‘ . . . Glyn Jones’s mixture of autobiography and
anecdote evokes the living, contradictory literary milieu of
mid-twentieth-century . . . The Dragon Has
Two Tongues by Glyn Jones, first published in 1968, was a pioneering text in
its opening up of critical debate about the place and value of Welsh writing in
English. Tony Brown’s notes and introduction, based on his acquaintance with
Jones, are valuable in contextualizing the book and justifying its
appearance.’ (Times Literary Supplement)
‘Tony Brown’s new edition of The Dragon has Two Tongues (University of Wales Press, brings back into print an important text which all students of Welsh writing in English must read if they are to understand how this body of literature came into being as a result of the linguistic and critical shifts of the early twentieth century. . . Expertly and sympathetically edited, the book has kept its relevance in remarkable ways, not least in the percipience of its critical assessment of major Welsh writers, and in the stimulating nature of many of its conclusions.’ (Western Mail)
First published in 1968, The Dragon has Two Tongues was the first book-length study of the English-language literature of Wales. Written by one of Wales’s major English-language writers of fiction and poetry, it includes chapters dealing with the work of Dylan Thomas, Caradoc Evans, Jack Jones, Gwyn Thomas and Idris Davies, all of whom Glyn Jones knew personally.
'. . . this is a lovely book . . . at once entertaining, instructive, and important. It comes out of a first-hand knowledge of the subject, is rich in humour, humanity, judgement, and understanding; and it is beautifully written.' Professor Gwyn Jones, Times Literary Supplement reviewing the first edition
This first-hand knowledge of the writers, coupled with the shrewdness of Glyn Jones’s critical comments, established The Dragon Has Two Tongues as an invaluable study of this generation of Welsh writers. At the same time, it contains Glyn Jones’s own autobiographical reflections on his life and literary career, his loss and rediscovery of the Welsh language, and the cultural shifts which resulted in the emergence of a distinctive English-language literature in Wales in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Although a classic study, The Dragon Has Two Tongues has long been out-of-print. Tony Brown had the opportunity to discuss the book with Glyn Jones before his death in 1995 and has had access to Glyn Jones’s own proposed revisions and to manuscript drafts. This first paperback edition therefore includes some updating of the text and a new bibliography.
Tony Brown is a Senior Lecturer in English and Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has edited several books, including The Collected Stories of Glyn Jones (1999), and is also the editor of the journal Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays.
`This is a scholarly volume, edited by one who has contributed to a critical assessment
of Glyn Jones as a major writer. It has an excellent introduction and copious notes . . .
' (Western Mail)
One of the most important writers of twentieth-century Wales, and a master of the short-story form, Glyn Jones regarded himself as primarily a poet. During a lifetime's devotion to his craft, he wrote poems of exquisite subtlety and great power about the places and people which meant most to him. Many are set in Merthyr Tydfil, where he was born and brought up, in Cardiff, where he was for many years a teacher, and in rural Carmarthenshire, where his father's people had their roots.
'The book has a thoughtful introduction by Mercer Simpson, which not only makes perceptive judements on the poetry but also puts the writer and his work into the context of his time.' (Planet)
This volume gathers all Glyn Jones's previously published poems, together with a number which are published here for the first time. They include the complete text of `Seven Keys to Shaderdom', a long, complex poem on which he worked during his last years, and in which he found some remarkable, sometimes disturbing things to say about the lot of the artist (whether writer or painter) in Wales today.
The editor, Meic Stephens, has provided notes on the provenance of the poems and thrown light on many of the allusions and uncommon words of which the poet was so fond. His chronology of the writer's life and work, and valuable introduction by Mercer Simpson, are designed to help the student, teacher and general reader to a fuller appreciation of these fine poems.
Meic Stephens founded Poetry Wales in 1965 and edited the magazine for eight years. From 1967 to 1990 he was the Welsh Arts Council's Literature Director. Among the many books he has compiled are A Dictionary of Literary Quotations (1990), The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to Great Britain and Ireland (1992) and A Most Peculiar People: Quotations about Wales and the Welsh (UWP, 1992). He has also edited the collected poems of Harri Webb (1995) and the short stories of Rhys Davies (1996), and is the co-editor for the University of Wales Press of the
Writers of Wales series.