October 2014 | Barbara Basbanes Richter

Dylan Thomas at 100

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) is being fêted in his homeland and abroad on the eve of what would be his 100th birthday. Thomas' works include 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and 'The hunchback in the park.' The subject of much literary criticism and commentary over the years, he has also been compared to giants like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden.

Most events will take place at Swansea's Dylan Thomas National Literature Centre. The Centre is housed in the Guildhall, a Victorian-era building extensively refurbished and opened to the public in 1995 by former president Jimmy Carter. The building itself is worth a visit to Swansea and as the city's cultural and literary epicenter, it epitomizes the Welsh phrase T? Llên, "A House of Literature."

Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas, with his wife Caitlin (nee Macnamara) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Activities such as hikes along Thomas' favorite trails, music festivals and exhibitions commence on October 27, the poet's birthday, and run through the date of his death on November 9th.

A two day "Do Not Go Gentle" music and literary festival will take place at the Centre from October 24 through the 26th. The program includes local musical and artistic performances that the promoters believe would have pleased Thomas, who often found inspiration among the people of his beloved city. Thomas loved a good Welsh ale too, and so there will be plenty of local libations available.

The Centre recently opened an exhibit showcasing manuscripts of poems, lists of rhyming words and photographs of Thomas. These items are on loan from SUNY Buffalo Special Collections Library, which is also commemorating Thomas' centennial. The university's Thomas holdings are in good company at SUNY's Poetry Collection, one of world's the largest collections of English language poetry, broadsides and anthologies from the 20th and 21st centuries.

For Thomas fans unable to attend the festivities in Wales, plenty of activities abound in New York City, where the poet conducted reading tours over the last four years of his life. Thomas' last public engagement was on October 29th, when, after conducting a lunchtime reading at City College, New York, he visited the literary hotspot, The White Horse Tavern. Thomas mysteriously collapsed in the Chelsea Hotel a few days later, and died at St. Vincent's Hospital on November 9th. Tourists can visit these and other places associated with the poet by following the self-guided walking tour promoted by The Greenwich Village Walking Tour. A BBC made for TV movie about the poet's life in New York will premiere in America on October 29th. At one hundred, it certainly appears that Thomas' legacy continues to 'rage, rage against the dying of the light.'