By John Sutherland
One of many top poets and cultural icons of the 20 th century, Stephen Spender was once a well-liked author, literary critic, and social commentator--and shut good friend of a few of the best-know inventive skills of his day. Now, during this penetrating biography, John Sutherland paints a bright portrait of Spender and of the glittering literary international of which he used to be a component, drawing on unique entry to Spender's inner most papers.
This speedily paced, compelling narrative illuminates the giant variety of Spender's literary, political, and creative pursuits. We stick with Spender from early life to his days at Oxford (where he first turned pals with W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, and Isaiah Berlin); to his meteoric upward thrust as poet within the Thirties, whereas nonetheless in his twenties; to his later years as cultural statesman, at domestic in either Britain and the USA. We witness a few of the century's defining moments via Spender's eyes: the Spanish Civil warfare, global conflict II, the chilly conflict, the Sixties sexual revolution, and the increase of the US as a cultural strength. And alongside the way in which, we're brought to a lot of Spender's comprehensive associates, together with Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Cecil Day-Lewis, Joseph Brodsky, Lucian Freud, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, and T.S. Eliot. possibly most vital, Sutherland has been granted unique entry to Spender's deepest papers by means of his spouse Natasha Spender. hence he's capable of offer a much more intimate examine the poet's own existence than has seemed in past biographies.
that includes 36 unpublished pictures, Stephen Spender: A Literary Life throws mild not just in this supremely talented author, but in addition at the literary and social background of the 20 th century.
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