W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English poet and critic, widely regarded as among the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. He spent the first part of his life in the United Kingdom, but emigrated to the United States of America in 1939, becoming an American citizen in 1946.

Life

Auden was born in York and spent his early childhood in Harborne, Birmingham, where his father Dr George Auden was the school medical officer for Birmingham and Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham. From the age of eight Auden was sent away to boarding schools, first in Surrey, and later Gresham's School in Norfolk, but he returned to Birmingham for the holidays.

Related Topics:
York - Harborne - Birmingham - Professor - University of Birmingham - Gresham's School

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He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford University, but took only a third-class degree. After Oxford he went to live for a year in Weimar Berlin, in whose tolerant atmosphere his homosexuality could be more openly expressed.

Related Topics:
Christ Church - Oxford University - Weimar - Berlin

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On returning to England, he taught at two boys' schools from 1930 to 1935. The most important of these, and where he was happiest, was the Downs School, near Great Malvern. Here he spent three years and wrote some of his finest early love poems: including "This lunar beauty"; "Lay your sleeping head, my love"; "Fish in the unruffled lakes"; and "Out on the lawn I lie in bed".

Related Topics:
Downs School - Great Malvern

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In 1935 Auden made a marriage of convenience to Erika Mann, lesbian daughter of the great German novelist Thomas Mann, in order to provide her with a British passport to escape the Third Reich. Although the "couple" never lived together, they remained friends and never bothered to divorce.

Related Topics:
1935 - Marriage of convenience - Erika Mann - Thomas Mann - Third Reich

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Auden and Christopher Isherwood emigrated to the United States in 1939. This move away from England, just as the Second World War was starting, was seen by many as a betrayal and his poetic reputation suffered briefly as a result. Soon after arriving in New York, he gave a public reading with Isherwood and Louis MacNeice, at which he met the poet Chester Kallman for the first time. Kallman was to be his lover and companion for the rest of his life, though the relationship was often troubled.

Related Topics:
Christopher Isherwood - United States - 1939 - Second World War - New York - Louis MacNeice - Chester Kallman

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Having spent the war years in the United States, Auden became a naturalized citizen in 1946, but returned to Europe during the summers starting in 1948, first in Italy then in Austria. From 1956 to 1961 Auden was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, a post which required him to give only three lectures each year, so he spent only a few weeks at Oxford during his professorship. During the last year of his life he moved back from New York to Oxford, and he died in Vienna in 1973.

Related Topics:
Naturalized citizen - 1946 - Italy - Austria - Professor of Poetry - Oxford University - Vienna

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