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| Swansea, Wales |
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| This is what the down town of Dylan's childhood looked like |
Dylan
Thomas was born just at the Great War of 1914 started (ww1). Obviously because he was so young he did not serve in it, but
it was sure to shape his life because many people that were older then him were affected by it.
He also lived through the Great Depression, which affected him because at the time he was working
for the South Wales Daily Post and making a living off of just writing was tough. Regardless of this he left that job just
as the Great Depression was a few years from recovering, in 1932 to pursue his writing of poetry. This is also when he began
to make travels to London, England. As the world was recovering he published his first book (18 poems) which took off regardless
of the hardships that people had been going through and began his official career as a poet.
Although Dylan was alive and well during World War II he was not allowed to fight because
of his sickly childhood in which he had bronchitis and asthma. Instead during this time he served the military by writing up
government documents. Some believed that he often played up his sickness though he claimed it made him depressed that he couldn't
serve with his friends and hated to be left behind. As a result this added to his alcohol problem as he more often then not
drank these thoughts away. In 1941 Swansea was bombed for three days and suffered great destruction. Dylan Thomas was quoted,"our
Swansea is dead," as he walked the bombed out city. At this time he was not living is Wales and actually resided in England.
At the time he had to move away from London because of the German bombings that were going on at the time.
| london england |
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| this is what london would have looked like as Dylan Thomas would have seen on his first visit |
Starting
in 1950 Dylan Thomas began his tours in America. Although he did travel around
the majority of his four American tours was spent in New York City. Although
the cold war was very much a part of this decade the America economy was
booming and very interested in paying for materialistic things. Being that
Dylan Thomas was known as a "rock n roll poet" he became one of those
things. This allowed him to rise out of his former life of poverty to a
new celebrity status. Unfortunately this high life status was short
lived because in 1953 during his fourth tour passed out in a hotel and died
shortly after.
| New York, New York |
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| The Jungle back in 1950 |
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