*some items removed to galley folder)
8 E-L
   
11 1 Firmage, George J., A Garland for Dylan Thomas, page proofs, 1963, 187pp
FitzGibbon, Constantine
Works
BoxFolder
11 2 A-Z
The Life of Dylan Thomas
BoxFolder
11 3-4 Handwritten notes and notebooks, nd
5 Handwritten and typed notes, nd
6-7 Handwritten manuscript, nd, approx. 500pp
   
12 1 Handwritten manuscript, continued
2 Typed and carbon copy drafts, some with handwritten revisions, nd
3-5 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 548pp
6 Carbon copy typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 548pp
   
13 1 Carbon copy typescript, continued
2 Incomplete carbon copy typescript, nd, pp 251-529
* Galley proof fragments, 1965 (*removed to galley folder)
* Two sets of galley proofs, one lacking title page, 1965 (*removed to galley folder)
* Galley proofs of first American edition (*removed to galley folder)
* Corrected galley proofs, 1965; included with this: proof of John Davenport's review of Bill Read's The Days of Dylan Thomas in the Spectator, 1965 (*removed to galley folder)
3 Uncorrected page proofs, 1965
Selected Letters of Dylan Thomas
BoxFolder
13 4 Handwritten notes, nd
Carbon copy transcripts and photocopies of Dylan Thomas correspondence with some related correspondence (includes letters not featured in the published work)
BoxFolder
13 5 1931-1933
6 1934
   
14 1 1935
2 1936
3 1937-1938
4 1939
5 1940
6 1941-1942
7 1943-1944
8 1945
9 1946
10 1947
11 1948
12 1949
13 1950
14 1951
15 1952
16 1953
   
15 1 A-B
2 Brinnin, John Malcolm
3 C
4 Caetani, Marguerite
5 Church, Richard
6 D
7 E-F
8 G-H
9 Higham, David
10 Hughes, Trevor
11 J
   
16 1 K-N
2 Laughlin, James
3 O-R
4 S-T
5 Spender, Stephen
6-7 Thomas, Caitlin
8 Thomas, Florence and D. J.
9 Treece, Henry
10 W-X
   
17 1 Williams, Oscar
2 Handwritten introduction and commentary, nd, approx. 250pp
3-7 Typescript with handwritten revisions, printer's notes, and a few photocopies of letters, 1966, 926pp
   
18 1-2 Typescript, continued
* Galley proofs, 1966 (*removed to galley folder)
3-4 Page proofs, 1966, 427pp
5 Two incomplete page proofs, 1966, 126pp each
Research materials concerning Dylan Thomas
BoxFolder
18 6 A-Z
7 Johnson, Pamela Hansford, diary extracts, photocopies, 1933-1935
8 Lindsay, Jack, "Memories of Dylan Thomas," carbon copy typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 36pp
Thomas, Dylan
BoxFolder
19 1 A-Z
2 British Museum manuscript materials, photocopies, nd, 79pp
Broadcasts
BoxFolder
19 3 A-O
4 P-R
5 S-Z
6 Income tax accounts for 1953-1959 sent to the trustees of Dylan Thomas, two sets of photocopies, 19pp each
7 [Lists of broadcasts, recordings and films by Dylan Thomas], typescript and carbon copy typescript with some photocopies, 1964 (related correspondence included)
8 Me and My Bike, uncorrected page proof, 1963, approx. 55pp
9 Miscellaneous correspondence (facsimiles)
10 Poems for readings, photostats, nd, 158pp
   
20 1-4 [Works and letters], photostats of various Thomas items, nd, 595pp
5 Unidentified and untitled works
6 Thompson, Kent, Dylan Thomas in Swansea, carbon copy typescript, nd, 155pp
7 Vaughan-Thomas, Wynford, "Dylan Thomas," two broadcast scripts, 1963, 81pp total
   
21 1 Heppenstall, Rayner
2* Jones, Daniel (*one item removed to oversize folder)
3 M-Z
McAlpine, Bill and Helen
BoxFolder
21 4-6 Letters from Caitlin Thomas; included with this: undated photograph of Caitlin, handwritten letter from Dylan to Helen McAlpine, handwritten note from Caitlin to Dylan, and three undated poems by Caitlin
7 Letters from various correspondents reporting Dylan Thomas's death and subsequent events
8 Typed transcripts of letters to the McAlpines, some with explanatory notes
9 Album of twenty photographs, sixteen with original negatives
   
22 1 Patmore, Derek, Tribute to Dylan Thomas, handwritten manuscript with revisions, 1953, 8pp
Read, Bill
Correspondence
BoxFolder
22 2 A-E
3 F-H
4 J-L
5 M
6 N-S
7 T-Z
8 Thomas, Caitlin
9 Trick, Albert E.
Works
The Days of Dylan Thomas
BoxFolder
23 1 Typed notes with handwritten revisions, nd, 5pp
2 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 165pp
Research materials concerning Dylan Thomas
BoxFolder
23 3 [Interviews with friends of Dylan Thomas], incomplete typescript, nd
4 Locke, Cordelia, "Dylan and Caitlin Thomas in Oxfordshire," typescript, nd, 27pp
5 Read, Jan, Preface to Beach of Falesá, photocopy of typescript, nd, 4pp
Trick, Albert E.
BoxFolder
23 6 A-Z
7 "The young Dylan Thomas," handwritten manuscript, nd, 78pp
8 Savage, Derek S.
9 Stravinsky, Igor
10 T-Z
Thomas, Caitlin
BoxFolder
24 1 Correspondence
Works
Leftover Life to Kill
BoxFolder
24 2-3 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 415pp
4-5 Typescript with handwritten revisions, nd, 301pp
6 Manila folders originally containing typescripts
Not Quite Posthumous Letter to My Daughter
BoxFolder
25 1-2 Composite typescript with handwritten revisions and layouts for preliminaries, nd, approx. 220pp
3 Manila folder originally containing typescript
* Galley proof with handwritten revisions, 1963 (*removed to galley folder)
4 Proof copy with handwritten corrections, 1963, 174pp
5 Self portrait (poem), handwritten manuscript, nd, 1p
6 Thomas, Florence
7 Tillinger, John, and James Hammerstein, Adventures in the Skin Trade (adaptation for musical theater), photocopy of typescript, 1991, 121pp
* Tindall, William York, A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas, typescript with handwritten revisions and inserts, 1961, 311pp (*bound volume, removed to Box 28)
8 Williams, Oscar
9 Unidentified author
 
26-29 Bound volumes


Index of Correspondents

[Unidentified authors]


[Unidentified recipients]


Index of Works

Identified Works


Unidentified and untitled works


Index of Works by Other Authors