Alun Lewis

Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was born and brought up near Aberdare in south wales, the so of teachers. He read history at Aberystwyth and Manchester, and after a brief period teaching enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1940 despite his pacifist inclination. He transferred to the South Wales Borderers and eventually travelled to the war in India and Burma, where he died on active service in March 1944. Becoming a soldier had had a galvanizing effect on Lewis' writing: Raiders' Dawn, a collection of...See more

Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was born and brought up near Aberdare in south wales, the so of teachers. He read history at Aberystwyth and Manchester, and after a brief period teaching enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1940 despite his pacifist inclination. He transferred to the South Wales Borderers and eventually travelled to the war in India and Burma, where he died on active service in March 1944. Becoming a soldier had had a galvanizing effect on Lewis' writing: Raiders' Dawn, a collection of poems appeared in 1942, and early in 1943 The Last Inspection, a book of stories was published. Both volumes received much critical acclaim. A second poetry collection, Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets was published in 1945 and his Indian stories, with some letters, appeared in In the Green Tree (1948). His Letters to My Wife was published in 1989, a Collected Stories in 1991, and a Collected Poems in 1994. See less