W. H. Auden
February21, 1907-September29, 1973)) Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh Auden),1907–73, Anglo-American poet, b.York, England, educated at Oxford. A versatile, vigorous, and technically skilled poet, Auden ranks among the major literary figures of the 20th cent. Often written in everyday language, his poetry ranges in subject matter from politics to modern psychology to Christianity. During the 1930s he was the leader of a left-wing literary group that included ChristopherIsherwood and StephenSpender. With Isherwood he wrote three verse plays, The Dog beneath the Skin.
Auden's first volume of poetry appeared in 1930. Later volumes include Spain (1937), New Year Letter (1941), For the Time Being, a Christmas Oratorio (1945), The Age of Anxiety (1947; Pulitzer Prize), Nones (1951), The Shield of Achilles (1955), Homage to Clio (1960), About the House (1965), Epistle of a Godson and Other Poems (1972), and Thank You, Fog (1974). His other works include Letters from Iceland (with LouisMacNeice, 1937); the libretto, with his companion Chester Kallman, forStravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress (1953); A Certain World: A Commonplace Book (1970); and The Dyer's Hand and Other
Essays (1968).
In 1939, Auden moved to the United States, he became a citizen in 1946, and beginning that year taught at a number of American colleges and universities. From 1956 to 1961 he was professor of poetry at Oxford. Subsequently he lived in a number of countries, including Italy and Austria, and in 1971 he returned to England. He was awarded the National Medal for Literature in 1967.
Selected works:
FOR THE TIME BEING, 1944
MOUNTAINS, 1954
ELEGY FOR YOUNG LOVERS, 1961
CITY WITHOUT WALLS, 1969
Taken from:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0805295.html http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/whauden.htm
Also see:
http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hishika/auden.htm http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/speleo/auden.html http://www.audensociety.org/poems.html