{"product_id":"9780008141059_september-1-1939-w-h-auden-and-the-afterlife-of-a-poem","title":"September 1, 1939: W.h. Auden and the Afterlife of a Poem","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book about a poet – W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality who became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout a poem – ‘September 1, 1939’, his most famous and celebrated, yet one which he tried to rewrite and disown and which has enjoyed – or been condemned – to a tragic and unexpected afterlife.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout a city – New York, an island, an emblem of the Future, magnificent, provisional, seamy, and in 1939 about to emerge as the defining twentieth-century cosmopolis, the capital of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd about a world at a point of change – about 1939, and about our own Age of Anxiety, about the aftermath of September 11, when many American newspapers reprinted Auden’s poem in its entirety on their editorial pages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSansom's work is a top-tier exploration of the English and Irish influences on Auden's life and work, set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving Europe. It's a journey through the 20th century, a time of turmoil and transformation, seen through the eyes of one of its most poignant figures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Andrea Wulf (Magnificent Rebels), Maggie O'Farrell (I Am, I Am, I Am), and Adam Macqueen (The King Of Sunlight).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Sansom, Read by Ian Sansom","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46889466265749,"sku":"9780008141059","price":35.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008141059.jpg?v=1776888226","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008141059_september-1-1939-w-h-auden-and-the-afterlife-of-a-poem","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}