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Richard Llewellyn

{{short description|British novelist (1906–1983)}}

{{distinguish|Richard Llewellin}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2022}}

File:Richard Llewellyn novelist.jpg

Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd ({{né|Richard Herbert Vivian Lloyd}};{{cite news |title=True birthplace of Wales's literary hero |work=BBC News|date=1999-12-05 |url=http://newsalerts.bbc.co.uk/1/low/wales/551486.stm |access-date=2010-04-06 |archive-date=16 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316173733/http://newscdn.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/551486.stm |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |title=Faking Literature |author=Ruthven, KK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-521-66015-7 |page=13}} 8 December 1906, London – 30 November 1983, Dublin), known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn ({{IPAc-en|l|u|ˈ|ɛ|l|ɪ|n}} {{respell|loo|EL|in}}, {{IPA|cy|ɬəˈwɛlɪn|lang}}), was a British novelist of a Welsh background, who is best remembered for his 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley, which chronicles life in a coal mining village in the South Wales Valleys.{{cite web|title=Richard Llewellyn |department=Arts |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/richard-llewellyn/ |access-date=2010-04-05 |date=28 November 2008|work=BBC Wales}}{{cite web|title=Lloyd, Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn (1906–1983)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101031372/|publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=Sep 2004|access-date=2010-04-11}}

Biography

Richard Herbert Vivian Lloyd (he later used the name "Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd") was born in Hendon, Middlesex in 1906, the second child and only son of William Llewellyn Lloyd, a hotel clerk and later the assistant secretary to a club, and Sarah Anne, née Thomas.Contemporary Authors, Pamela Dear, Gale, 1999, p. 352{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31372 | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31372 | title=Lloyd, Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn [pseud. Richard Llewellyn] (1906–1983), novelist }} Only after his death was it discovered that Llewellyn's claim that he was born in St Davids, West Wales, was false.[http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/browse_index.php?type=persons&page=list11#lbl1385 Llewellyn, Richard, 1906-1983] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212035056/http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/browse_index.php?type=persons&page=list11 |date=2013-12-12 }}

In the U.S., Llewellyn won the National Book Award for favourite novel of 1940, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association.

"Books and Authors", The New York Times, 16 February 1941, page BR12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2007).

He lived a peripatetic existence, travelling widely throughout his life. Before World War II he spent periods working in hotels, wrote a play, worked as a coal miner and produced his best-known novel. During World War II he rose to the rank of Captain in the Welsh Guards. His sister Gwladys (a Royal Red Cross commandant) and her two daughters were killed during the bombing of London, in June 1944.{{cite book |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Richard |title=Down where the moon is small |date=1966 |publisher=New English Library |page=4 |edition=1976}} Following the war he worked as a journalist, covering the Nuremberg Trials, and then as a screenwriter for MGM. During his lifetime, he lived in a variety of countries, including Italy, China, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya and Israel, in addition to Britain and Ireland.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/12/02/richard-llewellyn-dies/0f09ac58-cca8-4b61-9e44-f2bf88279187|title=Richard Llewellyn Dies|newspaper=Washington Post|date=2 December 1983|access-date=15 July 2021}}

Llewellyn married twice: his first wife was Nona Theresa Catherine Sonsteby, whom he married in 1952 and divorced in 1968; his second wife was editor Susan Frances Heimann, whom he married in 1974.{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31372 | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31372 | title=Lloyd, Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn [pseud. Richard Llewellyn] (1906–1983), novelist }}Contemporary Authors, Pamela Dear, Gale, 1999, p. 352

Richard Llewellyn died of a heart attack in St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin on 30 November 1983.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/12/02/richard-llewellyn-dies/0f09ac58-cca8-4b61-9e44-f2bf88279187/ |title=Richard Llewellyn Dies |date=1983-12-02 |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}

Themes

Several of his novels dealt with a Welsh theme, the best-known being How Green Was My Valley (1939), which won international acclaim and was made into a classic Hollywood film. It immortalised the way of life of the South Wales Valleys coal mining communities, where Llewellyn spent a small amount of time with his grandfather. Three sequels followed.

Bibliography

;Edmund Trothe series

Notes

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00079 Richard Llewellyn Papers] at the Harry Ransom Center

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Category:1906 births

Category:1983 deaths

Category:Culture of Wales

Category:English people of Welsh descent

Category:People from Hendon

Category:British Army personnel of World War II

Category:Welsh Guards officers

Category:Anglo-Welsh novelists

Category:National Book Award winners

Category:20th-century British novelists

Category:British male novelists

Category:20th-century British male writers