Literature in Wales now is produced in two languages. Of these one is Welsh, the country's ancient native tongue, which has an unbroken literary tradition reaching back to the sixth century. But at present (1980) Welsh is spoken by only about twenty percent of the population and the language of the remaining eighty percent is English. Gwyn Jones is one of that group of Welshmen--Dylan Thomas, David Jones, and R.S. Thomas are others--who writes in English, and his contribution to the literature of his country in this language has been varied, prolific, and of an impressively high standard.

Gwyn Jones was born 24 May 1907 in Blackwood, a mining town in industrial Mon-mouthshire (now called Gwent) in South Wales. His father, George Henry, was a miner and his mother, Lily Florence Nethercott Jones, a teacher turned midwife. He grew up, one of four children, in a cultured and stable home...