SOURCE: “Dylan Thomas: The Position in Calamity,” in The Southern Review, Vol. 3, 1967, pp. 922-43.

In the following essay, West examines the stories contained in Thomas's collection, Adventures in the Skin Trade.

I

According to Wordsworth, “all men feel something of an honourable bigotry for the objects which have long continued to please them.” Something of: it is what Englishmen say to maintain their reserve during enthusiasm and what most people say when they want to suggest reservations painlessly. Something of: the phrase comes naturally to the lips for Dylan Thomas, whom his detractors find only something of a charlatan, whom his admirers find only something of a genius. It is not easy to be absolute about him, yet half-measures don't seem appropriate—and this will show in what follows. So let him talk for himself while I, a bit fervently off-center about him and his works, muster something...