Dylan Thomas Biography

Writer Dylan Marlais Thomas drank himself to death at the age of 39 and left behind some of the most celebrated poems of the 20th century, including “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

Dylan Thomas grew up in Wales and left school at the age of 16. During his teen years he wrote numerous poems and had his first poem published in 1933. He made his London reputation with his first two collections, Eighteen Poems (1934) and Twenty-five Poems (1936). During his career Thomas also wrote short stories, film scripts and radio shows, including the “play for voices,” Under Milk Wood, first performed in 1953 and published posthumously in 1954.

His poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” may be his best-remembered work. Written in 1947, it takes the form of an exhortation to his dying father. It begins “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” and ends with “Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Thomas’s 1952 recording A Child’s Christmas in Wales, a brief collection of youthful memories, sold modestly at first but has since become a beloved Christmas classic.

Thomas was lauded for his lyrical poems, and became a celebrity for his entertaining radio appearances and turbulent private life. It’s been said he drank as hard as he worked, and while on a lecture tour in New York he collapsed after drinking heavily at the White Horse Tavern. He was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital and died several days later, on November 9, 1953.