Since the death of Dylan Thomas at the age of thirty-nine, a legend has grown up about the poet and his life unsurpassed since the days of Byron, Keats, and Shelley. Constantine FitzGibbon, novelist and historian, and a friend of Dylan’s, was selected by the trustees of the Dylan Thomas estate to write his biography. This first of two excerpts from THE LIFE OF DYLAN THOMAS,to be published this month by Atlantic - Little, Brown, reveals several hitherto unknown facets of the poet’s early years.