W.H. Auden (1907-1973), Poet

Wystan Hugh ('W.H.') Auden

Sitter associated with 41 portraits
The third son of a doctor and a missionary nurse, Wystan Hugh Auden grew up in Solihull and described his early advantages as 'good genes and good education'. He is best known for his poems of the 1930s and 1940s (Poems, 1930, Look, Stranger!, 1936, For the Time Being, 1945) and for his collaborations with Christopher Isherwood (The Dog Beneath the Skin, 1935, The Ascent of F6, 1936, On the Frontier, 1938). His later publications included The Sea and the Mirror (1944) and The Shield of Achilles (1955). He travelled to Barcelona to support the Republican cause.