 Front page of the earliest surviving copy of Seren Gomer. January 1st, 1814 | |
| Type | weekly newspaper, publisher, printer |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Joseph Harris  |
| Publisher | David Jenkin |
| Editor | Samuel Evans [*], Joseph Harris, David Davies Evans [*] |
| City | Swansea |
Seren Gomer was the first Welsh-language weekly newspaper. The first number was published in 1814 in Swansea by the local Baptist minister and writer Joseph Harris (Gomer). [1]
The weekly was intended to cover news from the whole of Wales and from overseas, as well as literary material. Its success was limited: it went out of business in 1815 after 85 editions, partly due to the heavy tax on newspapers and a shortfall in advertising revenue. [2] In 1818 Harris revived the publication, which became associated with the Baptist denomination. In 1820 it became a monthly. The writer and poet Evan Owen Allen was among its contributors.
When Harris died in 1825, the paper was purchased by a Carmarthen publisher and became a quarterly Baptist magazine. This continued until 1983.
The history of British newspapers dates to the 17th century with the emergence of regular publications covering news and gossip. The relaxation of government censorship in the late 17th century led to a rise in publications, which in turn led to an increase in regulation throughout the 18th century. The Times began publication in 1785 and became the leading newspaper of the early 19th century, before the lifting of taxes on newspapers and technological innovations led to a boom in newspaper publishing in the late 19th century. Mass education and increasing affluence led to new papers such as the Daily Mail emerging at the end of the 19th century, aimed at lower middle-class readers.
Edward Thomas Butler is a journalist, sports commentator, and former Welsh rugby union player, who won 16 caps for the Wales team between 1980 and 1984 and scored 2 tries.
The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently administered by Literature Wales, and supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and the Welsh Books Council.
The media in Wales provide services in both English and Welsh, and play a role in modern Welsh culture. BBC Wales began broadcasting in 1923 have helped to promote a form of standardised spoken Welsh, and one historian has argued that the concept of Wales as a single national entity owes much to modern broadcasting. The national broadcasters are based in the capital, Cardiff.
Nigel Jenkins was an Anglo-Welsh poet. He was an editor, journalist, psychogeographer, broadcaster and writer of creative non-fiction, as well as being a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.
John Jenkins was a Welsh poet and theologian. Known by his bardic name of Gwili, he served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1932 to 1936.
Joseph Harris was a Welsh Baptist minister, author, and journal editor. A Welsh language poet, he took the Biblical name of Gomer as his bardic name. On 1 January 1814 he launched the first Welsh-language weekly Seren Gomer in Swansea. Gomer was born on a farm in Wolf's Castle, Pembrokeshire, where a plaque was unveiled in his memory, making the 200th anniversary of the launch of Seren Gomer. Gomer himself became a preacher during the religious revival of 1795. He married Martha Symons, and took on Back Street chapel. One of his best-known works, Cofiant Ieuan Ddu, was a biography of his son, John Ryland Harris, who worked as a typesetter for his father's printing press and died at the age of twenty.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1825 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1814 to Wales and its people.
Mike Jenkins is a Welsh poet and fiction writer in English. He is also the father of the Plaid Cymru politician Bethan Sayed and of the journalist Ciaran Jenkins.
Grahame Davies LVO is a poet, author, editor, librettist, literary critic and former journalist. He was brought up in the former coal mining village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham in north east Wales.
Christine Evans is a poet of Welsh origin, born in the West Riding of Yorkshire and writing in English. She lives in North Wales. Her book Cometary Phrases was Welsh Book of the Year in 1989.
Arthur Geraint Goodwin was a Welsh journalist, novelist and short story writer from near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, who wrote about rural life on the Welsh border. His first novel, published in 1935, was the autobiographical Call Back Yesterday. Goodwin's most acclaimed work, The Heyday in the Blood, appeared in 1936, and his last novel, Come Michaelmas, appeared in 1939. In 1975, The Heyday in the Blood was translated into Welsh.
Iwan Bala is a Welsh artist, born May 1956 in Sarnau, Merionethshire, near Bala.
Thomas Price was a leading figure in the political and religious life of Victorian Wales, and the central figure of the Cynon Valley for more than forty years.
David Eirwyn Morgan was a minister, journalist and Welsh nationalist politician.
Evan Owen Allen (1805–1852) was a Welsh writer and poet born at Pant-y-llin, near Llanrwst, Caernarfonshire, the son of a farmer.
Rhian Edwards is a Welsh poet. Her debut collection of poetry, Clueless Dogs, was named the Wales Book of the Year in 2013.
  | This Welsh newspaper-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |