Name: Wystan Hugh Auden

Period: Auden was a poet, author and playwright born in York on 21 February
1907. He died in Austria on 29 September 1973. Auden was a leading literary
influencer in the 20th century. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

3 aspects of his life that are relevant: He studied in Oxford, at Christ College. He
was an avid traveller and he visited Germany, Iceland, China, Spain... and then, in
1939, moved to the United States. As to his love life, Auden wed Erika Mann,
daughter of a German novelist. However, the nuptial did not last, as it was a marriage
of convenience and when he moved to the U.S.A he met the love of his life, Chester
Kallman. With his health waning, Auden left America in 1972 and moved back to
Oxford. He spent his last days in Austria.

Type of writing: It is impossible to summarise his achievements, ranging as they do

across some four hundred poems in a variety of styles, as well as drama, essays,
libretti, travel writing and critical works. In England his themes were more political
(Socialism and Freudian psychoanalysis) and then in America it shifted to spiritual
themes.

3 major works: He is best known for love poems such as Funeral Blues, poems on
cultural and psychological themes such as The Age of Anxiety and Journey to War.