Houghton Receives Thomas Collection

Houghton Library has received a collection of original manuscripts and correspondence of the late British poet Dylan Thomas, the 1950 Morris Gray lecturer.

Oscar H. Williams of New York presented the writings in the name of his wife, Gene Derwood, who died in 1953. Two paintings of Thomas by Mrs. Williams are included in the collection.

"Prologue," Thomas' last poem, is part of this bequest, which will be displayed along with works by T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, John Masefield and Ezra Pound. The "Prologue" manuscripts contain the original draft and the finished copy of the poem.

Williams, a poet and editor of several anthologies, expressed the hope that his gift would form the basis of a larger collection of Thomas' writings in Houghton.

Thomas is considered one of the world's greatest lyric poets. He died in the fall of 1953 at the age of 39.