Seeing Wales Whole

Essays on the Literature of Wales

Edited by Sam Adams

' . . . a panoramic examination of Welsh literature that will also delight practitioners and students . . . This book is a necessarily brief exploration of the Welsh literary inheritance that will encourage readers to explore further.'  (Western Mail)

This collection of essays, a tribute to Meic Stephens on his sixtieth birthday, offers a kaleidoscopic view of the Welsh literary scene in the twentieth century.

' . . . these are superlative examples of the business of building, through criticism, a solid sense of the corpus of Anglo-Welsh literature.' (Planet)

The eight essays discuss various aspects of the literature of Wales in both Welsh and English. The perspective shifts from the part played by early writing in the creation of a Welsh identity to the passions aroused by Caradoc Evans, from comparisons between two poets writing in English (T. Harri Jones and Harri Webb) to two writing in Welsh (T.H. Parry-Williams and R. Williams Parry), from the significance of class background in the work of Glyn Jones, Geraint Goodwin and Dylan Thomas to the importance of the nonconformist tradition in that of Emyr Humphreys. There is an autobiographically-nuanced piece by Tony Curtis and a survey of recent Anglo-Welsh poetry by Sam Adams.

This important and challenging collection provides fascinating interpretations and fresh insights and is a celebration of Meic Stephens's unique and influential contribution to the cause of literature in Wales.

Contents and Contributors:

• Emyr Humphreys, Taliesin's Children;
• John Harris, Novel to Play: the trials of 'Taffy';
• Don Dale-Jones, The Trouble with Harri: Some thoughts on two writers for our time, Harri Webb (1920-1994) and T. Harri Jones (1921-1965);
• James A. Davies, Bed, Farm and Map: Three responses to the troubled 1930s;
• R. Gerallt Jones, Like Foolish Boys: Some thoughts on the poetry of two cousins;
• M. Wynn Thomas, Outside the House of Baal: The evolution of a major novel;
• Tony Curtis, The 1950s and 1960s: A writer looks back;
• Sam Adams, 'Weaving a Cymric Web'?: A perspective on contemporary Anglo-Welsh Poetry; Meic Stephens: A select bibliography.