Alun Lewis – författare

Morlais is Alun Lewis’s unpublished novel from the late 1930s. The Lawrentian story of a young boy growing up in the poverty stricken industrial valleys of south Wales, it is also reflects Lewis’ own experiences, particularly his search for self knowledge and his conviction that he would be a writer. Miner’s son Morlais Jenkins is already being educated away from his background at grammar school when he is adopted, on the death of her own son, by the wife of the local local colliery owner. Morlais’ parents recognize the opportunity for their son to make a better future, but they must all pay a great price. Stifled by middle class life, his adoptive mother recognizes that Morlais will be a poet and encourages him to be neither working class or middle class, but true to his talent. Full of vivid descriptive passages of life in the fictional mining valley, and centred on the conflicted character of Morlais and the decisions he faces over his two families, his two social backgrounds, and his desire to be a poet, the novel is an enthralling journey through the life of a young boy becoming a young man. Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was the outstanding writer of World War II and Morlais, written in his mid twenties, is an early indication of the talented writer he would become just five years later.

Soldier and poet Alun Lewis wrote frequently to his family, friends and other writers such as Robert Graves. Mostly these letters are uncollected. Those that have been published received high praise, and were compared to Keats's letters by critic Walter Allen. Letters to My Wife includes over 240 letters to his wife Gweno Ellis, beginning with his enlistment and continuing until his death in Burma in 1944. From them emerges a unique account of daily army life, of the phoney war in Britain and with descriptions of the journey to India via Brazil and South Africa. The letters also shed light on Lewis' development to become the writer of World War Two, with first hand references to his popular poems and stories, how they originated and how they were first published. Above all, Lewis's letters testify to his love for his war bride Gweno, whom he married in July 1941 before embarkation. Letters to My Wife is the story of Alun Lewis's war.

Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was one of the few great British writers of the Second World War. His early death at the age of twenty-eight robbed Wales of its most promising poet and story writer. Although he had been writing since an early age, becoming a soldier had a stimulating effect on Lewis's writing: his first book of poems, Raiders' Dawn, was published in 1942, and The Last Inspection, a collection of stories, appeared in the same year, alerting critics and editors to the arrival of a new war writer. Both books are characterised by vivid realism and emotional power.Later in 1942 Lewis's new regiment, the South Wales Borderers, travelled to India. His experiences there are recreated in the beautiful poems of Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets and the stories and letters of In the Green Tree. On the reputation of these four books Alun Lewis is widely seen, with Keith Douglas, as the outstanding writer of World War Two.Collected Stories reprints the war stories in their entirety for the first time. It also collects stories published in student magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, together with several previously unseen. In bringing together all this material, editor Cary Archard shows Lewis's development from remarkable schoolboy writer to mature and established author whose stories appeared in magazines such as Horizon and Lilliput. "... one of the mightiest poets and fiction writers of the twentieth century... a superb Collected Stories" Richard Simpson, Tar River Poetry"So lyrical, so larky, that, almost unconsciously, one starts to read them aloud to an empty room"Sunday Times"Each story is a gem, full of wise understanding of human experience, and deeply moving"PN Review"Stories of such artistry that one is inclined to reread them immediately to savour the moments they capture" Publishers' WeeklyAlun Lewis (1915-1944), the remarkable poet and short story writer, died, aged twenty-eight, in Burma in the Second World War. Some critics see him as the last of the great Romantic poets, a twentieth century Keats. Others describe his poetry as the path from pre-war Yeats and Auden to post-war poets like Hughes and Gunn. In Wales there are those who think his greater versatility and finer intelligence place him above his contemporaries Dylan Thomas and R.S. Thomas.

Alun Lewis (1915-1944), the remarkable poet and story writer, died, aged 28, in Burma during the Second World War. Some critics see him as the last of the great Romantic poets, a twentieth century Keats. Others view him as the bridge between pre-war poets like Auden and Yeats to post-war poets such as Hughes and Gunn. He was born and raised in Depression-struck south Wales and, following degrees in history at Aberystwyth and Manchester, became a teacher there. Early in 1940, despite his pacifist inclinations he enlisted and, after long periods of training, joined the war in India.Becoming a soldier galvanised Lewis's writing. By 1944 he had written two collections of poems and one of short stories, all published to considerable acclaim. Firmly established with Keith Douglas as the leading writer of the Second World War, Lewis's death in an accident while on active service was a huge loss to English literature. This Collected Poems comprises a body of work which has endured and which transcends the label 'war poetry'; it is complete in itself and full of promise of greater things."Always, one feels the pressure of integrity behind his writing. And in elegising Lewis's promise we should not overlook his actual achievement…"M Wynn Thomas, The Guardian