John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 3 (1944) Winner
Alun Lewis
アルン・ルイス
Alun Lewis
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1915-07-01 （Cwmaman, Wales）
- Died
- 1944-03-05 （Burma） age 28
- Nationality
- Welsh
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Cwmaman (birthplace) → Llanwern (where parents worked), South Wales → Aberystwyth (university) → Manchester (university) → India (military service)
Career
- Occupations
- Poet, Writer, Teacher, Soldier
- Active Years
- 1942-1944
- Influenced By
- Edward Thomas, Tradition of war poets / WWI poets
- Influenced
- Jeremy Hooker, Ian Hamilton
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberystwyth University | — | — | — | — | United Kingdom |
| University of Manchester | — | — | — | — | United Kingdom |
Aberystwyth University
Country:
United Kingdom
University of Manchester
Country:
United Kingdom
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Raiders' Dawn and other poems
1942 PoetryA collection of early poems addressing wartime experience, isolation and death. Noted for its direct and introspective tone.
isolationdeathwarnature
The Last Inspection and other stories
1942 Short storiesA collection of short stories drawing on army life and human relationships, depicting the human side and solitude of war.
military lifehumanitysolitude
Bibliography
- Raiders' Dawn and other poems (1942)
- The Last Inspection and other stories (1942)
- Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets. Poems in Transit (1945, posthumous)
- Letters from India (1946, ed. Gweno Lewis & Gwyn Jones)
- In the Green Tree (1948, letters & stories)
- Selected Poetry and Prose (1966, ed. Ian Hamilton)
- Selected Poems of Alun Lewis (1981, ed. Jeremy Hooker & Gweno Lewis)
- Alun Lewis. A Miscellany of His Writings (1982, ed. John Pikoulis)
- Letters to My Wife (1989, ed. Gweno Lewis)
- Collected Stories (1990, ed. Cary Archard)
- Collected Poems (1994, ed. Cary Archard)
- A Cypress Walk. Letters to 'Frieda' (2006, Enitharmon Press)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Lyrical and introspective styleConcise and direct expressionRealistic depiction of wartime experience
- Recurring Motifs
- isolationdeathnaturethe emptiness of military life
Legacy
Regarded as an important English-language war poet of World War II. His introspective focus on isolation and death has earned continued critical attention and posthumous collections.
Quotes
-
His poetry centres around a recurring obsession with the themes of isolation and death.
Source: The Oxford Companion to English Literature (ed. Margaret Drabble, 1985) (1985)
Trivia
- Although born in Wales, he wrote only in English.
- Married Gweno Meverid Ellis (Gweno Lewis) in 1941.
- Died in Burma in 1944 from a gunshot wound; while a court of inquiry concluded the shooting was accidental, it is widely considered to have been suicide.
- Most major works were published in 1942; several collections and letters were published posthumously.