W. H. Auden bibliography

This is a bibliography of books, plays, films, and libretti written, edited, or translated by the Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden (1907–1973). See the main entry for a list of biographical and critical studies and external links.

Publications by W. H. Auden

See also: Category:Poetry by W. H. Auden, Category:Books by W. H. Auden, Category:Plays by W. H. Auden, and Category:Libretti by W. H. Auden

In the list below, works reprinted in the Complete Works of W. H. Auden are indicated by footnote references.

Books and selected pamphlets

• Poems (London, 1928; privately printed; different contents from 1930 volume with the same title) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood).
• Poems (London, 1930; second edn., seven poems substituted, London, 1933; includes poems and Paid on Both Sides: A Charade) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood).
• The Orators: An English Study (London, 1932, verse and prose; slightly revised edn., London, 1934; revised edn. with new preface, London, 1966; New York 1967) (dedicated to Stephen Spender).
• The Dance of Death (London, 1933, play) (dedicated to Robert Medley and Rupert Doone).
• Poems (New York, 1934; contains Poems [1933 edition], The Orators [1932 edition], and The Dance of Death).
• The Dog Beneath the Skin (London, New York, 1935; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to Robert Moody).
• The Ascent of F6 (London, 1936; 2nd edn., 1937; New York, 1937; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to John Bicknell Auden).
• Look, Stranger! (London, 1936, poems; US edn., On This Island, New York, 1937) (dedicated to Erika Mann)
• Spain (London, 1937; pamphlet poem).
• Letters from Iceland (London, New York, 1937; verse and prose, with Louis MacNeice) (dedicated to George Augustus Auden).
• On the Frontier (London, 1938; New York, 1939; play, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to Benjamin Britten).
• Selected Poems (London, 1938) (selected by Auden from previously published work)
• Education: Today - and Tomorrow (London, 1939; journalism, with T. C. Worsley)
• Journey to a War (London, New York, 1939; verse and prose, with Christopher Isherwood) (dedicated to E. M. Forster).
• Another Time (London, New York 1940; poetry) (dedicated to Chester Kallman).
• Some Poems (London, 1940)) (not selected by Auden)
• The Double Man (New York, 1941, poems; UK edn., New Year Letter, London, 1941) (Dedicated to Elizabeth Mayer).
• For the Time Being (New York, 1944; London, 1945; two long poems: "The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest", dedicated to James and Tania Stern, and "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio", in memoriam Constance Rosalie Auden [Auden's mother]).
• The Collected Poetry of W.H. Auden (New York, 1945; includes new poems) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman).
• The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (New York, 1947; London, 1948; verse; won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry) (dedicated to John Betjeman).
• The Enchafèd Flood (New York, 1950; London, 1951; prose) (dedicated to Alan Ansen).
• Collected Shorter Poems, 1930-1944 (London, 1950; similar to 1945 Collected Poetry) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman).
• Nones (New York, 1951; London, 1952; poems) (dedicated to Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr)
• Mountains. (1954) (pamphlet edition of a single poem, included in The Shield of Achilles)
• The Shield of Achilles (New York, London, 1955; poems; won the 1956 National Book Award for Poetry) (dedicated to Lincoln and Fidelma Kirstein).
• The Old Man's Road (New York, 1956; pamphlet with poems, all included in Homage to Clio).
• W. H. Auden: A Selection by the Author (Harmondsworth, 1958; New York, 1959, as Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden) (includes some new revisions to previously published poems)
• Homage to Clio (New York, London, 1960; poems) (dedicated to E. R. and A. E. Dodds).
• The Dyer's Hand (New York, 1962; London, 1963; essays) (dedicated to Nevill Coghill).
• About the House (New York, London, 1965; poems) (dedicated to Edmund and Elena Wilson).
• Collected Shorter Poems 1927-1957 (London, 1966; New York, 1967) (dedicated to Christopher Isherwood and Chester Kallman).
• Selected Poems (London, 1968) (includes some new revisions to previously published poems)
• Collected Longer Poems (London, 1968; New York, 1969).
• Secondary Worlds (London, New York, 1969; prose) (dedicated to Valerie Eliot).
• City Without Walls and Other Poems (London, New York, 1969) (dedicated to Peter Heyworth).
• A Certain World: A Commonplace Book (New York, London, 1970; quotations with commentary) (dedicated to Geoffrey Gorer).
• Academic Graffiti (London, New York, 1971; poems) (in memoriam Ogden Nash).
• Epistle to a Godson and Other Poems (London, New York, 1972) (dedicated to Orlan Fox).
• Forewords and Afterwords (New York, London, 1973; essays) (dedicated to Hannah Arendt).
• Thank You, Fog: Last Poems (London, New York, 1974) (dedicated to Michael and Marny Yates).

Posthumous books

Note: These are works that Auden did not intend to publish

• "The Prolific and the Devourer" (1939, prose; unfinished book; published in magazine form 1981, in book form, New York, 1993).
• Lectures on Shakespeare (1946–47, reconstructed and ed. by Arthur Kirsch, Princeton, 2001).

Anthologies edited by Auden

• The Poet's Tongue (2-vol and 1-vol edns., with John Garrett, London, 1935; introduction reprinted).
• The Oxford Book of Light Verse (Oxford, 1938; introduction reprinted) (dedicated to E. R. Dodds).
• The Portable Greek Reader (New York, 1948; introduction reprinted).
• Poets of the English Language (5 vols., with Norman Holmes Pearson; New York, 1950; London, 1952; introduction reprinted).
• The Faber Book of Modern American Verse (London, 1956; US edn., The Criterion book of Modern American Verse); introduction reprinted.
• The Viking Book of Aphorisms (with Louis Kronenberger; New York, 1964; UK edn., The Faber Book of Aphorisms); introduction reprinted.
• Nineteenth-Century British Minor Poets (New York, 1966; UK edn. Nineteenth-Century Minor Poets).

Film scripts and opera libretti

• Coal Face (1935, closing chorus for GPO Film Unit documentary).
• Negroes (1935, narrative for GPO Film Unit documentary); completed 1938 (without Auden's participation) as God's Chillun.
• Night Mail (1936, narrative for GPO Film Unit documentary, not published separately except as a program note).
• The Way to the Sea (1936, narrative for Strand Films documentary).
• Paul Bunyan (1941, libretto for operetta by Benjamin Britten; not published until 1976).
• The Rake's Progress (1951, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Igor Stravinsky).
• Elegy for Young Lovers (1956, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Hans Werner Henze).
• The Bassarids (1961, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Hans Werner Henze based on The Bacchae of Euripides).
• Runner (1962, documentary film narrative for National Film Board of Canada)
• Love's Labour's Lost (1973, with Chester Kallman, libretto for an opera by Nicolas Nabokov, based on Shakespeare's play).

Edited selections of individual authors

• A Selection from the Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (New York, 1944; UK edn. Tennyson: An Introduction and a Selection, London, 1946); introduction reprinted.
• Selected Prose and Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (New York, 1950; rev. edn., 1956); introduction reprinted.
• The Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard (New York, 1952; UK edn., Kierkegaard: Selected and Introduced by W. H. Auden, London, 1955); introduction reprinted.
• A Choice of De La Mare's Verse (London, 1963); introduction reprinted.
• Louis MacNeice, Selected Poems (London, 1964); preface reprinted.
• George Gordon, Lord Byron, Selected Poetry and Prose (New York, 1966); introduction reprinted.
• G. K. Chesterton: A Selection from His Non-Fictional Prose (London, 1970); introduction reprinted.

Translations

• The Magic Flute (New York, 1956; London, 1957; with Chester Kallman, English version of Emanuel Schikaneder's original German libretto to the Mozart opera Die Zauberflöte) (dedicated to Anne and Irving Weiss).
• Don Giovanni (New York, 1961; with Chester Kallman, English translation of Lorenzo da Ponte's original Italian libretto to the Mozart opera).
• Goethe, J. W. von. Italian Journey, tr. by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer (London, New York, 1963); introduction reprinted.
• The Elder Edda: A Selection, tr. by W. H. Auden and Paul B. Taylor (London, 1969; New York, 1970).

Editions published after Auden's death

• Collected Poems (1976, new edns. 1991, 2007, ed. by Edward Mendelson; Auden's final revisions).
• The English Auden: Poems, Essays, and Dramatic Writings, 1927-1939 (1977, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Selected Poems (1979, expanded edn. 2007, ed. by Edward Mendelson; includes earlier versions and discarded poems).
• Plays and Other Dramatic Writings, 1927-1938 (1989, first vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Libretti and Other Dramatic Writings, 1939-1973 (1993, second vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Tell Me the Truth About Love: Ten Poems (1994, later UK edns. have 15 poems).
• Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928 (1994, ed. by Katherine Bucknell; expanded edn. 2003).
• As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other Light Verse (1995, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Prose and Travel Books in Prose and Verse: Volume I, 1926-1938 (1997, third vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• W.H. Auden: Poems selected by John Fuller, (2000).
• Prose, Volume II: 1939-1948 (2002, fourth vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (2003, ed. by Arthur Kirsch).
• Prose, Volume III: 1949-1955 (2008, fifth vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Prose, Volume IV: 1956-1962 (2010, sixth vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• The Age of Anxiety (2011, ed. by Alan Jacobs)
• Prose, Volume V: 1963-1968 (2015, seventh vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).
• Prose, Volume VI: 1969-1973 (2015, eighth vol. of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden, ed. by Edward Mendelson).

Further reading

Bibliography

• Bloomfield, B. C., and Edward Mendelson (1972). W. H. Auden: A Bibliography 1924–1969. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-0395-5.

Post-1969 supplements to the item listed above are included in the following:

• Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1990) "The Map of All My Youth": early works, friends and influences (Auden Studies 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812964-5.
• Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1994). "The Language of Learning and the Language of Love": uncollected writings, new interpretations (Auden Studies 2). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812257-8.
• Auden, W. H.; ed. by Katherine Bucknell and Nicholas Jenkins (1995). "In Solitude, For Company": W. H. Auden after 1940: unpublished prose and recent criticism (Auden Studies 3). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818294-5.

External links

• Works by or about W.H. Auden in libraries (WorldCat catalog)