Spender, Sir Stephen

Spender, Sir Stephen

▪ English poet
in full  Sir Stephen Harold Spender 
born February 28, 1909, London, England
died July 16, 1995, London

      English poet and critic, who made his reputation in the 1930s with poems expressing the politically conscience-stricken, leftist “new writing” of that period.

      A nephew of the Liberal journalist and biographer J.A. Spender, he was educated at University College School, London, and at University College, Oxford. While an undergraduate he met the poets W.H. Auden (Auden, W H) and C. Day-Lewis (Day-Lewis, C.), and during 1930–33 he spent many months in Germany with the writer Christopher Isherwood (Isherwood, Christopher). Among important influences shown in his early volumes—Poems (1933), Vienna (1934), Trial of a Judge, a verse play (1938), and The Still Centre (1939)—were the poetry of the German Rainer Maria Rilke (Rilke, Rainer Maria) and of the Spaniard Federico García Lorca (García Lorca, Federico). Above all, his poems expressed a self-critical, compassionate personality. In the following decades Spender, in some ways a more personal poet than his early associates, became increasingly more autobiographical, turning his gaze from the external topical situation to the subjective experience. His reputation for humanism and honesty is fully vindicated in subsequent volumes—Ruins and Visions (1942), Poems of Dedication (1947), The Edge of Being (1949), Collected Poems (1955), Selected Poems (1965), The Generous Days (1971), and Dolphins (1994).

      From the 1940s Spender was better known for his perceptive criticism and his editorial association with the influential reviews Horizon (1940–41) and Encounter (1953–67) than he was as a poet. Spender's prose works include short stories (The Burning Cactus, 1936), a novel (The Backward Son, 1940), literary criticism (The Destructive Element, 1935; The Creative Element, 1953; The Making of a Poem, 1955; The Struggle of the Modern, 1963), an autobiography (World Within World, 1951; reissued 1994), and uncollected essays with new commentary (The Thirties and After, 1978).

      During World War II Spender was a member of the National Fire Service (1941–44). After the war he made several visits to the United States, teaching and lecturing at universities, and in 1965 he became the first non-American to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (now poet laureate consultant in poetry), a position he held for one year. In 1970 he was appointed professor of English at University College, London; he became professor emeritus in 1977. Spender was knighted in 1983, and he made headlines in 1994 and 1995 when he brought a highly publicized plagiarism suit against novelist David Leavitt; the latter was accused of having borrowed material from Spender's autobiography for his novel While England Sleeps. Leavitt ultimately revised his work, but not before a vitriolic airing of the controversy in the pages of the leading journals in London and New York.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Spender,Sir Stephen Harold — Spen·der (spĕnʹdər), Sir Stephen Harold. 1909 1995. British writer whose poetry reflects personal emotional responses to social and political injustices. His works include the collection The Still Center (1939) and Generous Days (1971). * * * …   Universalium

  • Spender, Sir Stephen Harold — ▪ 1996       British poet and critic (b. Feb. 28, 1909, London, England d. July 16, 1995, London), was one of the preeminent English poets of the 1930s and a member of the Oxford generation, a small group of youthful literary aesthetes whose… …   Universalium

  • Spender, Sir Stephen Harold — (1909 1995)    The son of journalist, he was brought up in London and educated at University College School, London, and at University College, Oxford. His book The Thirties and After (1979) recalls the outspoken Oxford literary figures and… …   British and Irish poets

  • Spender, Sir Stephen (Harold) — born Feb. 28, 1909, London, Eng. died July 16, 1995, London English poet and critic. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Spender met the poets W.H. Auden and C. Day Lewis. In the 1930s they became identified with politically conscious, leftist new… …   Universalium

  • Spender, Sir Stephen (Harold) — (28 feb. 1909, Londres, Inglaterra 16 jul. 1995, Londres). Poeta y crítico inglés. Mientras estudiaba en Oxford, Spender conoció a los poetas W.H. Auden y C. Day Lewis. En los años 30 se identificaron con la nueva escritura de izquierda,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Sir Stephen Harold Spender — (* 28. Februar 1909 in London; † 16. Juli 1995) war ein englischer Dichter, Autor und Hochschullehrer, der sich in seinen Werken auf soziale Ungerechtigkeiten und den Klassenkampf konzentrierte. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Kindheit, Jugend und junger… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sir Stephen Harold Spender — noun English poet and critic (1909 1995) • Syn: ↑Spender, ↑Stephen Spender • Instance Hypernyms: ↑poet, ↑literary critic …   Useful english dictionary

  • Stephen Spender — Sir Stephen Harold Spender, CBE, (* 28. Februar 1909 in London; † 16. Juli 1995) war ein englischer Dichter, Autor und Hochschullehrer, der sich in seinen Werken auf soziale Ungerechtigkeiten und den Klassenkampf konzentrierte. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Stephen Spender Memorial Trust — Sir Stephen Harold Spender (* 28. Februar 1909 in London; † 16. Juli 1995) war ein englischer Dichter, Autor und Hochschullehrer, der sich in seinen Werken auf soziale Ungerechtigkeiten und den Klassenkampf konzentrierte. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Stephen Spender — Infobox Person name = Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE image size = caption = birth name = Stephen Harold Spender birth date = birth date|1909|2|28|df=y birth place = death date = Death date and age|1995|7|16|1909|2|28|df=y death place = occupation …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”