Dylan Thomas: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog
The "Young Dog" of the title is of course Thomas himself, and this  volume of autobiographical stories by the great modern poet, who died at  39 while on his third lecture tour in the United States, shows his  waggish humor at its best, his exuberance and verbal magic in  spectacular display. It also shows him a spinner of tales and a creator  of memorable characters. There is the grandfather who marches off in his  best clothes to be buried in the next town, the sardonic "senior  reporter" on a provincial newspaper, servant girls who know how to deal  triumphantly with a fast-talking dandy, a twenty-year-old farmer  preaching wildly to boys in a deserted barn, a group of respectable  worthies who play at literature behind closed blinds, and always the  observant and unfazed young Thomas. Few writers have evoked as  successfully the mysteries and adventures of boyhood, of young love with  its shattered dreams, or of death haunting two lads at play: none has  done it in as fresh and telling phrases, with an elation as natural and  contagious.