David John Williams


David John Williams was one of the foremost Welsh-language writers of the twentieth century and a prominent Welsh nationalist. He died in 1970 in Rhydcymerau, Carmarthenshire, Wales.

Life

Williams was born Penrhiw, Llansawel, Carmarthenshire, moving with his family to a smaller farm, Abernant, near Rhydcymerau in 1891. He left home in 1902 and spent four years working in the south Wales coalfield. He resumed his studies, eventually studying English at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and Jesus College, Oxford. For most of his life he taught English at the grammar school in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.

Politics

A socialist, he was one of the founders of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh National Party, in 1925. He took part, with Saunders Lewis and Lewis Valentine, in the symbolic burning of a bombing school in Penyberth in north-west Wales in 1936. He spent nine months in Wormwood Scrubs prison.

Literary Career

Williams was a short story writer of renown and also the author of two volumes of autobiography. All his work is inspired by his vision of his native locality, of a close-knit community where common values give worth to all. Hen Dŷ Ffarm was translated into English by poet Waldo Williams in 1953 as part of a UNESCO programme to promote minority languages to wider audiences.
He held the Irish journalist and poet George Russell 'AE' in high regard. publishing a pamphlet AE a Chymru in 1929 and a translation of AE's The National Being under the title Y Bod Cenhedlig in 1963.

Works