File NLW MS 21711E. - Letters to Elwyn Davies

Raymond Garlick (1926-2011), Anglo-Welsh poet and critic, was born on 21 September 1926 in Harlesden, London, but was sent to live with relatives in Llandudno as a schoolboy. He learnt Welsh whilst studying English at the University of North Wales, Bangor. Garlick married Elin Hughes in 1948 (they divorced in 1977); the couple adopted two children, Iestyn in 1952 and Angharad in 1958. In April 1949 he went to teach English at Pembroke Dock County School under Roland Mathias. There he was a co-founder of the literature periodical Dock Leaves (from 1958 the Anglo-Welsh Review), and its first editor, 1949-1960. In 1954 he moved to Blaenau Ffestiniog, where his neighbour was John Cowper Powys. In 1961 Garlick joined the International School at Eerde in the Netherlands. The family returned to Wales in 1967 when Garlick took up a position at Trinity College, Carmarthen. He eventually became Principal Lecturer in charge of the Welsh Studies course. He retired in 1987 but continued to live in Carmarthen. He died in Cardiff on 19 March 2011, aged 84. Garlick published several volumes of poetry including Poems from the Mountain-House (London, 1950), The Welsh-Speaking Sea (Tenby, 1954), Requiem for a Poet (Tenby, 1954), Blaenau Observed (Tenby, 1957), A Sense of Europe (Llandysul, 1968), A Sense of Time: Poems and Antipoems 1969-1972 (Llandysul, 1972), Incense (Llandysul, 1976), Collected Poems 1946-86 (Llandysul, 1987), and Travel Notes (Llandysul, 1992). Garlick's contribution as a champion of Anglo-Welsh literature includes the critical treatise An Introduction to Anglo-Welsh Literature (Cardiff, 1970), and the anthology Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480-1980, ed. by Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias (Bridgend, 1984).

The Welsh Office development project on the use of the literature of Wales in secondary schools was administrated by the Welsh Academy with funds provided by the Welsh Office. The project's director was Dr Roland Mathias and the members of the project team were Cary Archard, John Davies, Sally Roberts Jones and Dr. R. Brinley Roberts. The progress of the project team were supervised by a steering group which consisted of Ann Sayer, English teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Glantaf; Mr Gerald Morgan, Headmaster of Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig, Aberystwyth; and Arthur Parker of the Welsh Joint Education Committee. Meic Stephens served as chairman of the steering group, the Welsh Office was represented by Sam Adams (SI) and Julian Pritchard, and the Academy by its officer, Ceri George. A report was published in 1986.