Dylan Thomas

"When he says 'Dylan', he thinks you're talking about 'Dylan Thomas', whoever he was. The man ain't got no culture."

- Paul Simon, A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)

At one time Paul Simon's lyrics were no doubt terribly funny, but it's unlikely that today all that many people will get the joke. That is unless you do have culture and know who Dylan Thomas was.

Dylan (Thomas, that is) is as well known for the manner of his death as much as his life and art. So it's all the more ironic that the oft-told "eighteen-straight whiskeys" story about the demise of one of the most original poets of the Twentieth Century may indeed be bogus. Still it can't be denied that as with Dylan's kindred spirit, Brendan Behan, it was the sad consequences of letting a public persona dominate his private life that made Dylan's (and Brendan's) early end almost inevitable. For a little more about Dylan and his life, click here.