Glyn Jones

Leslie Norris

This revised edition evaluates the whole of Glyn Jones's work in poetry, in short fiction and the novel, in criticism and biography.

' . . . it is good to see in print again . . . this excellent revised study of Glyn Jones evaluated with perception and balance by Leslie Norris.' (Swansea Review)

Glyn Jones, poet, novelist, short-story writer, critic, biographer and translator, was a major figure in the field of Anglo-Welsh literature for almost sixty years. A pioneer in the movement which established the importance of Welsh writing in English and the friend of, among others, Dylan Thomas and Jack Jones, he was also throughout his life a constant source of inspiration to younger writers.

Glyn Jones was born in 1905 in Merthyr Tydfil, and although his adult life was passed in Cardiff, where he became a teacher, Merthyr remained central to his work as a writer. His early poems were published in The Dublin Magazine in 1933 and his first collection of short stories, The Blue Bed, appeared in 1937. Glyn Jones turned to the novel in the 1940s. The Valley, The City, The Village (1956) is a remarkable tour-de-force. The Dragon Has Two Tongues (1968) offered both autobiography and a critical assessment of Anglo-Welsh writers. He continued to produce poems, short stories and works of criticism throughout his long career and they bear witness to his humanity, his observant eye and his gusto for language. Glyn Jones was the first Chairman and later President of the English-language section of the Welsh Academy and in 1974 he was awarded the degree of D. Litt. by the University of Wales.

Leslie Norris, poet, novelist and critic, was, like Glyn Jones, born and brought up in Merthyr. He is currently Humanities Professor of Creative Writing at the Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature and a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. His books include The Loud Winter (1967), Ransoms (1970), Finding Gold (1976) Sliding (1974) and The Girl from Cardigan (1988).