Caitlin Thomas; Colorful Wife of Renowned Welsh Poet

Caitlin Thomas, 81, a boozing, brawling partner in marriage to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. She once described their famously discordant lives together as “raw, red bleeding meat,” a torment of mutual infidelity climaxed by her violent tantrum at the bedside of her dying husband. The former Caitlin MacNamara, free-spirited daughter of a bohemian family from County Clare, Ireland, married the poet in 1937. “Ours was not a love story proper,” she wrote in 1982. “It was more of a drink story. . . . Our primary aim was to get ourselves noticed at any cost: to show off like crazies to gain attention.” Her husband died in New York in 1953, collapsing after a night of heavy drinking in Greenwich Village. He lingered long enough, however, for her to burst into his hospital room, where the comatose poet was attended by his current mistress. The raging wife demanded, “Is the bloody man dead yet?” then bit an attendant and fought with bystanders until she was subdued. She later found a more settled life with Giuseppe Fazio, a Sicilian movie director. On Sunday in Catania, Italy.