Call Number:

C1214

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); W. H. Auden Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1941-1952 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Auden, W.H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century, photographs -- 20th century, and Poetry -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists of selected correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs of the Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden, one of the most acclaimed poets of the 20th century.

W. H. Auden, as he signed his name, is generally regarded as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and for its variety of tone, form, and content. The central themes of his poetry are personal love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, impersonal world of nature. Auden grew up in Birmingham, England, but moved to the United States in 1939. He was also a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological, and religious subjects, and he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays, and other forms of performance.

The collection consists of selected correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs of the Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden. Included is an autograph letter by Auden to Robert Van Gelder, dated June 2, 1945, asking him for a copy of Denton Welch's book Maiden Voyage to review for the New York Times. Another autograph letter, addressed to Miss Harriet Anderson of the Princeton University Press and dated May 30, 1948, gives permission to reprint his Criticism in a Free Society. Among the autograph manuscripts are a poem titled "To Caroline Newton for June 28th" and a two-page list of required reading Auden prepared for her. (Newton was an American translator and writer.) The most substantial manuscript is a typescript of Auden's Christmas oratorio "For the Time Being," which represents a series of dramatic monologues spoken by the characters in the story and by choruses and a narrator. Dedicated to the memory of Auden's mother, Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden, the poem was written in 1941-1942, and it is one of two long poems included in Auden's book of the same name, published in 1944. There are six photographs of Auden, C. W. B. Isherwood, and Chester Kallman taken by Caroline Newton at her house in Rhode Island, all bearing Auden's initials on the verso. Also included is a three-page handwritten recollection of seeing Auden's manuscripts by the author Glenway Wescott, dated April 15, 1952.

Folders are arranged by accession number.