W H Auden: A Centenary Reading
With Grey Gowrie, Richard Howard, Andrew Motion, John Fuller, Sean O'Brien, James Fenton and Peter Porter
Wednesday 21 February 2007
19.00 - 20.15
The Shaw Theatre
Wednesday 21 February 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Wystan Hugh Auden, one of the most significant - and prolific - poets and writers of the twentieth century.
The British Library and the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust celebrate Auden's centenary with an evening of poetry readings that reflect the enormous breadth and wonderful technical variety of Auden's published output, including both the poems of the 1930's that chart 'a low dishonest decade', and his later work published while resident in the United States.
Lady Natasha Spender writes:
"This tribute to Auden on the anniversary of his birth is offered by younger poets whom he encouraged and who became his lifelong friends: Andrew Motion, the present Poet Laureate, who as an Oxford undergraduate knew him; the American Richard Howard, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize by him; Grey Gowrie, who knew him through Auden's niece, Anita; and Peter Porter, John Fuller and James Fenton, who saw him on his annual London visits for Poetry International. Only Sean O'Brien, 20 when Auden died in 1973, did not know him.
He used to stay with us or his brother John, and to all the children - Anita and Rita Auden, Matthew and Lizzie Spender - he was a beloved bachelor uncle who invented games and shared their passions for Tolkien and C S Lewis, introducing a benevolent bossiness into our liberal households."
Sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies, the British Library.
For more information, please contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or ruth.howlett@bl.uk
Notes for Editors
Wednesday 21 February 19.00 - 20.15
W H Auden: A Centenary Reading with Grey Gowrie, Richard Howard, Andrew Motion, John Fuller, Sean O'Brien, James Fenton and Peter Porter at the Shaw Theatre, 100 Euston Road, London, NW1 2AJ. Price £10.00 (concessions £7.50). To book tickets call +44 (0)20 7412 7222. www.bl.uk/everyone
The British Library is the national Library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk
The British Library has outstanding collections relating to W H Auden. These include first and later editions of his poetry books, libretti and other works, magazines in which his poems and essays were first published, critical studies, sound recordings, letters, and notebooks. Unique items include two manuscript notebooks: one from the period 1927-36, the other covering the years 1947-63. Auden's extremely rare first book, privately printed by Stephen Spender and at the Holywell Press in Oxford in 1928, is also held in the collections. The Library's copy originally belonged to Auden's friend Edward Upward, and contains alterations in Auden's handwriting to individual poems.
The Stephen Spender Memorial Trust aims to widen knowledge of 20th century English literature, with particular focus on Stephen Spender's circle of writers. The Trust also promotes literary translation, helps contemporary writers of prose and poetry reach an English-language readership and, through a modest grants programme, facilitates translation projects which otherwise would not be viable. The Trust was set up in 1997 to honour Spender's achievements as poet and translator of poetry, and as champion of the rights of creative artists and writers to free expression.