Daniel Owen (20 October 1836 – 22 October 1895) was a Welsh
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...
. He is generally regarded as the foremost Welsh-language novelist of the 19th century, and as the first significant novelist to write in Welsh.
Early life
Daniel Owen was born in
Mold (Yr Wyddgrug), Flintshire, the youngest of six children in a working-class family. His father, Robert Owen, was a coal miner, while his mother belonged to the family of
Thomas Edwards, poet and writer. His father and his two brothers, James and Robert, were killed on 10 May 1837 when the
Argoed mine became flooded. The loss impacted heavily on the family, who remained in poverty. Owen received little formal education, but he acknowledged his debt to his Sunday School.
Owen, aged 12, was apprenticed to a
tailor
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
, Angel Jones, an elder in the
Calvinistic Methodist Church
The Presbyterian Church of Wales ( cy, Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru), also known as Calvinistic Methodist Church (), is a denomination of Protestant Christianity in Wales.
History
The church was born out of the Welsh Methodist revival and the ...
. Owen described his apprenticeship as a "kind of college", and began writing poetry under the influence of a colleague there. Owen found there chances to discuss and argue topics with colleagues and customers there.
Early writings
Owen began writing poetry under the pseudonym ''Glaslwyn'', entering his work into local
eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.
The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...
au and managing to publish some pieces. His first significant work in Welsh was a translation of
Timothy Shay Arthur
Timothy Shay Arthur (June 6, 1809 – March 6, 1885) — known as T. S. Arthur — was a popular 19th-century American author. He is famously known for his temperance novel ''Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There'' (1854), which helped d ...
's novelette ''
Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There
''Ten Nights in a Bar-room and What I Saw There'' is an 1854 novel written by American author Timothy Shay Arthur. The book is a temperance novel, written expressly to discourage readers from drinking alcohol. It was a commercial and popular succ ...
''. This came out fortnightly as ''Charles o'r Bala''. Owen then trained unsuccessfully for the ministry of his church, preaching from 1860. He enrolled in
Bala Theological College in 1865, but failed to complete the course. From 1867 until the end of his life, he worked as a tailor in Mold, preaching on Sundays until prevented by illness.
Later his mentor,
Roger Edwards, suggested he try his hand at writing instead. Owen's first attempt at fiction was a short story, "Cymeriadau Methodistaidd" (Methodist Characters) about the election of chapel elders. Its modest success led Edwards to encourage Owen to embark on a first novel, ''
Y Dreflan'', which described a fictionalized version of Mold.
Mature work
Although ''Y Dreflan'' was popular in its time, Owen's reputation rests mainly on three later novels, particularly ''
Rhys Lewis'' and its sequel ''
Enoc Huws
''Enoc Huws'' is a classic novel by Daniel Owen, written in the Welsh language and first published in 1891. It was serialised in ''Y Cymro'' prior to publication in book form. It has been adapted for stage and television (in an early 1974 TV adapt ...
''. There he again explored a fictionalized version of Mold and its Methodist chapel culture, blending comedy with satire and psychological introspection. His work has been compared with that of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
, who was a likely influence, although Owen's work is uniquely informed by his own
Welsh-language culture and chapel background.
List of works
*''Deng Noswaith Yn y `Black Lion`'' (1859)
*''Offrymau Neilltuaeth'' (1879)
*''
Y Dreflan'' (1881)
*''
Rhys Lewis'' (1885)
*''Y Siswrn'' (1886)
*''
Enoc Huws
''Enoc Huws'' is a classic novel by Daniel Owen, written in the Welsh language and first published in 1891. It was serialised in ''Y Cymro'' prior to publication in book form. It has been adapted for stage and television (in an early 1974 TV adapt ...
'' (1891)
*''
Gwen Tomos Gwen may refer to:
* Gwen (given name), including a list of people with the name
* '' Gwen, or the Book of Sand'', a 1985 animated film
* Gwen (film), a 2018 horror film
* Tropical Storm Gwen, several storms with the name
Acronyms
* AN/URC-117 ...
'' (1894)
*''Straeon y Pentan'' (short stories) (1895)
Legacy
Although not the first to write novels in Welsh, Owen is the earliest Welsh-language novelist still widely read. He is credited with starting a tradition of novel-writing in Welsh that influenced later fiction writers such as
Kate Roberts and
T. Rowland Hughes.
Owen is commemorated in Mold by a statue and the name of a shopping precinct and cultural centre. He is also remembered in the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize (Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen), awarded at the
National Eisteddfod
The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competitor ...
since 1978, whenever there are entries of high enough quality, for the best unpublished novel of no less than 50,000 words with a strong story. Mold also centres an annual cultural festival on Owen's life and works.
References
External links
The Daniel Owen Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Daniel
Welsh-language novelists
Welsh male novelists
1836 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Welsh writers
19th-century Welsh novelists
People from Mold, Flintshire