Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

===Early life===
[[File:Dylan thomas birthplace.jpg|thumb|upright|left|5 Cwmdonkin Drive, [[Swansea]], the birthplace of Dylan Thomas|alt=On a hill street stands a two-storeyed semi-detached house with bay windows to the front and a sloped tiled roof with a chimney.]]
Dylan Thomas was born on 27 October 1914{{refn |In a letter to [[Rayner Heppenstall]], dated 27 November 1939, he said he was born "about 11 p.m." ({{harvp|Ferris|1985|p=432}}).|group="nb"}} in [[Swansea]], the son of Florence Hannah (''née'' Williams; 1882–1958), a [[seamstress]], and David John 'Jack' Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher. His father had a first-class honours degree in English from [[University College, Aberystwyth]], and ambitions to rise above his position teaching English literature at the local [[grammar school]].{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|pp=10–11}} Thomas had one sibling, Nancy Marles (1906–1953), who was eight years his senior.<ref Name="Ferris-2004">{{cite web |first1=Paul |last1= Ferris |authorlink=Paul Ferris (Welsh writer) |title=Thomas, Dylan Marlais (1914–1953) (subscription needed)| work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition| publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/ |access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref>

At the 1921 census, Nancy and Dylan are noted as speaking both Welsh and English.<ref name="census">1921 census return for 5 Cwmdonkin Drive at FindmyPast.</ref> Their parents were also bilingual in English and Welsh, and Jack Thomas taught Welsh at evening classes.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=17}} One of their Swansea relations has recalled that, at home, "Both Auntie Florrie and Uncle Jack always spoke Welsh."<ref>Barbara Treacher, a Swansea cousin, in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|p=40}}.</ref> There are three accounts from the 1940s of Dylan singing Welsh hymns and songs, and of speaking a little Welsh.{{sfnmp|1a1=Thomas|1y=2000|1pp=103–104|2a1=Thomas|2y=2004|2pp=73, 97}}

Thomas's father chose the name Dylan, which could be translated as "son of the sea" after [[Dylan ail Don]], a character in ''[[The Mabinogion]]''.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=22}} His middle name, Marlais, was given in honour of his great-uncle, William Thomas, a [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister and poet whose [[bardic name]] was [[William Thomas (Gwilym Marles)|Gwilym Marles]].<ref Name="Ferris-2004"/>{{sfnp|Bold|1976|p=60}} The name ''Dylan'' being pronounced {{IPA|[ˈdəlan]}} in Welsh caused his mother to worry that he might be teased as the "dull one".{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=23}} When he broadcast on [[BBC Regional Programme|Welsh BBC]] early in his career, he was introduced using this pronunciation. Thomas later favoured the typical anglicised pronunciation and gave instructions that it should be pronounced that way (the same as ''Dillon'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɪ|l|ən}}).<ref Name="Ferris-2004"/><ref name="Kirsch-2004">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/05/040705crbo_books |title=Reckless Endangerment: The making and unmaking of Dylan Thomas |last1=Kirsch |first1=Adam |date=5 July 2004 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

The red-brick semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (in the respectable area of the [[Uplands, Swansea|Uplands]]),<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dylanthomasbirthplace.com| title = Welcome to Dylan Thomas Birthplace}}</ref> in which Thomas was born and lived until he was 23, had been bought by his parents a few months before his birth.{{sfnp|Bold|1976|p=60}}

====Childhood====
Thomas has written a number of accounts of his childhood growing up in Swansea,{{refn|See, for example, his radio broadcasts ''Reminiscences of Childhood'', ''Memories of Childhood'' and ''Holiday Memory'' collected in {{harvp|Maud|1991}}.|group=nb}} and there are also accounts available by those who knew him as a young child.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=33–53}} Thomas wrote several poems about his childhood and early teenage years, including "Once it was the colour of saying" and "The hunchback in the park", as well as short stories such as ''The Fight'' and ''A Child's Christmas in Wales''.<ref>See {{harvp|Davies|2000}}, which provides a helpful guide to the Swansea in which the young Thomas grew up.</ref>

Thomas's four grandparents played no part in his childhood.{{refn|His maternal grandparents, Hannah and George Williams of 29, Delhi Street, St. Thomas, Swansea, had both died before he was born, as had his paternal grandfather, Evan Thomas, in Carmarthen. Evan's wife, Anne Thomas, died in January 1917, age 82. See {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=180–188}}.|group=nb}} For the first ten years or so of his life, Thomas's Swansea aunts and uncles helped with his upbringing. These were his mother's three siblings, Polly and Bob, who lived in the St Thomas district of Swansea<ref>For more on Polly and Bob in Swansea, see {{harvp|Thomas|2003|loc=ch. 3}}. They moved to Blaencwm near Llansteffan in 1927/28.</ref> and Theodosia, and her husband, the Rev. David Rees, in Newton, Swansea, where parishioners recall Thomas sometimes staying for a month or so at a time.<ref group="nb">For more on David and Theodosia Rees and Thomas's stays with them, see {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=217–218}}, and {{harvp|Thomas|2004|pp=20–21}}, in which a parishioner notes "He'd stay for perhaps three weeks or a month there...And there wouldn't be his sister or mother or father. He'd often be there alone..." Kent Thompson has provided a similar account of Thomas holidaying with David and Theodosia Rees in Newton, "where he played in the chapel alley and waded in the muddy, unpaved streets." (K. E. Thompson (1965), ''Dylan Thomas in Swansea'', pp. 62–63, Ph.D., University College of Swansea.)</ref> All four aunts and uncles spoke Welsh and English.<ref name="census"/>

Thomas's childhood also featured regular summer trips to the [[Llansteffan]] peninsula, a Welsh-speaking part of Carmarthenshire.<ref>Thomas, David N. "A True Childhood: Dylan's Peninsularity" in {{harvp|Ellis|2014|pp=7–29}}, and online at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/a-true-childhood-dylan-s-peninsularity?authuser=0 Dylan and his aunties].</ref> In the land between [[Llangain]] and Llansteffan, his mother's family, the Williamses and their close relatives, worked a dozen farms with over a thousand acres between them.<ref group="nb">The main cluster of Williams farms included Waunfwlchan, Llwyngwyn, Maesgwyn, Pentowyn, Pencelli-uchaf and Penycoed. For more on both Thomas's farmyard and Swansea aunts, see [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandhisaunties/dylan-and-his-aunties-a-portrait-of-the-poet-as-an-only-child?authuser=0 Dylan and his aunties]</ref> The memory of Fernhill, a dilapidated 15-acre farm rented by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, and her husband, Jim Jones, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem "[[Fern Hill]]",<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kQO8_ztDbZAC&pg=PA294 |title=Singing the Chaos: Madness and Wisdom in Modern Poetry|page=294|first= William |last= Pratt |publisher=University of Missouri Press|date= 1 June 1996 |access-date=30 August 2012|isbn= 978-0-8262-1048-7 }}</ref> but is portrayed more accurately in his short story, ''The Peaches''.{{refn |Jim Jones did very little farming at Fernhill, as his neighbours noted: "Big in his ways—no work in him—left Fernhill farm to ruins—they were in a poor way—received £1 a week compensation—but there was nothing wrong with him." See Thomas, D. N. (2003) ''Dylan Remembered 1914–1934'', vol. 1, p. 213. Jim and Annie rented Fernhill from Frances Maria Blumberg, the daughter of Robert Ricketts Evans, the so-called Fernhill hangman. They left Fernhill about 1929 and moved to Mount Pleasant, a ramshackle cottage up the lane from Blaencwm. See {{harvp|Thomas|2003|loc=ch. 5}}.|group="nb"}} Thomas also spent part of his summer holidays with Jim's sister, Rachel Jones,<ref>Jim and Rachel's parents had farmed Pentrewyman from at least 1864. For more on Jim Jones, including a family tree, see three essays at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/gentleman-jim-jones-family-tree-cut-down-to-size?authuser=0 Jim Jones and Pentrewyman]</ref> at neighbouring Pentrewyman farm, where he spent his time riding Prince the cart horse, chasing pheasants and fishing for trout.<ref>Information from May Bowen, the Pentrewyman farm girl, and from two schoolboy friends, William Phillips and Tudor Price, about Thomas's time at Pentrewyman can be found in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=46–53}}.</ref>

All these relatives were bilingual,<ref name="census"/> and many worshipped at Smyrna chapel in Llangain where the services were always in Welsh, including Sunday School which Thomas sometimes attended.<ref>Interviews with Thomas's schoolboy friends in Llangain in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|p=52}}.</ref> There is also an account of the young Thomas being taught how to swear in Welsh.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|p=209}} His schoolboy friends recalled that "It was all Welsh—and the children played in Welsh...he couldn't speak English when he stopped at Fernhill...in all his surroundings, everybody else spoke Welsh..."<ref>{{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=50–53}}. But also see the comment from May Bowen, the farm girl at Pentrewyman, that Thomas, Nancy and their parents always spoke English at Pentrewyman (p. 48).</ref> At the 1921 census, 95% of residents in the two parishes around Fernhill were Welsh speakers. Across the whole peninsula, 13%—more than 200 people—spoke only Welsh.<ref>1921 Census Summary Tables, National Library of Wales.</ref>

A few fields south of Fernhill lay Blaencwm,<ref group="nb">Blaencwm stood on a country lane just off the main road from Llangain to Llansteffan. It was just a short walk up the lane to his aunts and cousins in Llwyngwyn and Maesgwyn farms.</ref> a pair of stone cottages to which his mother's Swansea siblings had retired,<ref>Polly, Theodosia and Bob in 1927/28.</ref> and with whom the young Thomas and his sister, Nancy, would sometimes stay.<ref>For more on Blaencwm and Thomas's visits there, see {{harvp|Thomas|2003|loc=ch. 6}}, as well as Thomas's letters from Blaencwm in {{harvp|Ferris|1985}}, the first being on 17 September 1933. His first mention of Blaencwm is in his letter to Nancy sent about 1926.</ref> A couple of miles down the road from Blaencwm is the village of Llansteffan, where Thomas used to holiday at Rose Cottage with another Welsh-speaking aunt, Anne Williams, his mother's half-sister<ref>Florence's father, George Williams, was also Anne's father. For more on this, see pp. 42, 182–185 and 290, in Thomas, D. N. (2003), ''Dylan Remembered 1914–1934'', Seren, and also Note (ii) at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandhisaunties/his-ferryside-aunts-and-uncles?authuser=0 Dylan and his Ferryside aunts and uncles]  Anne, her second husband Robert and Anne's daughter, Doris, are noted as Welsh speakers on their 1921 census return.</ref> who had married into local gentry.<ref>Anne's first marriage had been to John Gwyn of Cwrthyr Mansion, Llangain. For more on the Gwyns of Cwrthyr, and on Anne's marriage and children with John Gwyn, see D. N. Thomas, ed. (2004), ''Dylan Remembered 1935–1953'', vol. 2, pp. 21–23, Seren. After Gwyn's death in 1893, Anne married Robert Williams and they lived in Rose Cottage. According to the Llansteffan barber, Ocky Owen, Thomas "used to come here every summer, and father and mother – and his sister...they stayed with some relation...Mrs Anne Williams...his holiday was fixed here...they stayed here – for about three weeks or a month...visiting Fernhill and places from ''here''..." Anne's daughter, Doris, has noted that Thomas was "quite a little boy" when he came to stay in Rose Cottage. By the 1921 census, Anne, Robert and Doris had left Rose Cottage and were living in Ferryside. For more on both Anne, and on Thomas's holidays in Llansteffan, see {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=41–2}}.</ref> Anne's daughter, Doris, married a dentist, Randy Fulleylove. The young Dylan also holidayed with them in [[Abergavenny]], where Fulleylove had his practice.<ref>See the interview with Doris and Randy in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=42–46}}. Doris and Randy lived in Abergavenny between 1929 and 1931 above the practice at 11, Brecon Road. (AncestryLibrary.com online, British Phone Books 1880–1984.)</ref>

Thomas's paternal grandparents, Anne and Evan Thomas, lived at The Poplars in Johnstown, just outside [[Carmarthen]]. Anne was the daughter of William Lewis, a gardener in the town. She had been born and brought up in [[Llangadog]],<ref>See [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/tywi-brechfa-and-llangadog?authuser=0 Born in Llangadog]</ref> as had her father, who is thought to be "Grandpa" in Thomas's short story ''A Visit to Grandpa's'', in which Grandpa expresses his determination to be buried not in Llansteffan but in Llangadog.<ref>William Lewis was living with the Thomases at The Poplars at the 1881 census.(FindmyPast online.) He died there on 20 February 1888 and was buried in Llangadog on 23 February 1888 (Parish registers). For more, see [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/tywi-brechfa-and-llangadog?authuser=0|Dylan's Llangadog relatives.]</ref>

Evan worked on the railways and was known as Thomas the Guard. His family had originated{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=186–192}} in another part of Welsh-speaking Carmarthenshire, in the farms that lay around the villages of [[Brechfa]], [[Abergorlech]], [[Gwernogle]] and [[Llanybydder]], and which the young Thomas occasionally visited with his father.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=192–194}} His father's side of the family also provided the young Thomas with another kind of experience; many lived in the towns of the South Wales industrial belt, including [[Port Talbot]],<ref>See online at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandhisaunties/his-port-talbot-aunt-and-uncles?authuser=0 Port Talbot aunt and uncles?]</ref> [[Pontarddulais]]<ref>Both Thomas's mother and father had relatives in Pontardulais. See Deric M. John and David N. Thomas (2010), ''From Fountain to River: Dylan Thomas and Pontardulais'', in ''Cambria'', Autumn, and online at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspontardulais/dylan-and-the-bont?authuser=0 Dylan Thomas and Pontardulais]</ref> and [[Cross Hands]].{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=186–194}}

Thomas had [[bronchitis]] and [[asthma]] in childhood and struggled with these throughout his life. He was indulged by his mother, Florence, and enjoyed being mollycoddled, a trait he carried into adulthood, becoming skilled in gaining attention and sympathy.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=25}} But Florence would have known that child deaths had been a recurring event in the family's history,<ref>Thomas, D. N. "A True Childhood: Dylan's Peninsularity" in {{harvp|Ellis|2014|pp=18–19}}, and online at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/a-true-childhood-dylan-s-peninsularity?authuser=0 Dylan Thomas's Llansteffan childhood].</ref> and it is said that she herself had lost a child soon after her marriage.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=14}} But if Thomas was protected and spoiled at home, the real spoilers were his many aunts and older cousins, those in both Swansea and the Llansteffan countryside.<ref>"Everybody mothered Dylan. Everybody, even my family mothered Dylan… he played up to it." Barbara Treacher, a Swansea cousin, in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|p=40}}. For more on Treacher and her family's Brechfa origins, see {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=189–190}}.</ref>  Some of them played an important part in both his upbringing and his later life, as Thomas's wife, Caitlin, has observed: "He couldn't stand their company for more than five minutes... Yet Dylan couldn't break away from them, either. They were the background from which he had sprung, and he needed that background all his life, like a tree needs roots.".{{sfnp|Thomas|Tremlett|1986|p=50}}

====Education====
[[Image:Swansea Grammar.jpg|thumb|right|The main surviving structure of the former [[Swansea Grammar School]] on [[Mount Pleasant, Swansea|Mount Pleasant]], mostly destroyed during the [[Swansea Blitz]] of 1941, was renamed the Dylan Thomas Building in 1988 to honour its former pupil. It was then part of the former [[Swansea Metropolitan University]] campus]]
[[File:Dylan Thomas school plaque.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial plaque on the former [[Mount Pleasant, Swansea|Mount Pleasant]] site of Swansea Grammar School]]
Thomas's formal education began at Mrs Hole's [[dame school]], a private school on Mirador Crescent, a few streets away from his home.<ref>{{harvp|Ferris|1989|p=35}}. See also Hardy, J. A. (1995), "At Dame School with Dylan", ''New Welsh Review'', Spring no. 28.</ref> He described his experience there in ''Reminiscences of Childhood'':

<blockquote>Never was there such a dame school as ours, so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with the sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom, where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over undone sums, or to repent a little crime&nbsp;– the pulling of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick under the table during English literature.<ref>Broadcast on 21 March 1945 and reproduced in {{harvp|Maud|1991|p=7}}.</ref>
</blockquote>

Alongside dame school, Thomas also took private lessons from Gwen James, an elocution teacher who had studied at drama school in London, winning several major prizes. She also taught "Dramatic Art" and "Voice Production", and would often help cast members of the Swansea Little Theatre (see below) with the parts they were playing.<ref>Gwen James (1888–1960) on whom see Note 19 in Thomas, D. N. (2003), p. 286, and also p115 on the help she gave Little Theatre cast members.</ref> Thomas's parents' storytelling and dramatic talents, as well as their theatre-going interests, could also have contributed to the young Thomas's interest in performance.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=116, 260–261}}

In October 1925, Thomas enrolled at [[Bishop Gore School#Dylan Thomas and Bishop Gore|Swansea Grammar School]] for boys, in [[Mount Pleasant, Swansea|Mount Pleasant]], where his father taught English. There are several accounts by his teachers and fellow pupils of Thomas's time at grammar school.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=53–94}} He was an undistinguished pupil who shied away from school, preferring reading and drama activities.{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|pp=45–47}} In his first year one of his poems was published in the school's magazine, and before he left he became its editor.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|pp=41, 61}} Thomas's various contributions to the school magazine can be found here:<ref>{{harvp|Maud|1970}}. Thomas's co-editor, Percy Smart, has also provided an account of Thomas's work as editor in {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=77–79}}.</ref>

During his final school years he began writing poetry in notebooks; the first poem, dated 27 April (1930), is entitled "Osiris, come to Isis".{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|pp=55–56}} In June 1928, Thomas won the school's mile race, held at [[St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground|St. Helen's Ground]]; he carried a newspaper photograph of his victory with him until his death.<ref>{{cite web | title= Dylan's Swansea| url= http://www.dylanthomas.com/dylan/dylan-thomas-in-swansea/| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| website= Dylanthomas.com |publisher= City and County of Swansea| access-date= 4 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Turner |first1=Robin |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/teenage-dylan-thomas-was-very-4722275 |title=A teenage Dylan Thomas 'was very athletic and loved running' |publisher=Wales Online |date=26 June 2013 |access-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the ''[[South Wales Daily Post]]'', where he remained for some 18 months.<ref>See {{harvp|Ferris|1989|p=74}}, as well as interviews with Thomas's fellow reporters and other staff in {{harvp|Thomas |2003|pp=118–133}}.</ref> After leaving the newspaper, Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of the 90 poems he published, half were written during these years.<ref Name="Ferris-2004"/> In 2014 a fifth notebook, compiled between 1934 and August 1935, was discovered. There were sixteen poems with dates of revisions of their previous versions leading to major alterations in the hitherto accepted chronology of their composition dates.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodby |first1=John |title=Discovering Dylan Thomas: a companion to the "Collected poems" and Notebook poems |date=2017 |pages= 2–5, 250|publisher=University of Wales press |location=Cardiff |isbn=9781783169634}}</ref>

====On the stage====
[[File:Dylan Thomas Theatre, Swansea - geograph.org.uk - 3954582.jpg|thumb|right|The Little Theatre relocated to Swansea's Maritime Quarter in 1979 and was renamed the [[Dylan Thomas Theatre]] in 1983|alt=A wide three storied building with windows to the upper two stories and an entrance on the ground floor. A statue of Thomas sits outside.]]
The stage was also an important part of Thomas's life from 1929 to 1934, as an actor, writer, producer and set painter. He took part in productions at Swansea Grammar School, and with the YMCA Junior Players and the [[Dylan Thomas Theatre|Little Theatre]], which was based in the [[Mumbles]]. It was also a touring company that took part in drama competitions and festivals around South Wales.<ref>See {{harvp|Thomas|2003|loc=ch. 7, "Dylan on the Stage"}}. See also {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=95–118}} for interviews with those who took part in productions with Thomas.</ref> Between October 1933 and March 1934, for example, Thomas and his fellow actors took part in five productions at the Mumbles theatre, as well as nine touring performances.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=264–265}} Thomas continued with acting and production throughout his life, including his time in Laugharne, [[South Leigh]] and London (in the theatre and on radio), as well as taking part in nine stage readings of ''Under Milk Wood''.<ref>{{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=265–267}}. On South Leigh drama, see the interviews with Ethel Gunn and Dorothy Murray at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandsouthleigh/south-leigh-residents-talk-about-dylan-thomas?authuser=0 South Leigh drama society].</ref> The Shakespearian actor, [[John Laurie]], who had worked with Thomas on both the stage<ref>a poetry reading at the Wigmore Hall in 1946, in the presence of the royal family.</ref> and radio<ref>in ''Paradise Lost'' in 1947, BBC Third Programme.</ref> thought that Thomas would "have loved to have been an actor" and, had he chosen to do so, would have been "Our first real poet-dramatist since Shakespeare."{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|p=153}}

Painting the sets at the Little Theatre was just one aspect of the young Thomas's interest in art. His own drawings and paintings hung in his bedroom in Cwmdonkin Drive, and his early letters reveal a broader interest in art and art theory.<ref>See, for example, his letters to Pamela Hansford Johnson of 11 November 1933 and 15 April 1934.</ref> Thomas saw writing a poem as an act of construction "as a sculptor works at stone,"<ref>Letter to Hansford Johnson, 15 April 1934.</ref> later advising a student "to treat words as a craftsman does his wood or stone...hew, carve, mould, coil, polish and plane them..."{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|loc="At Ease Among Painters"|pp=350–351}} Throughout his life, his friends included artists, both in Swansea<ref>e.g. his friendships with [[Alfred Janes]] (painter), Ronald Cour (sculptor), [[Mervyn Levy]] (art critic) and Kenneth Hancock (Principal, Swansea Art School).</ref> and in London,<ref>e.g. his friendships, and sometimes collaboration, with [[Michael Ayrton]], [[Oswell Blakeston]], [[Mervyn Peake]], [[John Banting]], [[Jankel Adler]], [[Robert Colquhoun]], [[Robert MacBryde]] and [[Roland Penrose]].</ref> as well as in America.<ref>e.g. Dave Slivka, [[Loren MacIver]] and [[Peter Grippe]].</ref>

In his free time, Thomas visited the cinema in Uplands, took walks along [[Swansea Bay]], and frequented Swansea's [[pub]]s, especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dylan Thomas: The Pubs|first1=Jeff|last1=Towns|year=2013|publisher=Y Lolfa|isbn=978-1-84771-693-4|pages=73–84}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Where+Dylan+Thomas+'communed+with+his+legendary+creatures'.-a0145458555|title=Where Dylan Thomas 'communed with his legendary creatures'|first1=Robin|last1=Turner|publisher=thefreelibrary.com|work=Western Mail|date=6 May 2006|access-date=27 July 2012}}</ref> In the [[Kardomah Café]], close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet [[Vernon Watkins]] and the musician and composer, [[Daniel Jones (composer)|Daniel Jones]] with whom, as teenagers, Thomas had helped to set up the "Warmley Broadcasting Corporation".<ref>Music, poetry and other material was broadcast along hidden wires by the teenage Thomas and Jones from the upper floor of Jones' home, Warmley, to the floors below. For more on The Warmley Broadcasting Corporation, see D. Jones (1977) ''My Friend Dylan Thomas'', Dent.</ref> This group of writers, musicians and artists became known as "[[The Kardomah Gang]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/dylan-thomas-and-the-kardomah-set-525736.html|newspaper=The Independent|title=Dylan Thomas and the Kardomah set|first1=Boyd|last1=Tonkin|date=11 February 2006|access-date=15 July 2011|archive-date=7 September 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907032951/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/dylan-thomas-and-the-kardomah-set-525736.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> This was also the period of his friendship with Bert Trick, a local shopkeeper, left-wing political activist and would-be poet,<ref>See {{harvp|Ferris|1989|pp=72–78}}, for an overview of their friendship, with an extended interview with Trick in Thomas, D. N. (2003), ''Dylan Remembered 1914–1934'', pp157-174, Seren, as well as an account by Trick's son: Trick, K. (2001) ''Bert Trick – the Original Marx Brother'', ''New Welsh Review'' 54.</ref> and with the Rev. [[Leon Atkin]], a Swansea minister, human rights activist and local politician.<ref>See an interview with Atkin about his friendship with Thomas in Thomas, D. N. (2003), ''Dylan Remembered (1914–1934)'', pp. 138–145, vol. 1, Seren, as well as Atkin's entry in the ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography'' at [https://biography.wales/article/s7-ATKI-LEO-1902#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=3&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1473167%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-48%2C-47%2C3620%2C2978 Rev. Leon Atkin.]</ref>

In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time.{{refn|In {{harvp|Ferris|1989|p=86}}, [[Paul Ferris (Welsh writer)|Ferris]] writes that two of Thomas's friends had stated that they met him in London in 1932, though his late 1933 visit to the city is the first for which evidence exists.|group="nb"}}