{{Short description|Welsh bookseller and author (1907–2003)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Beti Rhys | birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|04|02|df=y}} | birth_place = Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales | death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|04|05|1907|04|02|df=y}} | death_place = Cardiff, Wales | occupation = Bookseller, author | years_active = 1950–1994 }}
'''Beti Rhys''' (2 April 1907 – 5 April 2003) was a Welsh bookseller and author who promoted literature in the Welsh language in South Wales in the 1950s and 1960s. Educated at the Howell's School, Llandaff, where a policy was enacted to bar anyone from speaking Welsh, she began her career teaching the language in schools. In 1950 Rhys began a bookshop specialising in books in Welsh and university textbooks in Cardiff. The shop was successful academically, financially and socially and attracted many notable Welsh individuals. After retiring in 1968, she travelled the world, wrote two books on the subject and a biography on Evan Rees, the Archdruid of Wales.
==Biography== Beti Rhys was born on 2 April 1907 in Port Talbot, Glamorgan.<ref name="DTObituary" /> She was the daughter of J.E. Rhys, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife.<ref name=VGHWMI2002>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rMKm-Ee1dYC&dq=Beti+Rhys&pg=PA111|title=Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India, 1800–1970|publisher=William Carey Library|date=October 2002|isbn=978-0-87808-505-7|editor-last=Ben Rees|editor-first=D.|location=Pasadena, California|pages=111|chapter=The Khasia Hills (December 1968) In The Company of Beti Rhys|access-date=17 August 2019}}</ref> Rhys had one sister, Neilan. She was educated at the Howell's School, Llandaff, which she resented due to its policy of barring any person from speaking the Welsh language;<ref name="DTObituary">{{cite news|title=Obituary of Beti Rhys; Champion of the Welsh language who opened the principality's first university bookshop|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1428277/Beti-Rhys.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=25 April 2003|accessdate=17 August 2019|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817123350/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1428277/Beti-Rhys.html|archive-date=17 August 2019}}</ref> Rhys was described by one member of staff as "dirty Welsh".<ref name=TimesObituary>{{cite news|title=Beti Rhys; Obituary|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A100155622/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=ead6bf26|work=The Times|date=16 April 2003|accessdate=17 August 2019|page=30|via=Gale Academic OneFile|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The experience failed to dissuade her and she went on to read Welsh at University College, Cardiff (now Cardiff University).<ref name="TimesObituary" /> Rhys began her career teaching Welsh at multiple schools before settling at the Pentre Secondary School in the Rhondda.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="TimesObituary" />
In 1950 Rhys borrowed money from friends of hers to begin a bookshop specialising in books published in the Welsh language and university textbooks at the Castle Arcade shopping building in Cardiff.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="TimesObituary" /> During that era, books published in the Welsh language were scarce with a close following and the opening of her shop expanded their reach further south in Wales.<ref name="TimesObituary" /> According to Rhys' obituarist in ''The Times'', the shop became "a focal point for the Welsh literati".<ref name="TimesObituary" /> Soon after its opening she obtained contracts to deliver textbooks to various Welsh educational institutions.<ref name="TimesObituary" /> Rhys had regular customers in Idris Foster, the professor of Celtic Studies at Jesus College, Oxford, the poets Waldo Williams and Dylan Thomas, Saunders Lewis, the co-founder of the political party Plaid Cymru,<ref name="DTObituary" /> the historian John Davies,<ref name="TimesObituary" /> the politician Neil Kinnock and his wife Glenys Parry.<ref name="DTObituary" />
The shop made an academic, financial and social success,<ref name="TimesObituary" /> and she soon opened a second shop in Park Place, Cardiff, which her sister managed.<ref name="DTObituary" /> Rhys also advised students who struggled academically. A doctor from Kuwait held a positive review of her swift service, and he persuaded his hospital in his home country to order all of its works from her store.<ref name="TimesObituary" /> She sold her shops in 1968,<ref name="TimesObituary" /> so that she could retire to Aberystwyth and travel.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name=VGHWMI2002/>
Rhys traveled to China via a cargo boat, the Trans-Siberian Railway to reach Russia, a bus to India, visited the Americas by the Greyhound Lines,<ref name="DTObituary" /> and all of Africa.<ref name="TimesObituary" /> She wrote two books about her travels, ''Crwydro'r Byd'' (Travelling the World),<ref name="DTObituary" /> and ''I'r India a thu hwnt'' (To India and Beyond) in 1995.<ref name=VGHWMI2002/> Rhys wrote a biography about her great-uncle, Evan Rees, the Archdruid of Wales from 1905 to 1923.<ref name="DTObituary" /> She later returned to Cardiff,<ref name=VGHWMI2002/> and went into a nursing home.<ref name="DTObituary" /> She died on 5 April 2003.<ref name="TimesObituary" />
==Personality==
Rhys was described by her obituarist in ''The Times'' as a "Champion of Welsh" and an "indomitable Welsh woman".<ref name="TimesObituary" />
== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book|title=Dyfed: Bywyd a gwaith Evan Rees (1850–1923)|last=Rhys|first=Beti|publisher=Gwasg Gee|year=1984|isbn=978-0-7074-0109-6|language=Welsh|trans-title=Dyfed: The Life and Work of Evan Rees (1850-1923)}} * {{Cite book|title=Crwydro'r byd|last=Rhys|first=Beti|publisher=Gwasg Gee|year=1988|isbn=978-0-7074-0157-7|language=Welsh|trans-title=Travelling the World}} * {{Cite book|title=I'r India a Thu Hwnt|last=Rhys|first=Beti|publisher=Gwasg Gee|year=1994|isbn=978-0-7074-0253-6|language=Welsh|trans-title=To India and Beyond}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhys, Beti}} Category:1907 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century Welsh writers Category:20th-century Welsh women writers Category:21st-century Welsh businesspeople Category:20th-century Welsh businesswomen Category:21st-century Welsh women writers Category:People from Port Talbot Category:People educated at Howell's School, Llandaff Category:Alumni of Cardiff University Category:Welsh-language writers Category:Welsh non-fiction writers Category:Welsh travel writers Category:British women travel writers Category:Welsh booksellers Category:Welsh biographers Category:British women biographers Category:20th-century Welsh businesspeople