The Poet Who Recorded "A Child's Christmas in Wales" Didn't Die on a Barroom Floor

Better Oblivion Community Center's song makes interesting use of Thomas's hard-drinking life. But its portrait of the poet isn't quite right, even though I can't stop humming along.

Though it’s the first time Dylan Thomas has shown up at PopPoetry, it certainly won’t be the last. Thomas, the Welsh poet who died too soon at just 39, is one of the most well-known and often-quoted poets in the Western canon. Fascinatingly, he’s credited with inaugurating the audiobook industry, as his vinyl recordings of A Child’s Christmas in Wales became instantly popular.

A Child’s Christmas grew out of Thomas’ recording work with the BBC. This work paid him, and he gave various talks and read his work frequently. Interested parties discovered that Thomas’ remembrances of his childhood in Wales were popular, and his musings on Christmas would go on to be some of his best-remembered work.

1968 edition of A Child’s Christmas in Wales (via AbeBooks)

There is this side of Thomas, and then there is another side: a portrait of an indulgent, hard-drinking rock star poet who drank himself to death. Human beings are complicated, and Thomas is no exception.