E. W. Tedlock

"Dylan Thomas's life and work have made him a legendary figure since he died, amid alcohol and debts, in New York at the age of thirty-nine. At the heart of his achievement are a few dozen poems and stories which, together with the romantic comedy Under Milk Wood, haunt the imagination and give his writing a broader appeal than he could have envisaged. Beyond his writing is the chequered figure of the poet himself: often comic, at times in despair, always self-obsessed, in the end defeated by his own nature." "Paul Ferris's classic biography has been recognised as the standard life since it first appeared in 1977. He has now drawn on fresh material to revise the book. In particular, he looks again at Thomas's marriage to the fiery Caitlin, and finds in it the seeds of a fatal dependence."--BOOK JACKET.

This book focuses more on the work rather than on the author. Yet because Lawrence's fiction is so personal, so intensely felt, it reflects the man and the artist. Biographical insights are gained through Lawrence the writer, the Midlands intellectual, the world-traveling Bohemian and controversial firebrand. Lawrence's highly individual vitalistic philosophy, at wa with "anti-life" forces, emerges here clearly. With prophetic instinct, Lawrence's imagination led him to project both fascism and socialism conclusively.