The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose, Volume V

Edward Mendelson is the literary executor of the Estate of W. H. Auden and the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. His books include Early Auden, Later Auden, The Things That Matter, and Lives of the New York Intellectuals.

Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction xiii The Text of This Edition xli ESSAYS AND REVIEWS, 1963-1966 Foreword to The Plough and the Pen 3 Telling Tales 5 Adam as a Welshman 11 Beyond Politics 15 An Improbable Life 19 Introduction to The Art of Eating, by M. F. K. Fisher 37 Introduction to The Protestant Mystics 42 [To Benjamin Britten on His Fiftieth Birthday] 65 Louis MacNeice 66 Louis MacNeice: A Memorial Address 69 A Symposium on W. H. Auden's "A Change of Air" 73 Foreword to W. H. Auden: A Bibliography, by B. C. Bloomfield 78 Introduction to Selected Poems, by Louis MacNeice 80 Foreword to Markings, by Dag Hammarskjold 81 Introduction to The Sonnets, by William Shakespeare 92 Speaking of Books 109 Private Poet 112 A Short Defense of Poetry 117 Preface to The Tree and the Master 120 T. S. Eliot, O.M.: A Tribute 122 Behaviour, Action and Enchantment 124 President's Address 132 As It Seemed to Us 134 The Corruption of Innocent Neutrons 160 Mozart in the Stacks 164 A Word from W. H. Auden 165 One of the Family 166 Books of the Year: A Personal Choice 178 Introduction to Nineteenth-Century British Minor Poets 179 Foreword to Antiworlds, by Andrei Voznesensky 185 Introduction to Selected Poetry and Prose, by George Gordon, Lord Byron 187 Noah Greenberg (1909-1966) 201 Heresies 202 Nowness and Permanence 209 The Fall of Rome 214 The Worship of God in a Secular Age: Some Reflexions 229 Foreword to History in English Words, by Owen Barfield 233 Books of the Year: Some Personal Choices 236 Afterword to The Golden Key, by George MacDonald 237 SECONDARY WORLDS Secondary Worlds 241 ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 1967-1968 Foreword to No Man's Time, by V. S. Yanovsky 327 Good and Evil in The Lord of the Rings 331 Mr G 336 By the Grace of God and Henry Tudor, Archbishop 341 A Civilized Man 347 [Contribution to Attacks of Taste] 352 [Liner notes to a recording of Poems and Songs of Middle Earth] 353 A Don in the World 354 Foreword to H. A. R.: The Autobiography of Father Reinhold 359 A Knight of Doleful Countenance 361 A Very Inquisitive Old Party 374 Words and Notes 382 A Letter of Introduction 388 The Greatest of the Monsters 389 APPENDICES I Auden as Anthologist and Editor 401 II Lectures, Sermons, Speeches, and Dialogues 404 III Responses to Questionnaires 483 IV Auden on the Air 489 V Tributes, Citations, and Endorsements 510 VI Letters to the Editor and Other Public Statements 512 VII Lost and Unwritten Work 517 TEXTUAL NOTES Essays and Reviews, 1963-1966 521 Secondary Worlds 546 Essays and Reviews, 1967-1968 551 Index of Titles and Books Reviewed 559