Fonds GB 0210 KATERTS - Papurau Kate Roberts

Ganwyd Kate Roberts (1891-1985), un o'r ffigurau pwysicaf yn hanes llenyddiaeth Cymru, yn Rhosgadfan, Llanwnda, pentref yn ardal y chwareli yn sir Gaernarfon. Yr oedd yn nofelydd, yn awdur storiâu byrion ac yn newyddiadurwraig lenyddol. Graddiodd mewn Cymraeg yng Ngholeg Prifysgol Gogledd Cymru, Bangor, lle bu'n astudio o dan Syr John Morris-Jones a Syr Ifor Williams. Wedi hynny bu'n athrawes Gymraeg yn Ystalyfera ac Aberdâr, ac yn 1928 priododd Morris T. Williams a phrynodd y ddau Wasg Gee, cyhoeddwr Baner ac Amserau Cymru. Yn dilyn marwolaeth ei gŵr yn 1946, parhaodd i redeg y busnes ar ei phen ei hun am ddeng mlynedd arall. Cyhoeddodd nifer fawr o nofelau a storiâu byrion o 1925 hyd 1937 ac o 1949 hyd 1981. Yr oedd hefyd yn aelod gweithgar o Blaid Genedlaethol Cymru a chyfrannodd yn rheolaidd i bapur newydd misol y blaid, Y Ddraig Goch. Mae nifer o'i gweithiau yn adlewyrchu cymdeithas y chwarel y magwyd Kate Roberts ynddi. Mae rhai o'i gweithiau yn ymwneud â gwragedd neu hen bobl yn byw ar eu pennau eu hunain. Yr oedd hefyd yn awdures llyfrau ar gyfer ac am blant. Yr oedd themâu ei gwaith cyhoeddedig yn cynnwys pynciau llenyddol, gwleidyddol a theuluol.

Saunders Lewis, dramatist, poet, historian and literary critic, was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a family of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. He was educated at a boys's school in Liscard and at Liverpool University, where he studied English and French. His academic career was interrupted by the First World War, in which Lewis served with the South Wales Borderers, but he quickly resumed his studies at the end of the conflict, and, having graduated, worked as librarian in Glamorgan before taking up a post as lecturer in the Welsh department of the University College of Swansea. In 1925, Lewis was one of the pioneering figures involved in establishing the National Party of Wales (later known as Plaid Cymru) and was made President of the fledgeling organisation the following year. Having written about the Roman Catholic church for a number of years, in 1932 Lewis converted to the faith also practised by his wife Margaret. In 1936, Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine set fire to the Royal Airforce's Bombing School in Penyberth on the Lleyn Peninsula, an event which has gone down in the annals of Welsh history and which earned Lewis imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs and dismissal from his lecturing post in Swansea. He was eventually appointed senior lecturer in Welsh at the University of Cardiff but retired in 1957 to devote his time to writing. Lewis's litarary output is prodigious and he is considered by many to be the most important Welsh literary and political figure of the twentieth century; it is considered that his radio address for 1962, Tynged yr Iaith, was the direct instigating force behind the establishment of the Welsh language movement Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

Gwasg Gee, publishing firm of Thomas Gee, later Messrs Gee & Son, Denbigh, Denbighshire, was an early nineteenth century printing works, important in the history of printing in the Welsh language. Thomas Gee (1815-1898) was born into a printing family. His father, also named Thomas Gee, had bought Thomas Jones' printing business, based in Ruthin, Denbighshire, in 1813. He moved it to Denbigh where he developed it further. The quarterly journal Y Traethodydd, was founded in 1845, published by Thomas Gee. Between 1854 and 1879, Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig was published, a ten-volume encyclopaedia. His business adopted new printing technology as it emerged. In 1916, Gwasg Gee passed out of family hands, and after 1923, it was reformed as a limited company. When Thomas Gee died in 1898, D.S. Davies became the director of the printing company. Later, after 1928, the author Kate Roberts, together with her husband Morris T. Williams, bought Gwasg Gee.

Thomas Gee (1815-1898) joined his father's printing and publishing business in Denbigh in 1838, continuing the business alone following his father's death in 1845. In the same year Thomas Gee began publishing the quarterly periodical Y Traethodydd and, from 1854 to 1878, he undertook the mammoth task of printing and publishing the ten-volume Y Gwyddoniadur. The weekly Baner Cymru first saw the light of day in 1857; the paper merged with Yr Amserau in 1859 and it was this publication of all Gee's output which proved most influential in the social, political and religious life of Wales. Gwasg Gee was continued by Thomas Gee's son John Howel Gee and the business remained in the family until 1914. Morris T. Williams (1900-1946) married the novelist Kate Roberts in 1928. The couple bought Gwasg Gee, continuing its production of periodicals such as the influential Baner ac Amserau Cymru. Following Williams's death, Kate Roberts continued the business alone for a further ten years.