Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

====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}}