T. Gwynn Jones

Professor Thomas Gwynn Jones C.B.E. (10 October 1871 – 7 March 1949), more widely known as T. Gwynn Jones, was a leading Welsh poet, scholar, literary critic, novelist, translator, and journalist who did important work in Welsh literature, Welsh education, and the study of Welsh folk tales in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also an accomplished translator into Welsh of works from English, German, Greek, and Irish.

Personal life

Thomas Jones was born at Y Gwyndy Uchaf in Betws-yn-Rhos, Denbighshire, Wales, the eldest son of Isaac Jones and Jane Roberts. He was educated in Denbigh and Abergele. In 1899 he married Margaret Jane Davies, the daughter of Thomas Davies of Denbigh, by whom he had three children.

1890s–1900s: Journalistic period

Always of a fragile physical disposition, Jones was unable to take up a scholarship to Oxford University due to one of many bouts of ill health which were to plague him throughout his life. He instead moved to Caernarfon and took up journalism, writing for a number of newspapers in both English and Welsh. By 1890 he was a sub-editor on the Welsh-language newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru (Y Faner). His first novel, Gwedi Brad a Gofid was serialised in 1898 and he would be writing novels more or less continuously for the next decade; his greatest ambition however had always been to be a poet, and many of his poems appeared in various publications. His first collection of poetry, Gwlad y Gân, was met with mixed reviews, a fact probably not helped by the fact that the title poem satirised the Welsh literary establishment and Eisteddfod tradition.