File NLW MS 20085C. - Llythyrau at E. Tegla Davies

Ganwyd Thomas Gwynn Jones (1871-1949), bardd, newyddiadurwr, cyfieithydd, nofelydd, dramodydd, beirniad ac ysgolhaig, yn y Gwyndy Uchaf, Betws yn Rhos, sir Ddinbych. Yn 1899 priododd Margaret Davies, a chawsant ferch a dau fab. Heblaw am addysg elfennol, yr oedd Jones yn hynanddysgedig, er iddo dderbyn gwersi mewn mathemateg, Lladin a Groeg gan gymydog. Rhwystrwyd ei uchelgais o astudio yn Rhydychen gan afiechyd, a gweithiodd fel newyddiadurwr gyda Baner ac Amserau Cymru, Y Cymro (y daeth yn olygydd arno faes o law), Yr Herald Gymraeg a phapurau newydd eraill rhwng 1891 a 1909, pan gymerodd swydd yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru yn Aberystwyth. Fe'i penodwyd yn ddarlithydd yn Adran y Gymraeg yng Ngholeg Prifysgol Cymru, Aberystwyth, yn 1913, a'i ddyrchafu i Gadair Gregynog mewn Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg yn 1919; ymddeolodd yn 1937. Derbyniodd y CBE yr un flwyddyn. Dylanwadwyd Jones yn gryf gan y llenor Robert Ambrose Jones (Emrys ap Iwan,1851-1906) ac yn arbennig gan y newyddiadurwr a'r cyfieithydd Daniel Rees (1855-1931), gyda'r hwn y magodd berthynas glos. Yn ogystal ag ymhyfrydu mewn llenyddiaeth Gymraeg a Saesneg cyfoes ac o'r bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, datblygodd ddiddordeb mewn llenyddiaeth Gymraeg yr oesoedd canol a'r cyfnod modern cynnar, a hefyd llên gwerin ac ieithoedd tramor, yn enwedig Gwyddeleg ac ieithoedd Celtaidd eraill; bu ar ymweliad ag Iwerddon deirgwaith rhwng 1892 a 1913, daeth i gysylltiad ag ysgolheigion Gwyddelig, a defnyddiodd lysenwau fel Fionn mhac Eóghain yn ei ohebiaeth atynt. Ei brif lwyddiant oedd fel bardd pwysicaf ei genhedlaeth, yn cyfansoddi'n bennaf yn y mesurau caeth. Cyfansoddodd a chyhoeddodd farddoniaeth yn y 1880au, ac enillodd y Gadair yn yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yn 1902 a 1909 (am 'Ymadawiad Arthur a 'Gwlad y bryniau'); ymhlith gweithiau eraill o'i eiddo mae 'Tir na nOg', 'Madog' ac 'Y Dwymyn'. Cyfieithodd Jones waith Goethe, Ibsen, Shakespeare ac eraill i'r Gymraeg, a chyhoeddodd gyfieithiad Saesneg o Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsc Ellis Wynne (1670/1-1734). Mae ei brif gyhoeddiadau academaidd yn cynnwys astudiaeth ar waith y bardd Tudur Aled (bl. 1480-1526), ac roedd yn awdur nofelau, dramâu, cofiannau a llyfr taith hefyd. Yn ogystal, yr oedd yn beirniadu a darlithio mewn eisteddfodau yn rheolaidd, ac yn athro dylanwadol.

Owen Morgan Edwards was a prominent man of letters, author, editor, tutor in history at Oxford University, 1889-1907, and the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the new Welsh Education Department.
O. M. Edwards was born at Coed-y-pry, Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth, on 26 December 1858, the eldest son of Owen and Elizabeth Edwards. With the original intention of entering the nonconformist ministry, he attended Bala College, and subsequently spent the period 1880-1883 at the young University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he studied English, history and philosophy. He spent the academic year 1883-1884 at Glasgow studying philosophy, and the years 1884-1887 at Balliol College, Oxford, where he enjoyed a notably distinguished career, winning three major university prizes, and graduating with first class honours in history in 1887. During this formative period of his life he came heavily under the influence of the aestheticism of Ruskin and William Morris, and of the Dafydd ap Gwilym Society which much enhanced his indigenous love of his native Wales. It was primarily within this Society that Edwards formed an enduring bond of friendship with prominent Welshmen such as Edward Anwyl, J. Puleston Jones, John Morris-Jones and D. Lleufer Thomas
O. M. Edwards spent the year 1888-1889 on the continent, and in the latter year was appointed Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and tutor in history there and at other colleges. He remained in this position until 1907 and was notable for his dedication to his lecture preparation and tutorial work. His academic publications were few until 1901 when his popular volume entitled Wales - a book on the history of Wales - was published. From 1890 onwards he also became engaged in editing a number of Welsh periodicals that compelled him to spend an inordinate amount of his time in drafting numerous articles and proof correcting. These periodicals included Cymru Fydd (begun in 1890), Cymru (1891), Cymru'r Plant (1892), Wales (1894), Y Llenor (1895) and Heddyw (1897). He also published a number of slim volumes such as Cartrefi Cymru (1896), and set in train a scheme to re-publish considerable numbers of the Welsh classics, primarily in the series Cyfres y Fil. This service was critical in ensuring the survival of a distinctive Welsh culture by providing the Welsh people with a knowledge of their past history and literature, and nurturing a school of young Welsh writers. His contribution in this sphere may be compared with that of Thomas Gee. In 1906 he also established 'Urdd y Delyn', a children's society which was a precursor of 'Urdd Gobaith Cymru' set up by his son Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1922.
In 1907 Edwards was appointed the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the aegis of the recently established Welsh Education Department. Here, he reformed the Welsh education system by encouraging the teaching of Welsh and improving the atmosphere of Welsh schools. But he did come into conflict with the Central Welsh Board set up in 1896 over his conviction that the new intermediate schools established in the 1890s were severe anglicising influences in Wales.
Following the premature death of Thomas Edward Ellis MP in April 1899, Edwards served for one session as the Liberal MP for his native Merionethshire, but he disliked the reality of political life and decided not to stand for re-election in the general election of 1900. His intense nationalism was primarily cultural rather than political. He was knighted in January 1916 and received the degree of D.Litt honoris causa from the University of Wales in 1918. He died, still in post, at his home Neuadd Wen (an adaptation of Whitehall, the headquarters of the Board of Education in London) Llanuwchllyn, in 1920. His wife, Ellen Davies of Prys Mawr, Llanuwchllyn, had predeceased him the previous year. There were three children of the marriage, but the elder son died in infancy.

Lady Megan Lloyd George (1902-66) was the fifth child of David and Margaret Lloyd George. She enjoyed a unique childhood at 11 and 10 Downing Street and accompanied her father to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Widely regarded as her father's natural political heir by the mid-1920s, she was elected Liberal MP for Anglesey in May 1929, the first woman MP in the history of Wales. In 1931, she joined the tiny band of Lloyd George Liberals, and during the 1930s, spoke regularly in the House of Commons on agriculture, unemployment and Welsh affairs. During the Second World War, she became a keen advocate for women's rights and Welsh issues. She was already clearly moving leftwards in the political spectrum, and there were persistent rumours that she was likely to join the Labour Party. In 1949, Clement Davies appointed Megan as deputy leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party. She was defeated by Cledwyn Hughes in 1951 and subsequently joined the Labour Party in April 1955. She served as president of the Parliament for Wales campaign, 1950-56. Megan was elected Labour MP for Carmarthenshire in February 1957, serving until her death from cancer in May 1966. She remained a backbencher. Although unmarried, Lady Megan Lloyd George had a long, passionate affair with the Labour MP Philip Noel-Baker (1889-1982).

Yr oedd William John Gruffydd (1881-1954) yn fardd, dramodydd, ysgolhaig, golygydd a beirniad. Cafodd ei fagu yng Ngorffwysfa, Bethel, sir Gaernarfon, a mynyddodd Ysgol Sir Caernarfon, ac astudiodd llenyddiaeth Saesneg yn ddiweddarach yng Ngholeg Iesu, Rhydychen. Yn 1904 fe'i penodwyd yn athro yn Ysgol Ramadeg Biwmares, ac yn 1906 penodwyd ef yn ddarlithydd mewn Celteg yng Ngholeg y Brifysgol, Caerdydd. Ar ôl gwasanaethu fel swyddog yn y llynges, 1915-1918, fe'i penodwyd yn Athro Ieithoedd Celtaidd yng Nghaerdydd ac arhosodd yn y swydd honno hyd ei ymddeoliad yn 1946. Prif faes ei ymchwil oedd Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi, a bu hefyd yn olygydd y cylchgrawn chwarterol Y Llenor, 1922-1951; ysgrifennodd tair drama, a chyfieithodd Antigone gan Sophocles i'r Gymraeg. Bu'n ymgeisydd seneddol fel Rhyddfrydwr yn 1943, gan gystadlu yn erbyn Saunders Lewis am sedd Prifysgol Cymru, er gwaethaf y ffaith ei fod yntau yn aelod blaenllaw o Blaid Cenedlaethol Cymru. Priododd a chael un mab.

Yr oedd Robert William Parry (1884-1956), bardd a darlithydd o Dal-y-sarn, Dyffryn Nantlle. sir Gaernarfon, yn fyfyriwr ym Mhrifysgol Aberystwyth cyn symud i Fangor ac astudio dan John Morris-Jones, gan raddio yn 1908. Yn 1910 enillodd ei awdl 'Yr Haf' Gadair yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol ym Mae Colwyn. Bu'n athro yn y Barri, Morgannwg, ac wedyn yng Nghaerdydd. Rhwng 1916 a 1918 bu'n gwasanaethu yn y fyddin; ysbrydolwyd ef i lunio llawer soned ynghyd â'i englynion er cof am Hedd Wyn yn ystod y cyfnod hwn. Yn 1922 cafodd ei benodi yn ddarlithydd ym Mangor, sir Gaernarfon, a symudodd i Fethesda, sir Gaernarfon. Cyhoeddwyd ei gyfrol gyntaf o gerddi, 'Yr Haf a Cherddi eraill', yn 1924, gan sicrhau iddo'r bri o fod yn fardd mawr. Cyhoeddwyd ei ail gyfrol o gerddi, 'Cerddi'r Gaeaf' yn 1952. Priododd Myfanwy Williams Parry (1898-1971) yn 1923.

John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), was a prolific novelist, poet, and literary critic. He wrote one of the most remarkable autobiographies in the English language; he was the author of several works of popular philosophy; and throughout his long life he was an obsessive letter writer and diarist. Although never fully accepted as part of the ‘canon’ of English novelists, he is widely regarded as one of the great novelists of the 20th century, and his admirers include many eminent writers and critics. He was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, on 8 October 1872. In 1879 the family moved to Dorchester, Dorset, eventually settling, in 1885, in Montacute, Somerset. Powys therefore spent most of his childhood within the borders of the ancient kingdom of ‘Wessex’. Its landscape – which was also the setting for Thomas Hardy’s novels – came to dominate his imagination. He was the eldest of eleven children in a family notable for its strong-willed and individualistic characters. Two of his brothers, Theodore Francis Powys (1875-1953) and Llewelyn Powys (1884-1939), also became distinguished writers, while his sister Marian Powys (1882-1972) settled in New York, becoming a leading lace designer and a world authority on the history of lace making. Their father Charles Francis Powys (1843-1923) was a clergyman who took great pride in his Welsh ancestry, while their mother Mary Cowper Powys (1849-1914) was descended from the English poets John Donne and William Cowper. John Cowper was educated at Westbury House preparatory school, Sherborne, and Sherborne School (1883–1891), and subsequently at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1896 he published his first volume of verse, Odes and Other Poems, and in the same year he married Margaret Alice Lyon (1874-1947). They had one son, Littleton Alfred Powys (1902-1954), but the marriage was a failure and Powys and his wife eventually separated. After leaving Cambridge Powys had found work as a teacher at various girls' schools before becoming an extension lecturer affiliated to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Between 1909 and 1930, he earned his living as an itinerant lecturer in the USA, where he won fame as an inspired and charismatic orator. His first novel, Wood and Stone, was published in New York in 1915, and his first full length work of popular philosophy, The Complex Vision, appeared in 1920. During a visit to Missouri, in 1921, he met Phyllis Playter (1894-1982) who became his life companion, his muse, and a powerful influence upon his literary career. While in the USA Powys also made the acquaintance of several eminent American literary figures, including the poet, Edgar Lee Masters, and the writers, Theodore Dreiser and Henry Miller. He reached his maturity as a novelist with the publication, in 1929, of his fifth novel, Wolf Solent. Its success led him give up lecturing and devote his life to writing. In 1930 he and Playter went to live in Phudd Bottom, upper New York state. There followed two other novels of immense scope and psychological subtlety: A Glastonbury Romance (1932), and Weymouth Sands (1934). In the same year he published his very frank and revealing Autobiography. Although written in America, these books are full of sensuous descriptions of the ‘Wessex’ landscapes of his youth. Like Powys himself, many of the protagonists of his novels are introspective characters who develop a personal ‘mythology’ as a means of coming to terms with the world. In 1935, while in his sixties, Powys fulfilled a long cherished ideal by moving to live in Wales. For twenty years, he and Phyllis Playter made their home in Corwen, Meirionnydd, where Powys immersed himself in the language, history and mythology of the country. He also made the acquaintance of several eminent Welsh academics and writers, including Iorwerth Peate, the founder of the Welsh Folk Museum, and Gwyn Jones, Viking scholar and translator of the Mabiniogion. Powys's two late masterpieces, Owen Glendower (1940) and Porius (1951), belong to this period. In 1955 he and Playter moved to a quarryman’s cottage at Blaenau Ffestiniog. John Cowper Powys died at the Memorial Hospital, Blaenau Ffestiniog, on 17 June 1963.

Ganwyd y bardd Eliseus Williams (Eifion Wyn, 1867-1926) ym Mhorthmadog, sir Gaernarfon, yn fab i Robert Williams a nai i William Owen. Er iddo gael ond ychydig addysg, bu'n athro am gyfnod yn Ysgol Fwrdd Porthmadog, ac ym Mhentrefoelas, sir Ddinbych. O 1896 tan ei farw bu'n gweithio i Gwmni Llechi Gogledd Cymru ym Mhorthmadog fel clerc a chyfrifydd. Byddai'n pregethu mewn gwahanol gapeli Annibynnol o 1889 ymlaen. Priododd Annie Jones o Aber-erch, Pwllheli, sir Gaernarfon, yn 1907, a chael mab, Peredur Wyn Williams. Cyfansoddodd barddoniaeth yn y mesurau caeth a rhydd, gan ennill mewn amryw eisteddfodau lleol yn ogystal ag yn yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, lle bu hefyd yn feirniad. Cyhoeddodd gasgliadau o'i waith yn cynnwys Ieuenctid y Dydd (Caernarfon, 1894), Awdl y Bugail (Porthmadog: W.O. Jones, [c. 1900]), Telynegion Maes a Môr (Caernarfon, 1906) a Tlws y Plant (Llanwrtyd, 1906), llyfr emynau y bu ef yn gyfrifol am y geiriau. Cyhoeddwyd Caniadau'r Allt (Llundain, 1927) ac O Drum i Draeth (Llundain, 1929) ar ôl ei farw. Yn 1919 dyfarnwyd iddo radd MA gan Goleg Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Bu farw ym Mhorthmadog ar 13 Hydref 1926 a chladdwyd ef yn Chwilog, sir Gaernarfon. Lluniodd Peredur Wyn Williams gofiant, Eifion Wyn (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1980).