Word: welshman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...year's obituary list, not even counting Joe Stalin and Bob Taft, was forbiddingly distinguished: Eugene O'Neill, the greatest playwright the U.S. had produced; Welshman Dylan Thomas, the best young poet in the English language; Sergei Prokofiev, Russia's great composer; General Jonathan Wainwright, hero of Bataan; Mayor Ernst Reuter, hero of the cold-war battle of Berlin; Saudi Arabia's fabulous King Ibn Saud; Britain's redoubtable Queen Mary...
...best as well as the most tragic news in poetry was made by one man: Welshman Dylan Thomas. His Collected Poems early in the year confirmed what had long been clear: that he was the finest young poet writing in English. His death at 39 in Manhattan was a bleak reminder of the standing of his contemporaries...
Other M.P.s echoed Sir Winston's good wishes. From the Labor benches, elderly Welshman David Grenfell rose to declare that in 31 years he had never before made a nonpartisan speech. "I have been unashamedly a party man," he said, "[but] this is not a controversial occasion. It contains the promise of the most marvelous demonstration of unity that the empire has ever witnessed...
Bitterly ashamed of his parentage, he made a lifelong business of tailoring for himself an identity that better fitted his grand manner and handsome appearance. By the end of his life, he had done such a good job of costumery that he seemed to believe himself a nobly descended Welshman, and the phrase "these English!" uttered with a lordly snort, was his favorite expression of contempt...
Like most poets, Welshman Dylan Thomas can't afford to think of poetry as a living. To eke out his own, he does what he can in other writing fields. And he is certainly among the few living poets, not to mention scenario writers, who could successfully have written The Doctor and the Devils, the screenplay for a new British film.* Published as a book, his script combines some of the best virtues of fiction and drama. What is just as important, Poet Thomas remains a poet while doing a job that most highbrow poets would pooh-pooh, unless...