AUDEN, W. H.

£650 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Collected Longer Poems. First edition, first impression, familiarly inscribed by Auden using his first name reserved for friends, "with love from Wystan" on the title page. This copy derives from the library of his close friend and fellow writer James Stern (1904-1993), though without his ownership mark. Auden was first introduced to James and Tania Stern by Christopher Isherwood, at the Café de Flore in Paris, January 1937, and he solidified the bond after moving to New York in 1939. They collaborated on several literary projects including a radio version of D. H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking Horse Winner" in 1941, and a joint translation in 1944 of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. It was in this year that Auden dedicated his long poem The Sea and the Mirror (included in this edition, making it a quasi-dedication copy) to the Sterns. Stern was notable in his own right for several collections of short stories, and with his wife also published English translations of Kafka and Freud.

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