John Gwilym Jones (27 September 1904 – 16 October 1988) was a Welsh dramatist, novelist, short-story writer, drama director, academic and critic, considered a pre-eminent figure in those fields.
[1] In particular, he is widely acknowledged to be one of the two greatest 20th-century Welsh playwrights, along with Saunders Lewis;[2] of his many plays, Hanes Rhyw Gymro (1964), Ac Eto Nid Myfi (1976) and Yr Adduned (1979) are considered masterpieces.
[4] A writer in the modernist tradition, he is credited with introducing Brechtian techniques, stream-of-consciousness narrative and Freudianism to Welsh literature.
Creative writers such as Kate Roberts[5] and John Rowlands[6] owed him a profound debt, and a whole generation of critics were influenced by his work as a teacher of Welsh literature.
Hanes Rhyw Gymro (1964), Jones's only historical drama, dealt with the 17th-century Puritan writer Morgan Llwyd.
[12][2] Ac Eto Nid Myfi (1976) has been described as "a masterpiece of the modern Welsh theatre", containing "the quintessence of his philosophy and skill as a dramatist"; its theme is the necessity of every man to come to terms with his environment and culture, the factors which have created him.