Keeping Up with the Joneses -yn y Gymraeg: A Taste of the Welsh Language

As part of this years Left Coast Eisteddfod we are pleased and proud to announce the following event. For full details visit the Portland Central Library event page here:- Keeping Up with the Joneses -yn y Gymraeg: A Taste of the Welsh Language "In this fun, activity-based course, you will be able to do what Welsh stars Catherine Zeta-Jones & Tom Jones CAN'T do - you’ll be able to speak the language of Cymraeg (Welsh)! In this 2 hr taster course, forget dictionaries or taking notes, instead you’ll be meeting new ffrindiau(friends) and sharing gwybodaeth(information) about your interests. This is an activity-based experience that is so enjoyable you won’t even know you’re learning! Expect to participate, experiment and most of all to have fun! In this class we’ll also be: **having a laugh and a go at pronouncing Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch **storytelling – enjoy reading some of your favorite Jumbo Fairy tale books in Welsh. **listening to englynion and other styles of Welsh poetry."   About the teacher: To California native Diana Manzanilla, discovering Cymraeg was a fluke. Yet, the language instantly captivated her, causing her to leave home and family for the beautiful green valleys of Wales. She spent 2 years in that glorious land - the first spent learning Welsh and the second spent teaching Welsh to adults using the same methods you’ll experience in this course.

"Rhapsody" - Dorothy Edwards ( Parthian/Library of Wales )

"I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship, and even love, without gratitude and given nothing in return." Cardiff Times 13th January 1934 So read the suicide note found on Dorothy Edwards' body after her tragic death in January 1934. This fine collection of short stories amply demonstrates why, had she lived longer, she might have gone on to become the Welsh Chekhov. Each one is a finely crafted gem although none of them could count as cheery companions for a vacation trip. Indeed many of her characters evince the same eerie and unsettling sense of detachment from the circumstances of their own lives which she hints at in her suicide note quoted above. They are frequently consumed with a passion for music which seems to act as a surrogate for genuine emotional attachments. Their enthusiasm for the "life of the mind" seems to preclude and eclipse meaningful human relationships. It was fashionable in the early 70's to evaluate artists and authors in terms of psychological diagnostic categories and many including Sylvia Plath and even Dylan Thomas were labeled as 'schizoid' by some literary critics of that era.. However flawed such critical practices may be the label does seem to throw some light on both Dorothy Edwards and many of her her characters. In the first of these tales, the eponymously titled "Rhapsody", George Everett is introduced in the following terms:- "His face wore a curious expression, as if he were listening all the time to something intensely illuminating but scarcely audible, or as if he were experiencing some almost intolerably sweet emotion, and he seemed to be imploring you 'Please don't interrupt me for a moment; it will soon be over.' Later in the book after his wife's death his reaction to this tragic event is characterized thus:- " Everett behaved at her death very much as he had behaved when she was ill. He was vaguely sorry for her, but he did not altogether understand what was expected of him." This collection, which includes three stories not published or excluded from the original 1927 edition, abounds with characters who are similarly emotionally crippled or repressed. As Christopher Meredith says in his excellent introduction to this Parthian/Library of Wales edition:- " Fashion for re-readings according to various theories have helped critics to rediscover her from time to time, but I believe that Dorothy Edwards is a great deal more than an interesting literary case. She's an important, utterly original modernist. Whichever way you read her, she's the extraordinarily accomplished author of powerful and suggestive fictions." In echoing these sentiments I can only add that as an avid fan of the short story genre these must rank amongst the finest I have read in many years. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For the morbidly curious the approximate site of her tragic death can be viewed in the Google Map linked below. Railway Terrace and the "Allotments" ( Community Gardens ) referred to in the "Cardiff Times" article linked above are still there. To the best of my knowledge there is no plaque to mark the spot. Perhaps there should be? Google Map

Welsh Month at Portland Central Library

Today marks the start of Welsh Month at Portland Central Library. We set up our display case in the foyer this morning and Posters and fliers are on display. We hope to display posters at all 18 Libraries in the Multnomah district and anyone who wants to help us with that is welcome to download and print a pdf of our library poster from the panel at the bottom of this page.

Events will include:-

Wednesday August 19th

Enjoy Welsh language poetry with John Good. John was born in South Wales, into a house where the Welsh language was spoken. Over the past twenty years, he has given bilingual presentations on Welsh culture, sharing poetry, music and literature. Wed Aug 19th 12-1 p.m.
ADMISSION FREE.

An assortment of materials available at the Library on Welsh poetry can be be found HERE

Purchase or listen online to John's "The First Fifteen Hundred Years of Welsh Poetry" HERE

Thursday August 20th

As part of the program authors Niall Griffiths and Chris Keil will be presenting a reading/Q&A session at the library on Thursday August 20th between 12 and 2. ADMISSION FREE

For more info and to rsvp if you will be attending go to this page:- Welsh Month at the Library All three of our guests will also be appearing and giving presentations as part of the daytime program at the Left Coast Eisteddfod.

Meanwhile here are excerpts of interviews in which author Niall Griffiths, explains his passion for reading and writing:

Get Your Welsh Month Link or Poster Here To view a larger image click on the thumbnail above or here. If you live in the Portland area please feel free to embed the code below on your blog or website. The image links to the Americymru Welsh Month at the Library webpage. If you would like to print a copy for display at your local library, download the .pdf here <a href="http://americymru.ning.com/events/welsh-monthcentral-library"><img border="0" src="http://api.ning.com/files/K6l2F1Vx2w1m1L-VbbYJ*qalZ5WtIbajt7LgvhCLkdWV6FpOa7CNgaVOfghiGg-IyYNIR20kN*NppNDzpfiKOJm4J72tVkTS/welshmonth.jpeg"/></a>

Congratulate the Devil, Howell Davies, (2008) Parthian Library of Wales

Congratulate the Devil, Howell Davies, (2008) Parthian Library of Wales

This Howell Davies science fiction novel was originally published in 1939 and has been re-published in paperback by Parthian Books under their Library of Wales imprint.

Congratulate the Devil is a revelation: engaging, unique, relevant and vibrant, seventy years after its initial publication. The narrative is subtle, darkly humorous and cheerfully bitter. Davies solidly built his characters: mannerism by action by reaction, as protagonist James Starling evolves steadily and subtly, from useless playboy to doomed and unwilling witness to tragedy and, ultimately, himself its victim. Starling visits a friend from his school days, Roper, to find that Roper, now a chemist, has made the startling discovery of a new drug which gives its user omniscient control over the actions and attitudes of others. Use of the drug also alters its user and provides Davies his platform to discuss which has greater effect and so is more destructive: malignant lust or good intention.

This new edition includes a marvelous, sparkling foreward by Howell Davies' grandson, Adrian Dannatt. Rather than another writer's hopefully very interesting impressions of the book, the author and the author's style or ability, Dannatt shares with us memories of his grandfather, intimate snapshots of Howell Davies as an individual that no acquaintence or contemporary could provide.

Congratulate the Devil is a classic, "Golden Age", sci-fi masterpiece of the 1930s, easily on par with any other work of its time and which never received the recognition it deserved. Unlike its American counterparts of the Joseph Campbell era, Davies novel is not pulp, it's a novel. There aren't any spaceships, aliens or gadgets and the science in the story is not the focus, its details and particulars are barely described. Fictional science is the catalyst that directs all the characters' narrative thereafter but the characters, their interaction, their fates and how they are effected by a product of science, are the story.

Parthian's Library of Wales series features works of Anglo-Welsh literature (works by Welsh authors in English) and their catalog can be found here.

"Nothing remains for me now but to congratulate the Devil on all his works." Howell Davies (1939)

Celebrating the Life and Work of One of the World’s Greatest Photographers

For the first time, a collection of photographs taken by one of Wales’ greatest Victorian photographers, John Thomas, is about to be published.. He is described as “one of the world’s greatest photographers” by the head of the Collections Department at the National Library of Wales and the author of a new book, A Welsh Way of Life, Iwan Meical.

John Thomas, a Welshman from Cellan, Ceredigion, took photographs from all areas of Wales during the latter half of the nineteenth century, after starting his career by inviting several prominent preachers to sit for him. The venture was successful and by 1867 Thomas was confident enough to start his own photographic business, “The Cambrian Gallery”. He continued with the work for almost forty years, travelling the length and breadth of Wales, taking photographs of landscapes as well as portraits.

According to the author, “In the work of John Thomas we have a personal, emotional and lively account. Not only is he an important Welsh photographer, but is one of the world’s greatest photographers.”

A Welsh Way of Life is a bilingual account of the life and work of John Thomas. A collection of 130 photographs have been brought together for this unique volume.

Iwan Meical says: “His work is inextricably associated with Wales of that period, when great revolutionary changes were occurring…and during an age when photographic portraits, showing people at their most respectable, were much sought after, John Thomas was the exception because he chose to photograph ordinary labourers and even tramps and drunks.”

Through his photographs of fairs and ports, as well as chapels and landscapes, we have a new insight into Wales and the Welsh people of the Victorian age.

The author of the text that accompanies the photographs is Iwan Meical Jones, who is the Head of the Collections Department at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. He has published a number of articles on Welsh photographers, but this is his first book. The launch will be held in the Drum at the National Library of Wales at 6:00pm Friday 3rd October.

The book will be available from Y Lolfa for: £14.95 + p&p

Should you wish to attend the launch contact the National Library 632548. Some Photographic Samples



















OTHER RESOURCES

John Thomas Collection at The National Library of Wales
John Thomas, Photographer at Rhiw.com.