Oggi è il centenario della nascita di Dylan Thomas, poeta gallese tra i più importanti della sua generazione.
Per ricordarlo, ecco un articolo dal New York Times che racconta il suo viaggio negli Stati Uniti, tra letture pubbliche, incontri e spaesamenti.

Thomas felt like a stranger in a strange land. “I have no idea what on earth I am doing here in the very loud, mad middle of the last mad Empire on Earth,” he wrote in his chubby, round handwriting to his wife, Caitlin, on his arrival. “I've been to a few parties, met lots of American poets, writers, critics, hangers-on, some very pleasant, all furiously polite & hospitable.”

As for Manhattan: “It's a nightmare, night and day; there never was such a place; I would never get used to the speed, the noise, the utter indifference of the crowds, the frightening politeness of the intellectuals, and, most of all, these huge phallic towers, up & up & up, hundreds of floors, into the impossible sky. I feel so terrified of this place, I hardly dare to leave my hotel room.”

(dalle lettere alla moglie di quel periodo)