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Emyr Humphreys

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Emyr Humphreys
Born(1919-04-15)15 April 1919
Prestatyn, Wales[1]
Died30 September 2020(2020-09-30) (aged 101)
Llanfairpwll, Wales
LanguageWelsh, English
NationalityWelsh
Alma materUniversity of Wales, Aberystwyth

Emyr Owen Humphreys, FRSL, FLSW (Welsh: [ˈɛmɨr];[2] 15 April 1919 – 30 September 2020)[3] was a Welsh novelist, poet, and author. His career spanned from the 1940s until his retirement in 2009. He published in both English and Welsh.

Early life and career

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Humphreys was born on 15 April 1919 at Prestatyn in Denbighshire. He was educated at Rhyl High School, where, as E. O. Humphreys, he started composing poetry and wrote for The Welsh Nationalist, the monthly English-language newspaper of the Welsh Nationalist Party, later called by Plaid Cymru. He went on to study history and English at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, after winning a scholarship to study there. However, he did not graduate due to the start of the Second World War.[4]

During the war, Humphreys registered as a conscientious objector and worked on a farm. He subsequently undertook relief work in Egypt and Italy.[4] After the war he worked as a teacher, as a radio producer at the BBC, and later became a lecturer in drama at Bangor University.[5][6][7] Having become fluent in the Welsh language while at Aberystwyth, Humphreys went on to learn Italian while working in Italy after the war, and spent time there as well as studying the country's literature.[8]

Writings

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The stories of Humphreys are based on Celtic myths, and in particular the myth of Blodeuwedd which has been incorporated in his writings throughout his career.[9] One of the major themes of his writings is Welsh identity. The Little Kingdom (1946) is written in English; however, the main characters are talking Welsh.[10]

Humphreys's best known novel is A Toy Epic (1958). The story is a coming-of-age story of three boys, and an important war novel, however it is also a coming-of-age story of Wales itself.[11] He took a different viewpoint in Outside the House of Baal (1965), and wrote the novel from a perspective of old age.[12]

Humphreys's masterpiece was The Land of the Living (1974–2001), an epic sequence of seven novels charting the political and cultural history of twentieth-century Wales.[13] Humphreys remarked in a 2018 interview that he wanted to tell a story from "cradle to the grave".[14]

During his long bilingual writing career, he published over twenty novels. He also wrote plays for stage and television, short stories, The Taliesin Tradition (a cultural history of Wales), and published his Collected Poems in 1999.[13] His final work was The Woman at the Window (2009) in which one of the characters says: "My useful life is over".[14]

His papers, held by the National Library of Wales, include correspondence with writers, performers and other public figures, such as Dannie Abse, Philip Burton, Hywel Teifi Edwards, T. S. Eliot, Gwynfor Evans, Patrick Heron, Marghanita Laski and R. S. Thomas.[15]

Honours

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Among many honours, he was awarded the Somerset Maugham Award in 1953 for Hear and Forgive.[16] Humphreys won the Wales Book of the Year Award in 1992 and 1999.[7][17] Humphreys was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature[7] and the Learned Society of Wales.[18]

Personal life

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Humphreys married Elinor Myfanwy Jones in 1946. Together, they had four children. They travelled to Austria after he won the Somerset Maugham Award, which stipulated that the prize money was to be used for travel abroad.[4]

Humphreys retired in 2009 aged 90 after his final book was published.[6] He reached his centenary on 15 April 2019.[13][19] He died on 30 September 2020 at his home in Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, aged 101.[4]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ "Emyr Humphreys". British Council. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  2. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  3. ^ "Cofio'r llenor a'r 'cawr diwylliannol' Emyr Humphreys". BBC Cymru Fyw (in Welsh). 30 September 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d "Emyr Humphreys: 'Cultural giant' author dies at 101". BBC News. 30 September 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  5. ^ "Emyr Humphreys – Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  6. ^ a b Steve Dube (18 April 2009). "Emyr Humphreys' final book The Woman at the Window". Wales Online. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  7. ^ a b c "Emyr Humphreys – Biography". British Council. Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  8. ^ M. Wynn Thomas (10 May 2019). "Humphreys at 100". The Bookseller. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  9. ^ Green, Diane (2003). "Welsh writing and postcoloniality : the strategic use of the Blodeuwedd myth in Emyr Humphreys's novels". Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (16): 6. doi:10.14198/raei.2003.16.10. hdl:10045/1278. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "Emyr Humphreys: The Little Kingdom". The Modern Novel. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  11. ^ "#GWN Revisited: A Toy Epic by Emyr Humphreys". Wales Arts Review. September 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  12. ^ "Emyr Humphreys (1919–2020)". Wales Arts Review. 30 September 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  13. ^ a b c Tristan Hughes (15 April 2019). "Emyr Humphreys at 100". Wales Arts Review. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Feeling it and telling it, with Emyr Humphreys". Society of Authors. 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  15. ^ "Finding Aid – Emyr Humphreys Papers" (PDF). National Library of Wales. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  16. ^ "BBC – North West Wales Arts – Emyr Humphreys". BBC Wales. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  17. ^ "Past Winners and Judges". Academi. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  18. ^ "Learned Society of Wales – Emyr Humphreys". Learned Society of Wales. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  19. ^ "Why is one of Wales' greatest cultural heroes being ignored on his 100th birthday?". Nation Cymru. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
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