W.H. Auden.

W.H. Auden was born on February 21, 1907 in York, England, to Constance Rosalie Bicknell and George Augustus Auden. He had a younger brother, John Bicknell Auden, who became a geologist. Auden attended St Edmund’s School in Surrey and Gresham’s School in Norfolk. He then studied at Christ Church, University of Oxford, graduating in 1928.

In 1930, Auden co-authored the verse play The Dog Beneath the Skin with Christopher Isherwood. They followed with The Ascent of F6 in 1936 and On the Frontier in 1938. The poetry volume The Age of Anxiety won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948. In 1951, he co-wrote the opera The Rakes Progress with composer Igor Stravinsky. Auden published The Shield of Achilles in 1955, earning the National Book Award, and Homage to Clio in 1960. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1941 to 1942 and became a U.S. citizen in 1946.

In 1935, Auden entered into a lavender marriage with German actress Erika Mann to help her gain British citizenship and escape Nazi Germany. They remained close friends until her death in 1969, though they never lived together. Auden’s long-term romantic companion was Chester Kallman, with whom he occasionally collaborated on writing projects. He was also a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Isherwood, having attended school with the latter. Auden briefly lived in a Brooklyn house with novelist Carson McCullers.

Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety gave the postwar era its name. Works such as Musée des Beaux Arts remain standard anthology pieces. He received the Bollingen Prize, the Feltrinelli Prize, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. In 1948 he won the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1956 the National Book Award. His collaboration with Igor Stravinsky on The Rakes Progress made him a permanent figure in opera. Auden’s technical mastery and moral seriousness define his legacy; his poems are studied for their craft and depth.