writer, considered the national novelist of Wales. He was a natural storyteller whose works, set in his own time, introduced a wealth of vivid and memorable characters that have given him a place in Welsh literature comparable to that of Charles Dickens in English.

The son of a coal miner and the youngest of six children, Owen received little formal education and at the age of 12 was apprenticed to a tailor. In 1864 he started to preach, and in the following year he enrolled in Bala Calvinistic Methodist College but returned home before completing the course. He resumed preaching and soon began writing for publication.

His works include the novels Hunangofiant Rhys Lewis (1885; Rhys Lewis, Minister of Bethel: An Autobiography), Profedigaethau Enoc Huws (1891; “The Trials of Enoc Huws”), Y Dreflan, ei Phobl a'i Phethau (1881; “Dreflan, Its People and Its Affairs”), which describes the life around the Welsh chapel, and Gwen Tomos (1894). Offrymau Neilltuaeth (1879; “Offerings of Seclusion”) is a volume of sermons and portraits of Methodists; Y Siswrn (1888; “The Scissors”) is a collection of poems, essays, and stories. Owen's works are characterized by vigorous diction, pungent humour, and freedom from didacticism, qualities that are generally lacking in 19th-century Welsh literature.