Francis Scarfe, for his essay on the poet in his book
Auden and After ( 1942); to the American critic,
Marshall Stearns, for his pamphlet Unsex the Skeleton:
Notes on the Poetry of Dylan Thomas ( 1944); and to
Linden Huddlestone, for his study An Approach to
Dylan Thomas in Penguin New Writing.

I have prefaced my study of Thomas' poems with a
biographical chapter. This is not meant to offer a
factual and 'authoritative' account of the poet's life,
but rather to serve as an atmospheric 'lead-in' to his
poetry. Its purpose is to suggest to the reader the
man behind the poetry, and to relate the one to the
other. This impressionistic sketch I have assembled
from various sources: from the reports of those who
knew him, either intimately or in passing; from
random remarks of the poet himself; and, lastly, from
his own recollections of his youth in Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Dog. In this synthesis I have not
guarded against the entry of mythical fragments, since
any man who is a poet is perhaps as much a myth as a
person.

My book concludes with two chapters on Thomas'
prose and dramatic writings.

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