New Walking Tour highlights Dylan Thomas' links with New York

More than 50 years after his death, world famous poet Dylan Thomas’ links with New York are still as strong as ever.  The Welsh Assembly Government’s office in the city has put together a special walking tour of Greenwich Village to highlight some of city’s buildings and landmarks connected with the poet’s visits.

The publication of the leaflet coincides with the release of a film about the life of Dylan Thomas “The Edge of Love” in the UK, which stars Matthew Rhys, Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.

The details of the Dylan Thomas Walking Tour, have been set out by Dylan Thomas’ daughter Aeronwy Thomas and Welsh poet, Peter Thabit Jones.  It takes visitors to New York City around a number of sites in Greenwich Village which are linked with the poet.  Dylan Thomas visited and stayed in the New York City while on four reading tours of North America between 1950 and 1953.

The self-guided tour begins on Hudson St at the Church of St Luke’s in the Field where a memorial service was held to remember the poet after his death.  Other stops on the tour include Chumleys bar, one of New York’s oldest literary bars, the Cherry Lane Theatre where Dylan Thomas held a special reading of his poems, the Washington Square Hotel where he stayed, the apartment of his good friend, E.E Cummings on Patchin Place and St Vincent’s Hospital where the poet died.   The tour ends at the famous White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, one of Dylan’s favourite haunts in the Big Apple.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan said:

Fifty years after his death, there is still a huge interest both in Wales and the USA in Dylan Thomas and his literary output.  That is bound to increase especially with the recent release of a major new film about his life.  This tour will highlight key New York landmarks in Dylan’s visits as well as helping to promote Wales’ strong links with the Big Apple.

Catrin Brace, who works for the Welsh Assembly Government in New York and who put the tour together said: 

We have been very lucky to have the help of Dylan Thomas’ daughter Aeronwy Thomas in putting this tour together and hopefully, visitors will be able to gain a strong sense of the real man behind the “brassy orator” with “the lovely gift of the gab”, as well as giving people a real feel for the Greenwich Village of the 1950s.

Aeronwy Thomas, daughter of Dylan, and herself a published poet said:

It has been a great pleasure working with Peter Thabit Jones and the Welsh Assembly Government on this project and to make the real facts about my father’s time in New York available to anyone who wants to learn more about him. During my recent participation in the Dylan Thomas Tribute Tour in the USA, I was able to accompany the first group of guests to try out this tour and they all had a very enjoyable time and, I think, had a much better understanding of my father as a result. Now that the tour is freely available on the internet as a self-guided tour, then I hope that it will bring as much pleasure to many more individuals for years to come.

July 21, 2008