[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
Back
  • Biography
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro
W.H. Auden

Biography

W.H. Auden

Edit

Overview

  • Born
    February 21, 1907 · York, England, UK
  • Died
    September 29, 1973 · Vienna, Austria (heart failure)
  • Birth name
    Wystan Hugh Auden

Biography

    • Author, poet and composer, educated at Oxford University, and a US citizen in 1946. He co-authored the verse plays: "The Dog Beneath the Skin", "The Ascent of F6", and "On the Frontier". His poetry volumes include: "Double Man". "The Shield of Achilles" (National Book Award), "For the Time Being"' "Collected Shorter Poems", and "The Age of Anxiety" (Pulitzer Prize, 1948). He authored "Spain", and co-authored "Education, Today and Tomorrow", plus he co-edited "Poet's Tongue". His awards include Bollingen, Alexander Droutsky, and Guinness. He joined ASCAP in 1958, and collaborated musically with Igor Stravinsky. His musical works include "On This Island" (poems set to music), and the opera "The Rakes Progress".
      - IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Family

  • Spouse
      Erika Mann(June 15, 1935 - August 27, 1969) (her death)

Trivia

  • In 1935 he entered into what was then known as a lavender marriage (a marriage of convenience, often by or between gay and lesbians) to the lesbian German actress and writer, Erika Mann, in order that she could obtain British citizenship, and a UK passport, so that she would not have to return to Nazi Germany, and also allowing her to move to the United States. They never lived together, but remained close friends and technically married until Erika's death in 1969.
  • Son-in-law of German writer Thomas Mann
  • He was a long-time friend and frequent correspondent of J.R.R. Tolkien (although they rarely saw each other).
  • Longtime romantic companion and sometime writing collaborator of Chester Kallman.
  • Originally scheduled to co-write the lyrics for "Man of La Mancha" with Chester Kallman. Both he and Kallman dropped out of the project when they and librettist Dale Wasserman disagreed about the point of view they should take when writing songs for Don Quixote to sing. Auden and Kallman did write some lyrics for the show, but they were entirely scrapped, and Joe Darion was hired instead.

Quotes

  • [on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"] If someone dislikes it, I shall never trust their literary judgment about anything again.
  • [observation, 1970] What a pleasant surprise it would be to meet a crew-cut hippie or a company director with hair down to his shoulders.
  • Even Hifler, I imagine, would have defined his New Jerusalem as a world where there are no Jews, not as a world where they are being gassed by the million day after day in ovens. But he was a Utopian, so the ovens had to come in.
  • [considering Shakespeare's sonnets] Art may spill over from creating a world of language into the dangerous and forbidden task of trying to create a human being.
  • I think a great many of us are haunted by the feelings that our society - and I don't mean just the United States or Europe, but our whole world-wide technological civilization, whether officially labelled capitalist, socialist or communist - is going to go smash, and probably deserves to.

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More from this person

  • View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
Follow IMDb on social
Get the IMDb App
For Android and iOS
Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • License IMDb Data
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.