Prepare to be shocked! The beloved Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, known for his masterpieces, has a dark secret from his school days.
A recent discovery by publisher Alessandro Gallenzi has revealed that the young Thomas was a serial plagiarist. Gallenzi claims to have found at least a dozen instances of Thomas stealing and passing off other people's poems as his own.
But here's where it gets controversial...
Gallenzi's findings, detailed in an essay for the Times Literary Supplement, suggest that Thomas's plagiarism was not an isolated incident but a prolonged habit. Starting from his early years as a schoolboy, Thomas engaged in what Gallenzi describes as "wholesale theft" of other authors' work.
The evidence is compelling. Geoff Haden, chairman of the Dylan Thomas Society, agrees that the poems in question are definitely plagiarized. He plans to exhibit the original works alongside Thomas's school magazine poems, exposing the source of Thomas's "pinched" material.
This new revelation will undoubtedly revolutionize our understanding of Thomas's formative years. As Gallenzi puts it, "It's a shocking discovery."
Thomas, beloved for his works "Under Milk Wood" and "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," was considered a precocious talent from a young age. However, his early success may have come at a cost.
In 1925, Thomas began attending Swansea Grammar School, where his father, an English teacher and school magazine editor, had high expectations. Despite being unruly and underachieving in other subjects, young Dylan actively contributed to the school magazine.
But when Gallenzi attempted to gather Thomas's early poems for a new book, he made a startling discovery. Ten poems published under Thomas's name in the school magazine and two in the Swansea newspaper, "The Herald of Wales," were bold rip-offs of other writers.
Many of these plagiarized poems originally appeared in "Boy's Own Paper," a popular periodical among teenage boys at the time. For example, "His Repertoire," supposedly written by 12-year-old Thomas in 1926, is nearly identical to Archibald JA Wilson's poem "The Only Piece He Knew."
Another poem, "The Second Best" by Helen Elrington, reappeared under Thomas's name. Even more intriguing is "The Watchers," a complex work about the war dead, which seems to be the work of another "Boy's Own" contributor, Charles Ingram Stanley, rather than a 12-year-old prodigy.
Gallenzi's research has identified other plagiarized authors, including James Allen Mackereth, Edgar A Guest, and Louisa Baldwin, the novelist aunt of Rudyard Kipling.
"He had not simply drawn inspiration or imitated; he had stolen wholesale," Gallenzi writes.
Gallenzi and his team at Alma Books confirmed plagiarism in 12 poems spanning from 1926 to 1931, with another dozen suspected cases. These poems will be included in a new edition of Thomas's poetry, published by Alma Books, under the section "The Plagiarised and Dubious Poems."
Gallenzi admits to being shocked and upset by the evidence. He questions why Thomas, an experimental modernist poet known for his original rhythms, would engage in such deception.
"It's very disappointing to discover the hoodwinking of his peers and family," Gallenzi says. He suggests that Thomas's plagiarism could have been an elaborate hoax or a desperate attempt to gain recognition, especially from his severe father.
This revelation challenges the notion of artistic genius as fully formed from the start. As Gallenzi puts it, "We must abandon the idea of Thomas as a young prodigy."
Geoff Haden, who runs the Dylan Thomas Birthplace, agrees that Thomas's plagiarism was likely a complex attempt to gain his father's approval.
Toby Lichtig, fiction editor of TLS, praises Gallenzi's sleuthing, saying, "These revelations force us to reassess Thomas's early work, but they should not detract from our appreciation of his later, more original writings."
So, what do you think? Is this a shocking revelation or a minor blip in the life of a literary giant? Share your thoughts in the comments!
