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The 1940s1940 - 1949 Browns Hotel, Laugharne 1940 March / April: Move back to Sea View, Laugharne April 4: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, Dylan's semi-autobiographical collection of short stories, published by J M Dent & Sons Ltd
May: Dylan fails Army medical at Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire May: Dylan and Caitlin move from Sea View to stay with his parents in Bishopston, returning after friends have paid their debts in Laugharne June / August: Stay with John Davenport at The Maltings, Marshfield, in a house-party of musicians and artists July: Dylan and Caitlin leave Laugharne for London September: Dylan begins working for Strand Films, and his work for Strand continued through the war September 24: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog published in the United States
December / April: Dylan and Caitlin stay at Bishopston 1941 May / July: Dylan and Caitlin stay at Castle House in Laugharne with Frances Hughes August: Dylan and Caitlin move back to London, leaving Llewelyn with her family at Ringwood 1942 July: Fortune Press publish second edition of 18 Poems
Dylan and Caitlin rent one-room studio at Wentworth Studios, Manresa Road, London SW3, which remains their London base for several years During 1942-44, Caitlin stays periodically at Laugharne and at Talsarn, Cardiganshire, while Dylan divides his time between there and London 1943 Dylan's continuous work as a broadcaster begins February: New Poems published in the United States by New Directions March 3: Aeronwy Bryn Thomas born in London
1944 April / June: Dylan and Caitlin stay at Far End, Old Bosham, to avoid the London air raids, and then move to Hedgerley Dean, near Beaconsfield, to stay with Donald Taylor. Taylor employed Dylan at the BBC as a scriptwriter until 1945 July / August: Stay with Dylan's parents, who have now moved to Blaen Cwm, Llangain September: Move to Majoda, New Quay, Ceredigion, where Dylan writes several major poems and the radio broadcast 'Quite Early One Morning', in which he experimented with the form, characters and ideas that he developed in Under Milk Wood. October 2: Dylan fails to attend Vernon Watkins' wedding, where he was supposed to be best man 1945 August / September: Stay at Blaen Cwm December / March 1947: Dylan and Caitlin spend Christmas with the historian AJP Taylor and his wife Margaret at Holywell Ford, Oxford, and then move into their summerhouse at the bottom of the garden, much to AJP Taylor's disgust. Margaret was one of Dylan's most important patrons. Between December 1945 and May 1949 Dylan either wrote, narrated or took part in over a hundred BBC radio programmes.
1946 February 7: Deaths and Entrances published by J M Dent & Sons Ltd August: Dylan and Caitlin spend four days at Puck Fair at Killorglin, Co. Kerry, with their friends Bill and Helen McAlpine Late August: Stay at Blaen Cwm November 8: Selected Writings of Dylan Thomas published in the United States by New Directions 1947 March 26: Society of Authors awards Dylan a £150 Travelling Scholarship with a recommendation that he should visit Italy April / August: Dylan and Caitlin and her sister Brigid take the family to stay first at Rapallo, then Florence and Elba. In Florence, Dylan writes 'In Country Sleep'
June 15: BBC broadcasts his programme on the destruction of the Swansea of his youth, 'Return Journey': "I ... walked down High Street, past the flat white wastes where all the shops had been .... shops bombed and vanished." June: Margaret Taylor buys the Manor House at South Leigh, Oxfordshire, for the Thomas family September: Dylan and Caitlin move to South Leigh on returning from Elba 1948 March / April: Dylan visits his parents at Blaen Cwm and goes to Laugharne, hoping to find somewhere there for his family to live April: DJ and Florence Thomas arrive in South Leigh Summer: Dylan begins work on his three film scripts for Gainsborough Films - Me and My Bike, Rebecca's Daughters, and The Beach at Falesa - but the company goes into liquidation before any of the films are made October: Margaret Taylor visits Laugharne to see if she can find a house there for the Thomas family; she tries to lease Castle House and then later buys the Boat House. Dylan writes to thank her: "you have given me a life ... and now I am going to live it." 1949 March: Guild Books publish paperback edition of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
March 4: Dylan visits Prague for a few days as a guest of the Czechoslovak Writer's Union May: Dylan and family move to the Boat House in Laugharne; his parents move to Pelican, a house opposite Brown's Hotel. In the 'Prologue' to his Collected Poems, Dylan calls the Boat House "My seashaken house / On a breakneck of rocks". July 24: Colm Garan Hart Thomas born |
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The 1940s 