The Legacy of Dylan Thomas in Wales

By Susan Richardson

Since the untimely death of Dylan Thomas in November 1953, the writer's popularity has escalated, especially in his native Wales. In Swansea, the city of his birth, people who are otherwise uninterested in all things literary, flock to readings of Under Milk Wood and engage in lively discussions about it afterwards. Even bus drivers have been heard to quote a few lines from such poems as The Hunchback in the Park as they transport passengers through the streets which Thomas used to wander. From the edge of Swansea Bay to the northernmost suburbs, it seems, he is universa...