Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog by Dylan enthusiasts". It has been suggested that few writers "have evoked as successfully the mysteries and adventures of boyhood, of young love with its shattered dreams... none has done it in as fresh and telling phrases, with an elation as natural and contagious". The title was used for a theatrical journey through Thomas' prose writings which was staged by Clwyd Theatr Cymru in April 2014. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog is a collection of short prose stories written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published by Dent on
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog Thomas claimed, in a letter to Vernon Watkins, that he had "kept the flippant title for—as the publishers advise—money-making reasons". He claimed also, somewhat dubiously, that the title was not a parody of James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", although the general influence of Joyce's "Dubliners" was freely acknowledged. In August 1939 Thomas wrote to Watkins: "I've been busy over stories, pot-boiling stories for a book, semi-autobiographical, to be finished by Christmas." Reviews of the book were mixed and initially it did not sell well. Ferris, reviewing the book in "The Times Literary Supplement" said: