Kate Roberts (author)

Kate Roberts was born in the village of , on the slopes of , Caernarfonshire (Gwynedd today). She was the oldest child of Owen Roberts, a quarryman in the local slate industry, and Catrin Roberts who took care of the family farm. It was not restored until 2005, after a long campaign to raise the money. It is now in the care of as a museum presentation of Roberts. She remained in Denbigh after her retirement and died in 1985 at the age of 94. Sexuality Alan Llwyd's 2011 biography of Roberts used diaries and letters to shed fresh light on her private life and her relationship with Morris. Llwyd suggests that Roberts may have had lesbian tendencies. For example, Roberts sent a letter to her husband describing the joy she felt when kissing another woman in , saying that nothing had ever made her more happy. ==Work==

Her first volume of short stories, (From the Swamp of the Hills), appeared in 1925. Perhaps her most successful book of short stories is (Tea in the Heather, 1959), a series about children. Of the novels that Roberts wrote, the most famous may have been (Feet in Chains, 1936), which reflected the hard life of a slate-quarrying family. The book was awarded a prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Neath in 1934. She won the prize jointly with Grace Wynne Griffith and her novel . However it was alleged that was unworthy of the prize according to the historian Thomas Richards. In 1960 Roberts published , a volume of autobiography. Most of her novels and short stories are set in the Arfon region where she lived in North Wales. She herself said that she derived the material for her work "from the society in which I was brought up, a poor society in an age of poverty... [where] it was always a struggle against poverty. But notice that the characters haven't reached the bottom of that poverty, they are struggling against it, afraid of it." Roberts's work deals with the uneventful lives of humble people and how they deal with difficulties and disillusionments. The role of women in society and progressive ideas about life and love are also major themes. Many of her works have been translated into other languages including Dutch, French, and German. Roberts struck up a literary relationship with Saunders Lewis, which they maintained through letters over a period of forty years. These letters give a picture of life in Wales during the period and record the comments of two literary giants on events at home and abroad. In 1981, Kate Roberts: Bro a Bywyd, a book of 101 biographical photos, edited with an introduction by Derek Llwyd Morgan, was published by , Cardiff. The plates include extensive photographs from Kate Roberts' life, her family, and the places she lived. Also letters, documents, certificates, monuments, and handbills; the text and descriptive captions entirely in Welsh. ==Selected works==

In Welsh • Davies, Betty Eynon, and Kate Roberts. [The Mother]: [a play in one act]. Cardiff: Educational Publishing Co., 1920. • Davies, Betty Eynon, Margaret Price, and Kate Roberts. [Well! Well!: a comedy]. Drenewydd: Welsh Outlook Press, 1920. • Price, Margaret, Kate Roberts, and Betty Eynon Davies. [The Hundred Pounds: a comedy from the Tawe Valley]. Drefnewydd: Welsh Outlook Press, 1923. • [From the Marsh of the Hills: nine short stories]. Wrecsam: Hughes a’i Fab, 1925. • [Deian and Loli: a story about children. Illustrations by Tom Morgan]. Caerdydd: William Lewis, 1926. • [The Ruts of Life and other stories]. Aberystwyth: Gwasg Aberystwyth, 1929. • Laura Jones. Aberystwyth: Gwasg Aberystwyth, 1930. Novel. • [Farewell to Education: a comedy in three acts]. Tonypandy: Yr awdur, 1932. • [Feet in Chains]. Aberystwyth: Gwasg Aberystwyth, 1936. Novel. • [Winter Fair and other stories]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1937. • [Gossip Row]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1949. Novella. • Lewis, Saunders, and Kate Roberts. [The Craft of the Short Story. Edited by Saunders Lewis] Aberystwyth: Y Clwb Llyfrau Cymreig, 1949. • [The Living Sleep]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1956. Novel. • [Tea in the Heather]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1959. Stories. • [The White Lane: A fragment of autobiography]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1960. • [Dark Tonight: a long short story]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1962. • [This World: a book of stories]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1964. • [One Bright Morning: a novel]. Llandybie: Llyfrau’r Dryw, 1967. • [Buying a Doll and other stories]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1969. Line drawings by Eric Malthouse. • [Two writers from the Moel Tryfan side (Glasynys 1828–1870 and Richard Hughes 1878?–1919)]. Caernarfon: Argraffty’r M.C., 1970. • [Hope and other stories]. Dinbych: Gwasg Gee, 1972. • Roberts, Kate, and Thomas Parry, William Morris, and John Gwilym Jones. . Adapted from the BBC Cymru radio programme, [Paths of the Past], four autobiographical essays. Porthmadog: Tŷ ar y Graig, 1972. • Wiliam, Urien, and Kate Roberts et al. [Leisure Hour Stories (Volume 1)]. Llandybie: Christopher Davies, 1974. Collected and edited by Urien Wiliam. • [The Beautiful Seagull]. Dinbych: Gwasg Gee, 1976. Stories. • [Sun and Storm and other stories]. Dinbych: Gwasg Gee, 1981. • [''Excerpt from 'Death of a Story' from Tea in the Heather.''] Also, a poem by Harri Gwynn. Printed by David Vickers [Gregynog Press] at the Rhyl Eisteddfod, 1985. The first Gregynog Eisteddfod keepsake, three sheets in a portfolio wrapper, 100 numbered copies hand-set and hand-printed on fine paper. • Lewis, Saunders and Kate Roberts. [Dear Kate, Dear Saunders: correspondence, 1923–83]. Aberystwyth: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, 1992. Edited by Dafydd Ifans. The letters of Kate Roberts and Saunders Lewis. • [Best Stories]. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1997. Selected with an Introduction by Harri Pritchard Jones. • Roberts, Kate, and Roger Owen. [Three Plays]. Edited by Diane Pritchard-Jones. Bangor: Dalen Newydd, 2024. Includes 'Ffarwel i Addysg,' 'Y Cynddrws,' and 'Aros wrth Loco.' In English translation • Laura Jones. [Aberystwyth: Gwasg Aberystwyth, 1930.] Translation prepared by Paul J. Davies, unpublished PDF. • A Summer Day [in] Welsh Short Stories – An Anthology. London, Faber & Faber Limited, 1937. Translated by Dafydd Jenkins. • A Summer Day and Other Stories. Cardiff: Penmark Press, 1946. Stories from , , and . Translated by Dafydd Jenkins, Walter Dowding, and Wyn Griffith. Foreword by Storm Jameson. • Tea in the Heather []. Ruthin, John Jones, 1968. Translated by Wyn Griffith. • The Living Sleep []. Cardiff, John Jones, 1976. Translated by Wyn Griffith. • Feet in Chains []. Cardiff: John Jones Cardiff Ltd, 1977. Translated by Idwal Walters and John Idris Jones. • Two Old Men and other Stories. Gwasg Gregynog, Newtown, Powys, 1981. Translated by Elan Closs Stephens and Wyn Griffith. Introduction by John Gwilym Jones. 26 linocuts by Kyffin Williams. XV + 265 numbered copies on fine paper, in celebration of Roberts' ninetieth birthday. • The World of Kate Roberts: Selected stories, 1925–1981. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. Translated by Joseph P. Clancy. Substantial collection of stories, including Gossip Row, Tea in the Heather, and Dark Tonight. • Sun and Storm and other stories []. Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 2001. Translated by Carolyn Watcyn. • The Awakening []. Bridgend, Seren, 2006. Translated by Siân James. • One Bright Morning []. Llandysul: Gwasg Gormer, 2008. Translated by Gillian Clarke. • The White Lane: A fragment of autobiography []. Llandysul: Gwasg Gormer, 2009. Translated by Gillian Clarke, parallel texts English and Welsh. • Feet in Chains []. Cardigan: Parthian Books, 2012. Translated and annotated by Katie Gramich. ==References==