Islwyn Ffowc Elis, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Islwyn Ffowc Elis

British writer and politician

Date of Birth: 17-Nov-1924

Place of Birth: Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 22-Jan-2004

Profession: writer, novelist, short story writer, science fiction writer

Nationality: Wales, United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Islwyn Ffowc Elis

  • Islwyn Ffowc Elis (Welsh pronunciation: ['?sl??n fo?k '?l?s]; 17 November 1924 – 22 January 2004) was one of Wales's most popular Welsh-language writers. Born Islwyn Ffoulkes Ellis in Wrexham and raised in Glyn Ceiriog, Elis was educated at the University of Wales colleges of Bangor and Aberystwyth.
  • During World War II he was a conscientious objector and he began writing poetry and prose, winning the prose medal at the 1951 National Eisteddfod.
  • He became a Presbyterian minister in 1950, and his first pastorate was at Moreia Chapel in Llanfair Caereinion.
  • He translated the Gospel of Matthew into Welsh as Efengyl Mathew - trosiad i gymraeg diweddar, which was published in Caernarfon in 1961. He made his debut as a novelist in 1953 with Cysgod y Cryman (translated into English as Shadow of the Sickle), which would, in 1999, be chosen as the most significant Welsh language book of the 20th century. As a novelist Elis showed a great willingness to try out different forms, including popular ones.
  • Cysgod y Cryman was followed by a study of intellectual decadence, Ffenestri tua'r Gwyll (Windows to the Dusk 1955).
  • Yn ôl i Leifior (1956; translated into English as Return to Lleifior) was a sequel to Cysgod y Cryman both set at the fictitious farming location Lleifior.
  • In 1957, the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru published his time-travel story Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd (A Week in Future Wales), presenting an independent, utopian Wales and a dystopian "Western England" in alternative versions of 2033.
  • Blas y Cynfyd (A Taste of Prehistory 1958) was followed by the colonial satire Tabyrddau'r Babongo (Drums of the Babongo 1961).
  • He thus pioneered the use of genres unfamiliar to Welsh-speaking readers, provided them with a highly readable prose often set in contemporary settings, and did much to establish the position of the novel as a major genre in Welsh-language literature.
  • For periods he set out to live off his writing, something hardly attempted before in modern Welsh. Later works included Y Blaned Dirion (The Meek Planet 1968, another science fiction novel), Y Gromlech yn yr Haidd (The Dolmen in the Barley, 1971) and Eira Mawr (Great Snow, 1972).
  • He also wrote a play, pamphlets, hundreds of articles and short stories as well as editing, with Gwyn Jones, Welsh Short Stories for the Oxford University Press (1956).
  • His work has appeared in English, German, Italian and Irish translation.
  • He was lecturer and reader at the University of Wales, Lampeter between 1975 and 1988. From his schooldays to the mid-1970s, Elis devoted a vast amount of time to politics.
  • He ran as Plaid Cymru's candidate in Montgomeryshire in the 1959 and 1964 general elections and in a 1962 byelection.
  • The so-called "Elvis Rock" graffito beside the A44 road in Ceredigion was originally written with the word "Elis" by two of his supporters in the 1962 by-election, and subsequently altered to read "Elvis".In retirement, he received a DLitt from the University of Wales.
  • In 1999 a biography of Elis by T Robin Chapman, published in both Welsh and in English, appeared.

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