The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas's letters to the many women in his life - most important among them his wife Caitlin - are among the most beautiful and lyrical he wrote. Provoked on the most part by separations, they are cajoling, apologetic, uninhibited, tactical and loving. Thomas was an inexperienced, faithless and duplicitous lover, fortunate to inspire a more constant affection in the women who loved him. This collection includes letters to Pamela, his first love, to Caitlin, his equally falmboyant wife, and to later loves like Elizabeth Reitel, the woman who was with him on the night he died in New York. Like most great letter writers, Thomas had the gift of writing as if his correspondent stood in front of him. He could also use his letters to accomplish a number of tasks - to secure forgiveness, to make excuses, to amuse or deflect, to give an impression of confidence and ease. Sensual and earthy, like so much of his poetry, they were all designed to secure Thomas's place in his lover's heart and memory - the purpose of all true love letters.