Kate Roberts (author)

Kate Roberts
Kate Roberts
Born(1891-02-13)13 February 1891
Rhosgadfan, Gwynedd, Wales
Died14 April 1985(1985-04-14) (aged 94)
Denbigh, Wales
OccupationsAuthor, novelist, political activist
Writing career
Notable workTraed mewn cyffion (Feet in chains)
Movement
Welsh-language literature

Kate Roberts (13 February 1891 – 14 April 1985) was one of the foremost Welsh-language authors of the 20th century. Styled Brenhines ein llên ('The Queen of our Literature'), she is known mainly for her short stories, but also wrote novels. Roberts was a prominent Welsh nationalist. In 1963, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Welsh scholar Idris Foster.

Life

Kate Roberts was born in the village of Rhosgadfan, on the slopes of Moel Tryfan, 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. She had two half-sisters and two half-brothers (John Evan, Mary, Jane and Owen) from earlier marriages of her parents, and three younger brothers (Richard, Evan and David). She was born in the family cottage Bryn Gwyrfai (Rhosgadfan) and later moved to Cae'r Gors. Later the life in the cottage and village made an all-important backdrop to her early literary work. Her autobiographical volume Y Lôn Wen is a memorable portrayal of the district in that period.

Roberts in 1923

She attended the council school at Rhosgadfan from 1895 to 1904, and, with the help of a scholarship, the English-speaking Caernarfonshire School from 1904 to 1910. She went on to graduate in Welsh at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, which she attended from 1910 to 1913 under John Morris-Jones and Ifor Williams, and trained as a teacher. She taught in various schools in Wales (Dolbadarn Elementary School 1913–1914, Ystalyfera County School 1915–1917, and County Girls' School, Aberdare 1917–1928).

Roberts met Morris T. Williams at Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalist party) meetings, and married him in 1928. At that time, married women were not allowed to stay in the profession so she had to give up her job. Williams was a printer, and eventually they bought the printing and publishing house Gwasg Gee ('The Gee Press'), Denbigh, and moved to live in the town in 1935. The press published books, pamphlets and the Welsh-language weekly Y Faner (The Banner), for which Roberts wrote regularly. After her husband's death in 1946, she ran the press for another 10 years.[citation needed]

In 1965 Roberts heard that Cae'r Gors had become derelict, causing her to start a campaign to save it. She bought the property and, in 1969, presented it to the nation. It was not restored until 2005, after a long campaign to raise the money. It is now in the care of Cadw 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 Pontardawe, saying that nothing had ever made her more happy.

Work

Her first volume of short stories, O gors y bryniau (From the Swamp of the Hills), appeared in 1925. Perhaps her most successful book of short stories is Te yn y grug (Tea in the Heather, 1959), a series about children. Of the novels that Roberts wrote, the most famous may have been Traed mewn cyffion (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 Creigiau Milgwyn. However it was alleged that Creigiau Milgwyn was unworthy of the prize according to the historian Thomas Richards.

In 1960 Roberts published Y Lôn Wen, 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 Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, 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

In English translation

References

  1. ↑ Morgan, Derec Llwyd (1991), Kate Roberts. Writers of Wales series. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1115-6. An introduction to her work in English.
  2. ↑ Nomination archive – Kate Roberts nobelprize.org
  3. 1 2 3 4 Slow, Oliver (19 October 2025). "The little-known Welsh writer who was a Nobel nominee". BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 October 2025. Retrieved 20 October 2025.
  4. ↑ "ROBERTS, KATE (1891-1985), author". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  5. ↑ Hopkins-Williams, Bethan (13 February 2024). "Kate Roberts and Cae'r Gors". Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  6. ↑ Dylan Iorwerth, "Cadw's new quarry cottage", Heritage in Wales, Issue 54, Spring 2013.
  7. ↑ Alan Llwyd, Kate: Y Cofiant (Y Lolfa, 2011)
  8. ↑ Kate and butcher's wife Website Golwg 360. 18-11-2011. Reviewed 22 November 2011.
  9. ↑ Llwyd, Alan (2012). "Kate a gwraig y cigydd". Golwg360.
  10. ↑ "Griffith, Grace Wynne (1888–1963), novelist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  11. ↑ The Prynu Dol black-line illustrations by Eric Malthouse (1914–1997) were published by the artist as a series of coloured screenprints in 1970, edition of 20. https://museum.aber.ac.uk/object/PR1401 and PR1402 through PR1409.
  12. ↑ In 2025, Paul J. Davies completed an unpublished translation in parallel texts as a Welsh language study project, preserving Roberts' stated Welsh "country" language for the English. Available only to read at http://www.pauldavies.net.

Sources