Editing Welsh literature in English (section)

==1930s and wartime: The First Wave==
[[Image:Memorial to Idris Davies - geograph.org.uk - 1083132.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Memorial to [[Idris Davies]] in [[Rhymney]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]]]]

During the nineteenth century the use of the Welsh language declined generally in Wales, with the development of compulsory education in the English language, but more so in the south because of immigration from England and Ireland as a result of industrialisation. This loss of language was an important factor in the development of Anglo-Welsh writing in South Wales, especially in the mining valleys. While some of these authors came from Welsh-speaking families, they generally tended to associate this language with the repressive religion of Nonconformist chapels.<ref name="A Pocket Guide, p. 102"/>

The Anglo-Welsh writers of the 1930s had to look to London for publication and the possibility of literary success; though gradually, beginning in 1937, Welsh writing in English received encouragement from Welsh-based literary and critical journals, initially ''Wales'', published by [[Keidrych Rhys]] in three intermittent series between 1937 and 1960. Next came the ''Welsh Review'', published by Gwyn Jones, first in 1939 and then between 1944 and 1948. (See also ''Life and Letters Today'', which between 1938 and 1950 contained works by and about many Welsh writers in English.)

===Fiction===
An early work of the first wave of Anglo-Welsh writers was ''The Withered Root'' (1927) by [[Rhys Davies (writer)|Rhys Davies]] (1901–78) from the Rhondda Valley. While he probably wrote more fiction about the industrial world of the [[South Wales Valleys]] than anyone else, Rhys Davies was in fact a grocer's son who was living in London by the time he was twenty. Unlike that of other writers from the mining community, his fiction is more concerned with individuals, in particular women, than with politics.<ref>''A Hundred Years of Fiction'', p. 64.</ref> [[D. H. Lawrence]] was a major influence on Rhys, though similarities with Caradoc Evans have been noted, and it has been suggested that he had "The tendency to process images of the Welsh valleys for consumption by English audiences".<ref>''A Pocket Guide'', p. 104.</ref> Another Anglo-Welsh novelist (and playwright) was [[Jack Jones (novelist)|Jack Jones]] (1884–1970), a miner's son from [[Merthyr Tydfil]] who was himself a miner from the age of 12. He was active in the union movement and politics, starting with the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party]], but in the course of his life he was involved, to some degree, with all the major British parties. Amongst his novels of working-class life are ''[[Rhondda Roundabout]]'' (1935) and ''Bidden to the Feast'' (1938). The political development of a young miner is the subject of ''Cwmardy'' (1937), [[Lewis Jones (writer)|Lewis Jones]]'s (1897–1939) largely autobiographical novel.

[[Gwyn Thomas (novelist)|Gwyn Thomas]] (1913–81) was also a coalminer's son from the Rhondda, but won a scholarship to Oxford and then became a schoolmaster. He wrote 11 novels as well as short stories, plays, and radio and television scripts, most of which focused on unemployment in the Rhondda Valley in the 1930s. He has been described by [[Stephen Thomas Knight]] as "about the most verbally brilliant writer of Welsh fiction in English".<ref>''A Hundred Years of Fiction'', p. 93.</ref> His inaugural novel ''Sorrow for Thy Sons'' (1937) was rejected by Gollancz and not published until 1986. Thomas's first accepted book was a collection of short stories, ''Where Did I Put My Pity: Folk-Tales From the Modern Welsh'', which appeared in 1946. He was also known for his negative attitude to the Welsh language, and Glyn Jones sees him as falling "short of being a completely representative figure ... in his attitude to Wales and Welshness," as Gwyn Thomas "appears in his writing to have little sympathy with the national aspirations and indigenous culture of our country".<ref>''The Dragon Has Two Tongues''. p. 115</ref> Another writer who escaped from his proletarian background was [[Gwyn Jones (author)|Gwyn Jones]] (1907–1999). He wrote about this world in novels and short stories, including ''Times Like These'' (1936) which explores the life of a working-class family during the 1926 [[miners' strike]]. Jones founded ''The Welsh Review'' in 1939, which he edited until 1948; this journal was important for raising discussion of Welsh issues. What is probably the most famous novel about Wales, [[Richard Llewellyn]]'s ''[[How Green Was My Valley]]'', was published in 1939. It is described by Glyn Jones in ''The Dragon Has Two Tongues'' as a "staggering and accomplished piece of literary hokum" (p.&nbsp;51), "a book [that Jones finds] impossible to take seriously, though much of it [he] read with absorption" (p.&nbsp;53). (See also [[Margiad Evans]] [Peggy Eileen Whistler] (1909–58); [[Richard Hughes (writer)|Richard Hughes]] (1900–76); [[Alexander Cordell]] (1914–97).)

===Poetry===
The mining valleys produced a significant working-class poet in [[Idris Davies]] (1905–53), who worked as a coal miner before qualifying as a teacher. He initially wrote in Welsh "but rebellion against chapel religion", along with the "inspirational influence of English" poets, led him to write in English. ''Gwalia Deserta'' (1938) is about the Great Depression, while the subject of ''The Angry Summer'' (1943) is the 1926 miners' strike.

There are a number of other authors who published before the Second World War but who did not come from the South Wales valleys.

Amongst these was Swansea suburbanite [[Dylan Thomas]] (1914–53), whose first collection, ''18 Poems'', was published in 1934. Then there is [[Geraint Goodwin]] (1903–41) from [[Newtown, Powys|Newtown]] in mid-Wales, who, in such works as the novel ''The Heyday in the Blood'' (1936), wrote about declining rural communities in the border region. [[David Jones (poet)|David Jones]] (1895–1974), whose father was from North Wales, was born in a London suburb. His epic poem ''In Parenthesis'', which deals with his World War I experiences, was published in 1937. Another Swansea poet [[Vernon Watkins]] (1906–67) likewise does not belong with the main group of writers of the so-called First Wave from the South Wales mining communities. Roland Mathias suggests that "his use of Welsh tradition was highly selective – only the ancient custom of the Mari Lwyd and the legend of Taliesin".<ref>''The Pocket Guide'', p. 112; ''Anglo-Welsh Literature'', p. 95.</ref> [[Alun Lewis (poet)|Alun Lewis]] (1915–44), from [[Cwmaman]] near [[Aberdare]], published both poetry and short fiction and might well have been a major figure in the decades after the war but for his early death.