Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer. Dylan's most popular poems include 'Do not go gentle into that good night' and 'And Death Shall have No Dominion'. He also included poetry in his famous play for voices, 'Under Milk Wood'. Dylan's first collection of poems was published in December 1934, a month after his twentieth birthday.
In 1940, Thomas and his wife, the dancer and writer Caitlin Thomas (née Macnamara), moved to London. He had served as an anti-aircraft gunner but was rejected for more active combat due to illness. To avoid the air raids, the couple left London in 1944. As early as 1946 he was talking of emigrating to the United States, and in 1947 he had what would seem to be a nervous breakdown but refused psychiatric assistance.
Thomas was a VERY heavy drinker. The exact circumstances of his death in New York at the age of 39 are unclear; his last words, uttered just before he slipped into a coma following a drinking session in Greenwich Village's White Horse Tavern, were reportedly "I've had 18 straight whiskies ... I think that's the record" — but if alcohol consumption wasn't the primary cause, it was a huge contributing factor.