Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940)

Thomas, Dylan

Published by New Directions, 1940

About this Item

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG DOG by Dylan Thomas, hardcover with no dust jacket, 1940. BOOK CONDITION: good. The text block is in fine condition, with no tears, marks, or dog-ears. The pages are age-toned, as are the pastedowns which have brown areas near the spine caused by the paste. Original bookstore?s small label is affixed to the final pastedown. Not a remainder nor library book. Bookplate of previous owner was affixed to the first free endpaper, but is now loose, leaving behind the glue marks. The red boards are in good condition (slightly cocked, slight spine bumping, discoloring of spine but lettering still legible, and tiny white spot). 8 ½ x 5 ½, 186 pages, 14 ounces XX [From Wikipedia] PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG DOG is a collection of short prose stories written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published by Dent on 4 April 1940. All of the stories are autobiographical, and all are set in the writer's native Swansea in South Wales. Written over a number of years, the often comic stories show glimpses of his life, from early childhood up to his teens as a young reporter for the South Wales Daily Post. Thomas claimed, in a letter to Vernon Watkins, that he had "kept the flippant title for?as the publishers advise?money-making reasons". He claimed also, somewhat dubiously, that the title was not a parody of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, although the general influence of Joyce's Dubliners was freely acknowledged. In August 1939 Thomas wrote to Watkins: "I've been busy over stories, pot-boiling stories for a book, semi-autobiographical, to be finished by Christmas." Reviews of the book were mixed and initially it did not sell well. Ferris, reviewing the book in The Times Literary Supplement said: "the atmosphere of schoolboy smut and practical jokes and poetry is evoked with lingering accuracy but with nothing more". Critic Jacob Korg later commented that "taken as a group, [the stories] seem to trace the child's emergence from his domain of imagination and secret pleasures into an adult world where he observes suffering, pathos, and dignity". The book has been described as showing Thomas' "waggish humor at its best, his exuberance & verbal magic in spectacular display". Apart from Under Milk Wood, the book is "probably the most famous Dylan Thomas book published during his lifetime. certainly the most loved by Dylan enthusiasts". It has been suggested that few writers "have evoked as successfully the mysteries and adventures of boyhood, of young love with its shattered dreams. none has done it in as fresh and telling phrases, with an elation as natural and contagious". Contents: The Peaches, A Visit to Grandpa's, Patricia, Edith and Arnold, The Fight, Extraordinary Little Cough, Just Like Little Dogs, Where Tawe Flows, Who Do You Wish Was with Us?, Old Garbo, One Warm Saturday. Seller Inventory # 002139

Bibliographic Details

Title: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940)

Publisher: New Directions

Publication Date: 1940

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket