000			02009nam a2200253 a 4500
001			055838
005			20231009193039.0
008			120413r19951995nyua b 001 0beng
010			_a95031796
020			_a9780679426332
050	0	0	_aPR6001.U4 _bZ639 1995
082	0	0	_a92 AUD
100	2		_aDavenport-Hines, Richard
245	1	0	_aAuden _c/ Richard Davenport-Hines
250			_a1st American ed.
260			_aNew York _b: Pantheon Books _c, c1995.
300			_a406 p. _b: ill. _c; 25 cm.
500			_aOriginally published: London : W. Heinemann/Reed Books, 1995.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [353]-391) and index.
520			_aPoet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) scrupulously never kissed and told; very little biographical material made it into his work, and that which did was often later suppressed by him. Davenport-Hines (The Macmillans) here traces many of Auden's poems, plays, essays, reviews and libretti to life events Auden never showed us, mostly notably his charged relationships with men. In brisk, informative readings of the work, Davenport-Hines matches turns in style and subject matter with Auden's experiences. For example, when discussing the poem "Spain 1937,'' he highlights Auden's disillusioning volunteer service with the International Brigade. The emphasis throughout, however, is on the exigencies of love and sex. Auden is shown, in early poems like "The Orators,'' obliquely coming to terms with his homosexuality, exploring and rejecting the fashionable Freudianism of the '30s. He mined his ultimately unsustainable relationship with Chester Kallman for observations about life and love in much of the later work, beginning with "The Sea and the Mirror.'' What is left out is a full account of the basic facts of Auden's life, which may leave one with a taste for earlier biographies that dwell less on the writing.
600	1	0	_aAuden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh) _d, 1907-1973
650			_aPoets, English _y-20th century _v--Biography
942			_cMO
999			_c257804 _d257804