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World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender
Spender was one of his generation's most celebrated poets, a writer living at the intersection of literature and politics in Europe between the two world wars. His portrait of his friends--Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats, and Christopher Isherwood--render a romantic world of literary genius. Spender uses a poet's language to create an honest and tender exploration of amity and the many possibilities of love. First published in 1951, World Within World simultaneously shocked and bedazzled the literary establishment for its frank discussion of Eros in the modern world.
Out of print for several years, this Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the critic John Bayley and an Afterword that Spender wrote in 1994 describing his reaction to the charges that David Leavitt plagiarized this autobiography in a novel.
Out of print for several years, this Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the critic John Bayley and an Afterword that Spender wrote in 1994 describing his reaction to the charges that David Leavitt plagiarized this autobiography in a novel.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
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559 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Spender
285 books75 followersSir Stephen Harold Spender (1909–1995), English poet, translator, literary critic and editor, was born in London and educated at the University of Oxford, where he first became associated with such other outspoken British literary figures as W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C. Day Lewis and Louis MacNeice. His book The Thirties and After (1979) recalls these figures and others prominent in the arts and politics and his Journals 1939–1983, published in 1986 and edited by John Goldsmith, are a detailed account of his times and contemporaries.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 12, 2019
Five stars. Five stars. Five stars. Five stars. Five stars. I had to say it five times. I did wonder at first when I found this as-new hardback copy for $2 on a bookswap shelf at a caravan park in the lovely town of Geraldton, Western Australia in Aug. 2018, reading the back of the dust jacket claim by John Bailey from his new Introduction, "WORLD WITHIN WORLD IS WITHOUT ANY QUESTION THE BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN ENGLISH WRITTEN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.", . . hmm. . . hyperbole? Not a bit, understatement if anything.
It feels a bit guilty getting this beautiful 2001 Modern Library hardback edition for next to nothing. The least I can do is rave about it. It is a masterpiece.
Quote:
"The main narrative of this book is from my eighteenth year, in which I had attained the climax of a struggle beginning with my adolescence, until my fortieth year."
Spender (1909 -1991) personally knew many great writers of the period, 1926 - 1949. W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Aldous Huxley, Cyril Connolly, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf.
More deeply, Spender writes of those that most inspired and influenced him. W.B. Yeats and D.H. Lawrence in particular.
Spender's hatred of fascism is clear.
His view of the individual self within the collective world is just magical, articulate and objective. The objectivity in analyzing himself is unique. The honesty is liberating to read.
Interesting that Spender writes about his involvement in the Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, detailed in retrospect, of that the Communists took over the Republican side of the war, which accurately concurs with Orwell's account in his essay on the war. Both Spender and Orwell were in the war. Oddly, Spender makes no mention of George Orwell in the autobiography at all.
Spender was aware of the advantages his social class gave him.
"I was a member of a class whose money enabled me to benefit automatically from its institutions of robbery, to assume automatically its disguises of respectability. To my mind, it appeared that there are two classes of robbers: the social and the anti-social."
Spender first met Isherwood at Oxford via Auden.
Auden was a presence at Oxford and a mentor: "I was reminded of what Auden had said about the poet thriving on humiliation."
Stephen Spender expressed a wonderful statement on the power of Art, recalling the dark days of the London Blitz in WWII.
"Within this situation of a world hypnotized by power, there were, none the less, two movements which expressed a faith in human values.
Firstly, there was a revival of interest in the arts. This arose spontaneously and simply, because people felt that music, the ballet, poetry and painting were concerned with a seriousness of living and dying with which they themselves had suddenly been confronted. The audiences at the midday concerts of the National Gallery, or at the recitals of music and ballet in provincial towns and at factories, sat with rapt attention as though they were listening for a message from the artist, who, though perhaps he had lived in other times, was close to the same realities as themselves - and to the pressing need to affirm faith and joy within them. There was something deeply touching about this interest in the arts; it was one of the few things which can still make me regret the war.
The affirmation of these timeless qualities was the only answer of human personality to war. In a word, it was - survival. It answered that side of humanity which had produced the war with the indestructibility of this other side - human love.
Lest it be objected that war is infinitely destructive and human love infinitely destructible, I repeat what I have said before: the inner life of man must create his outward circumstances. Perverted love, in the form of nationalism, or class solidarity, produces the forces of destruction in our time. Although we should support every outward social improvement, it is only within the inner life that man can will himself to be a coherent whole and not a part set against another part."
It feels a bit guilty getting this beautiful 2001 Modern Library hardback edition for next to nothing. The least I can do is rave about it. It is a masterpiece.
Quote:
"The main narrative of this book is from my eighteenth year, in which I had attained the climax of a struggle beginning with my adolescence, until my fortieth year."
Spender (1909 -1991) personally knew many great writers of the period, 1926 - 1949. W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Aldous Huxley, Cyril Connolly, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf.
More deeply, Spender writes of those that most inspired and influenced him. W.B. Yeats and D.H. Lawrence in particular.
Spender's hatred of fascism is clear.
His view of the individual self within the collective world is just magical, articulate and objective. The objectivity in analyzing himself is unique. The honesty is liberating to read.
Interesting that Spender writes about his involvement in the Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, detailed in retrospect, of that the Communists took over the Republican side of the war, which accurately concurs with Orwell's account in his essay on the war. Both Spender and Orwell were in the war. Oddly, Spender makes no mention of George Orwell in the autobiography at all.
Spender was aware of the advantages his social class gave him.
"I was a member of a class whose money enabled me to benefit automatically from its institutions of robbery, to assume automatically its disguises of respectability. To my mind, it appeared that there are two classes of robbers: the social and the anti-social."
Spender first met Isherwood at Oxford via Auden.
Auden was a presence at Oxford and a mentor: "I was reminded of what Auden had said about the poet thriving on humiliation."
Stephen Spender expressed a wonderful statement on the power of Art, recalling the dark days of the London Blitz in WWII.
"Within this situation of a world hypnotized by power, there were, none the less, two movements which expressed a faith in human values.
Firstly, there was a revival of interest in the arts. This arose spontaneously and simply, because people felt that music, the ballet, poetry and painting were concerned with a seriousness of living and dying with which they themselves had suddenly been confronted. The audiences at the midday concerts of the National Gallery, or at the recitals of music and ballet in provincial towns and at factories, sat with rapt attention as though they were listening for a message from the artist, who, though perhaps he had lived in other times, was close to the same realities as themselves - and to the pressing need to affirm faith and joy within them. There was something deeply touching about this interest in the arts; it was one of the few things which can still make me regret the war.
The affirmation of these timeless qualities was the only answer of human personality to war. In a word, it was - survival. It answered that side of humanity which had produced the war with the indestructibility of this other side - human love.
Lest it be objected that war is infinitely destructive and human love infinitely destructible, I repeat what I have said before: the inner life of man must create his outward circumstances. Perverted love, in the form of nationalism, or class solidarity, produces the forces of destruction in our time. Although we should support every outward social improvement, it is only within the inner life that man can will himself to be a coherent whole and not a part set against another part."
December 5, 2009
"In the dormitory, in the watches of the night, I thought that one day I would write a book which would contain the truth to which I bore witness. What I would say was perfectly clear to me. It was this: everyone is occupied in blindly pursuing his own ends, and yet beneath his aims, and beneath his attempts to escape from solitude by conforming with the herd-like behavior of those around him, he wants something quite different from the standards of human institutions, and this thing which he wants is what all want: simply to admit that he is an isolated existence, and that his class and nation, and even the personality and character which he presents to his fellow beings, are all a mask, and beneath this mask there is only the desire to love and be loved just because he is ignorant, and miserable, and surrounded by unknowns of time and space and other people."
April 18, 2020
You have to really want to read this book, because it’s tough. It’s tough but it’s worth it.
Why?
1. How many autobiographies of poets have you read? I’ve struggled with poetry my whole life, but to hear a poet explain it is like listening to an engineer explain how to build a bridge - it finally all makes sense.
2. This book was written in 1950. Spender was born in 1909, so this was his mid life crisis book. The most dynamic period of his life, both in experiences and poetry was the 1930’s with the Spanish Civil War as a backdrop.
3. Spender’s discussion on communism, socialism, and capitalism are written on a pure and elemental basis without the linguistic gymnastics of today’s politically correct discourse.
The first 90 pages are a struggle, and the next 245 are an extremely worthwhile grind. Sounds like a five star review doesn’t it?
Why?
1. How many autobiographies of poets have you read? I’ve struggled with poetry my whole life, but to hear a poet explain it is like listening to an engineer explain how to build a bridge - it finally all makes sense.
2. This book was written in 1950. Spender was born in 1909, so this was his mid life crisis book. The most dynamic period of his life, both in experiences and poetry was the 1930’s with the Spanish Civil War as a backdrop.
3. Spender’s discussion on communism, socialism, and capitalism are written on a pure and elemental basis without the linguistic gymnastics of today’s politically correct discourse.
The first 90 pages are a struggle, and the next 245 are an extremely worthwhile grind. Sounds like a five star review doesn’t it?
July 8, 2019
While Spender was not the greatest of poets, his autobiography and his journals are excellent reading. Crisp and meditative, they serve as a window upon a time of great upheaval, and are also of social interest, as Spender belonged to the same circle as Auden, Isherwood, Day-Lewis.
February 28, 2022
È una galleria di ricordi quella che si svolge davanti ai nostri occhi grazie alla lettura dell’autobiografia di Stephen Spender, uno dei tre poeti, insieme a Wystan H. Auden e a Christopher Isherwood, del cosiddetto “Gruppo degli anni ‘30”, una «nuova generazione che proclamava che la civiltà borghese era giunta alla fine, e che dava per scontato una prossima rivoluzione, che prendeva posizioni precise e che era esposta, perfino nella sua arte, all’irrompere di eventi pubblici, che non si occupava granché dello stile e non sapeva niente di Parigi», dal titolo “Un mondo nel mondo”. E lo è stata, invero, anche per lui, per Stephen Spender, che, proprio come si sfilano una a una le perle di una collana, sfila dalla memoria i ricordi della sua vita presentandoceli in modo così suggestivo, carico di emozioni, sensibilità, affetto e molta nostalgia, da meravigliare, incuriosire, stupefare e, per certi versi – è il caso di dirlo –, anche un po’ invidiare.
Ciò che viene qui raccontato è l’evoluzione della persona di Stephen Spender nelle diverse sfaccettature che l’hanno costituita, e che per la maggior parte caratterizzano tutti noi, dallo sviluppo del suo pensiero, della sua maturità, sino a quello della sua sessualità (avendo avuto esperienze amorose con uomini e con donne) e, in ultimo, della sua poesia.
A tal proposito, è stato affascinante scoprire come, quando e perché Spender si sia appassionato alla poesia. È un ricordo che risale a quando lui aveva nove anni. Il «seme della poesia» fu piantato in lui allora. La famiglia Spender decide di trascorrere le vacanze estive in un posto chiamato Skelgill Farm, presso Derwentwater. Nella campagna che si estende di fronte al loro albergo, i bambini giocano. E, in uno scenario del genere, Spender ci racconta: «questa campagna è fusa nella mia memoria con la mia prima prolungata esposizione alla poesia. Poiché qui mio padre mi leggeva le semplici ballate di Wordsworth, “We are Seven”, “A Lesson to Fathers”, “The Lesser Celandine”. Le parole di queste poesie cadevano nella mia mente come freddi ciottoli, puri e lucenti, e portavano con sé un’atmosfera di pioggia e tramonti e il senso della sacra e segreta vocazione del poeta.
«Nelle sere calde, mentre ero già a letto a Skelgill Farm, sentivo il mormorio della voce di mio padre che leggeva a mia madre i poemi di Wordsworth. La voce fluiva come un fiume attraverso il paesaggio, sopra il quale le montagne si levavano fino al cielo.
«Dopo questa esperienza, il mistero e il piacere della poesia rimasero.»
Relativamente alla poesia, Spender pure incorrerà in uno sviluppo del senso che questo concetto assumeva, almeno per lui. Inizialmente, l’idea di poesia che egli ha, inerisce a un’idea di poesia “descrittiva”, “immaginativa” e «bucolica» come quella di «Wordsworth» che, finché non incontrò Auden, rimase «ancora quella di un mondo separato da quello reale, un mondo di immagini e melodie di parole, lontane dalla vita di ogni giorno», per giungere poi, a Oxford, dopo l’incontro con Auden, all’idea di poesia come «uso del linguaggio che [rivela] la realtà esterna come simbolica coscienza interiore» e ricca di riferimenti politici, come l’insegnamento di Auden indicava dovesse essere.
Non vi è dubbio che, come per qualunque altro artista, la possibilità di entrare in contatto con un vivo ambiente cultural-letterario produsse degli effetti anche su Spender. E il vivo ambiente cultural-letterario che respirò e del quale in parte si nutrì fu quello del “Gruppo di Bloomsbury”, tra le cui personalità si annoverano artisti del calibro di Virginia Woolf, per fare un esempio. Questi, per stessa ammissione di Stephen, rappresentarono una vera e propria famiglia e loro – i membri di questo prestigioso club letterario – assurgevano al ruolo di veri e propri «genitori». Pagine bellissime, delicate e franche sono dedicate ad alcuni membri o “associati” – come Thomas Stearns Eliot – del Club di Bloomsbury.
Vi è un punto che non posso non fare emergere, se voglio presentare questo libro nel modo più onesto di cui sono capace: leggendo questa straordinaria autobiografia, ho avuto l’impressione che Spender non si sia messo completamente “a nudo”. Sebbene lo abbia fatto per gli altri protagonisti del ‘900 di cui ha parlato e dei quali ci ha regalato degli splendidi ricordi, compiendo vere e proprie lucide analisi, ciò che scopriamo della sua vita, quantunque sia tanto e non possiamo dubitare della sua sincerità, appare sempre presentato in modo tale che il lettore, leggendo quei fatti che lo riguardano, abbia davanti un vetro smerigliato, oppure come se davanti ai propri occhi il lettore avesse un corpo nudo sul quale è ricaduto un sottilissimo, ma a grana spessa, velo bagnato che sì rimarca i tratti, le linee, di quel corpo nudo, ma impedisce di osservarlo nella sua chiarezza, privo cioè di filtri “percettivi”. Forse, però, questo può essere dipeso dal suo essere inglese. Come dice il figlio, Matthew Spender, nella presentazione all’autobiografia del padre, «la cultura anglosassone impone un certo stoicismo verso l’affetto e l’intimità»; ora, per il fatto che Spender (Stephen) sia cresciuto in un periodo di «decadenza puritana», che, a differenza del puritanesimo, il quale nomina il comportamento che condanna, «considera il nome stesso indecente e finge che l’oggetto dietro il nome non esista finché non viene nominato», questo suo atteggiamento di “timidezza letteraria” non può essere biasimato. In alcun modo, comunque, inficia il piacere della lettura e il piacere della scoperta delle idee, dei pensieri, delle relazioni, affettive e amicali, e della vita di questo grandissimo poeta inglese.
Consiglio la lettura di questo libro a chi è affascinato dalle (auto-)biografie e a chi, non si faccia ingannare dal genere letterario, è pronto a riflettere sulle cose che leggerà, perché molte sono le cose sulle quali Spender porta il lettore a riflettere e, devo dire con piacere e stupore, le cose di cui parla e sulle quali vuole che il lettore ponga la sua attenzione non sono mai banali, bensì davvero profonde.
Una gradevolissima e formativa scoperta!
Ciò che viene qui raccontato è l’evoluzione della persona di Stephen Spender nelle diverse sfaccettature che l’hanno costituita, e che per la maggior parte caratterizzano tutti noi, dallo sviluppo del suo pensiero, della sua maturità, sino a quello della sua sessualità (avendo avuto esperienze amorose con uomini e con donne) e, in ultimo, della sua poesia.
A tal proposito, è stato affascinante scoprire come, quando e perché Spender si sia appassionato alla poesia. È un ricordo che risale a quando lui aveva nove anni. Il «seme della poesia» fu piantato in lui allora. La famiglia Spender decide di trascorrere le vacanze estive in un posto chiamato Skelgill Farm, presso Derwentwater. Nella campagna che si estende di fronte al loro albergo, i bambini giocano. E, in uno scenario del genere, Spender ci racconta: «questa campagna è fusa nella mia memoria con la mia prima prolungata esposizione alla poesia. Poiché qui mio padre mi leggeva le semplici ballate di Wordsworth, “We are Seven”, “A Lesson to Fathers”, “The Lesser Celandine”. Le parole di queste poesie cadevano nella mia mente come freddi ciottoli, puri e lucenti, e portavano con sé un’atmosfera di pioggia e tramonti e il senso della sacra e segreta vocazione del poeta.
«Nelle sere calde, mentre ero già a letto a Skelgill Farm, sentivo il mormorio della voce di mio padre che leggeva a mia madre i poemi di Wordsworth. La voce fluiva come un fiume attraverso il paesaggio, sopra il quale le montagne si levavano fino al cielo.
«Dopo questa esperienza, il mistero e il piacere della poesia rimasero.»
Relativamente alla poesia, Spender pure incorrerà in uno sviluppo del senso che questo concetto assumeva, almeno per lui. Inizialmente, l’idea di poesia che egli ha, inerisce a un’idea di poesia “descrittiva”, “immaginativa” e «bucolica» come quella di «Wordsworth» che, finché non incontrò Auden, rimase «ancora quella di un mondo separato da quello reale, un mondo di immagini e melodie di parole, lontane dalla vita di ogni giorno», per giungere poi, a Oxford, dopo l’incontro con Auden, all’idea di poesia come «uso del linguaggio che [rivela] la realtà esterna come simbolica coscienza interiore» e ricca di riferimenti politici, come l’insegnamento di Auden indicava dovesse essere.
Non vi è dubbio che, come per qualunque altro artista, la possibilità di entrare in contatto con un vivo ambiente cultural-letterario produsse degli effetti anche su Spender. E il vivo ambiente cultural-letterario che respirò e del quale in parte si nutrì fu quello del “Gruppo di Bloomsbury”, tra le cui personalità si annoverano artisti del calibro di Virginia Woolf, per fare un esempio. Questi, per stessa ammissione di Stephen, rappresentarono una vera e propria famiglia e loro – i membri di questo prestigioso club letterario – assurgevano al ruolo di veri e propri «genitori». Pagine bellissime, delicate e franche sono dedicate ad alcuni membri o “associati” – come Thomas Stearns Eliot – del Club di Bloomsbury.
Vi è un punto che non posso non fare emergere, se voglio presentare questo libro nel modo più onesto di cui sono capace: leggendo questa straordinaria autobiografia, ho avuto l’impressione che Spender non si sia messo completamente “a nudo”. Sebbene lo abbia fatto per gli altri protagonisti del ‘900 di cui ha parlato e dei quali ci ha regalato degli splendidi ricordi, compiendo vere e proprie lucide analisi, ciò che scopriamo della sua vita, quantunque sia tanto e non possiamo dubitare della sua sincerità, appare sempre presentato in modo tale che il lettore, leggendo quei fatti che lo riguardano, abbia davanti un vetro smerigliato, oppure come se davanti ai propri occhi il lettore avesse un corpo nudo sul quale è ricaduto un sottilissimo, ma a grana spessa, velo bagnato che sì rimarca i tratti, le linee, di quel corpo nudo, ma impedisce di osservarlo nella sua chiarezza, privo cioè di filtri “percettivi”. Forse, però, questo può essere dipeso dal suo essere inglese. Come dice il figlio, Matthew Spender, nella presentazione all’autobiografia del padre, «la cultura anglosassone impone un certo stoicismo verso l’affetto e l’intimità»; ora, per il fatto che Spender (Stephen) sia cresciuto in un periodo di «decadenza puritana», che, a differenza del puritanesimo, il quale nomina il comportamento che condanna, «considera il nome stesso indecente e finge che l’oggetto dietro il nome non esista finché non viene nominato», questo suo atteggiamento di “timidezza letteraria” non può essere biasimato. In alcun modo, comunque, inficia il piacere della lettura e il piacere della scoperta delle idee, dei pensieri, delle relazioni, affettive e amicali, e della vita di questo grandissimo poeta inglese.
Consiglio la lettura di questo libro a chi è affascinato dalle (auto-)biografie e a chi, non si faccia ingannare dal genere letterario, è pronto a riflettere sulle cose che leggerà, perché molte sono le cose sulle quali Spender porta il lettore a riflettere e, devo dire con piacere e stupore, le cose di cui parla e sulle quali vuole che il lettore ponga la sua attenzione non sono mai banali, bensì davvero profonde.
Una gradevolissima e formativa scoperta!
February 3, 2019
I imagine that the some of the shock value this autobiography must have attracted when it was published to a conservative 1950s England has dissipated since then.
What’s left is an interesting life that includes personal contact with some of the key literary figures of his day: Auden, Isherwood, Woolf, even an ageing Yeats and, surprisingly, just as interesting, an insight into the slightly refined, slightly repressed world of upper middle class England: the boarding schools, Oxford, living through the Blitz.
The final section, where he moves away from what’s sometimes an over-indulgent exploration of the SELF, to a recollection of some early childhood memories, seems the most fluent and moving part of the book to me.
What’s left is an interesting life that includes personal contact with some of the key literary figures of his day: Auden, Isherwood, Woolf, even an ageing Yeats and, surprisingly, just as interesting, an insight into the slightly refined, slightly repressed world of upper middle class England: the boarding schools, Oxford, living through the Blitz.
The final section, where he moves away from what’s sometimes an over-indulgent exploration of the SELF, to a recollection of some early childhood memories, seems the most fluent and moving part of the book to me.
January 8, 2020
Combined account of serial love stories with knowledgeable narration of the literary and political history of his time. Spender tells it all with British diffidence, which I suppose can be off-putting, but I found engagingly modest, and often eloquent. He outlines his time joining the Communist Party (he wasn't really into it), and travails during the Spanish Civil War, again a different experience than the mythologizing of Hemingway, whom he also knew. (He knew everybody). Worth reading.
September 10, 2024
This is a quite excellent and incredibly readable autobiography from the poet Stephen Spender, who wrote this when he was forty. You'll get invaluable insights here about Auden, Christopher Isherwood, the Bloomsbury Set, the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the Spanish Civil War, and so much more. What really makes this work so well is Spender's directness and lucidity. He writes as openly as he can at the time about sexuality, but he also has a great deal to say about the "political" nature of poets, bringing us an invaluable portrait of how art and culture clashed with the political turmoil of the 1930s.
July 15, 2016
Wow! An incredible book! I read some bits of this many, many years ago but never got around to finishing it. I'm so glad that I made another attempt. I'm just so sorry that it took me so long. : )
Originally published in the 1951, Stephen Spender a British poet, writes about his earlier life, in particular a period from 1920s-1939, which saw an amazing amount of upheaval, turmoil and change. His autobiography World Within World charts his family life and identity, (part Jewish), school days, university, his writing, politics, fascism, liberalism and communism, friendships, relationships with women and men, his marriages, life during the war, his travels his time in Germany, and Spain, where he ended up in prison. Spender's beautiful turn of phrases and honesty illuminates and enfolds you into a different time and place. He offers portraits, some brief, some detailed of a wealth of characters, Christopher Isherwood, Virginia Woolf, Lloyd George, Edith Sitwell, Rosamund Lehman, W.H.Auden, Dame Ethel Smyth, Lady Ottoline Morrell, T.S.Eliot, Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West. A definite read for those interested in this particular period. Fascinating stuff!
Originally published in the 1951, Stephen Spender a British poet, writes about his earlier life, in particular a period from 1920s-1939, which saw an amazing amount of upheaval, turmoil and change. His autobiography World Within World charts his family life and identity, (part Jewish), school days, university, his writing, politics, fascism, liberalism and communism, friendships, relationships with women and men, his marriages, life during the war, his travels his time in Germany, and Spain, where he ended up in prison. Spender's beautiful turn of phrases and honesty illuminates and enfolds you into a different time and place. He offers portraits, some brief, some detailed of a wealth of characters, Christopher Isherwood, Virginia Woolf, Lloyd George, Edith Sitwell, Rosamund Lehman, W.H.Auden, Dame Ethel Smyth, Lady Ottoline Morrell, T.S.Eliot, Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West. A definite read for those interested in this particular period. Fascinating stuff!
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May 15, 2024WORLD WITHIN WORLD, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF STEPHEN SPENDER
COMMENTS BY JEFF KEITH
[four stars] This book was published in 1951, when the author was 42 years old. Because of the sexually repressed times that he was living in, he is never overt about his gay content, although there is a lot of it if you know how to read between the lines. He dropped out of college and went to Germany in 1929 in the time of the Weimar Republic. There he enjoyed the free and sexually open atmosphere, and describes it in a lot of detail (see Part III, from page 106 on).
A few years later, back in England, he had a passionate love affair with a man named Tony Hyndman, whom he calls by the pseudonym Jimmy Younger in this book. He puts a fig leaf over the nature of their relationship (see pages 175 on), and describes Jimmy as his live-in secretary. However, for a boss-secretary arrangement, the strong emotional feelings that they have for each other are barely believable. In the end, Spender leaves Tony/Jimmy and marries a woman--- although he and Tony/Jimmy remain friends. The Spender-Hyndman love affair appears in a lot of detail in T.C. Worsley´s roman a clef called Fellow Travelers, although at times some details of the lives of Worsley´s characters (whose actual names he supplied in an introductory key, years later) diverge from strict historical realities.
Spender was close friends with writers W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, who at some point both came out openly as gay men. In this book he never discusses their private lives, limiting himself mainly to critiques of their writing styles. He says he was also good friends with Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson, but never mentions that Vita was an overt lesbian (as eventually described in her son´s book Portrait of a Marriage).
COMMENTS BY JEFF KEITH
[four stars] This book was published in 1951, when the author was 42 years old. Because of the sexually repressed times that he was living in, he is never overt about his gay content, although there is a lot of it if you know how to read between the lines. He dropped out of college and went to Germany in 1929 in the time of the Weimar Republic. There he enjoyed the free and sexually open atmosphere, and describes it in a lot of detail (see Part III, from page 106 on).
A few years later, back in England, he had a passionate love affair with a man named Tony Hyndman, whom he calls by the pseudonym Jimmy Younger in this book. He puts a fig leaf over the nature of their relationship (see pages 175 on), and describes Jimmy as his live-in secretary. However, for a boss-secretary arrangement, the strong emotional feelings that they have for each other are barely believable. In the end, Spender leaves Tony/Jimmy and marries a woman--- although he and Tony/Jimmy remain friends. The Spender-Hyndman love affair appears in a lot of detail in T.C. Worsley´s roman a clef called Fellow Travelers, although at times some details of the lives of Worsley´s characters (whose actual names he supplied in an introductory key, years later) diverge from strict historical realities.
Spender was close friends with writers W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, who at some point both came out openly as gay men. In this book he never discusses their private lives, limiting himself mainly to critiques of their writing styles. He says he was also good friends with Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson, but never mentions that Vita was an overt lesbian (as eventually described in her son´s book Portrait of a Marriage).
August 20, 2025
Stephen Spender was truly an idiot. But worse than that, he was a toy, a bum boy, a chancer. He sought in Berlin two things, cheap brothels and some sort of trampoline to literary identity. His finest hour was in the unofficial bureaucracy of American soft power, flying around on black budgets to literary conferences. There is scarcely a more dispensable "oeuvre" than his. No merit or distinction of any sort can be claimed for it.
September 3, 2023
A wonderful portrait of Europe and Germany between the wars. Lots of bright young men swimming and sun bathing.
I love this for the Stories of Christopher Isherwood living in Berlin, going to the worst possible restaurants to eat horse meat soup. "Eating such food was a penance for Christopher to which he attached an unstated but disciplinary importance" Somehow so very British.
I love this for the Stories of Christopher Isherwood living in Berlin, going to the worst possible restaurants to eat horse meat soup. "Eating such food was a penance for Christopher to which he attached an unstated but disciplinary importance" Somehow so very British.
January 3, 2019
Stephen Spender knew everyone in the British literary world between 1930 and 1950, and he name-drops them all in this 1951 memoir. His relationships with Auden and Isherwood are especially of interest.
November 17, 2024
If you're interested in the relationship between literature, politics and sexuality between the wars (which I am), this is a fascinating and detailed working through of those things from someone who lived it - features lots of stuff on his pals Auden and Isherwood.
July 3, 2019
Read this years ago. Still remember it. Fabulous memoir.
November 4, 2022
really nice book
April 11, 2022
I've always liked Stephen Spender's writing -- his book about the Thirties is a favourite of mine. This one is not quite so readable -- he often goes off into convoluted, rather impenetrable mystical reflections. By his own account he was an undistinguished pupil at school, but this seems to have been no bar to Oxford entry. His relationships at university extended beyond the Auden group -- his portrayal of Auden belies the latter's reputed charisma -- and it seems to have been a less than joyful time, as he suffered from a sense of his own inferiority. Too many of his circle seem self-obsessed. I was surprised to learn of Spender's marriages, as I'd got the idea that he was exclusively homosexual. The most vivid parts of the book concern his wartime volunteering in the Fire Service, which brought him into contact with a cast of Dickensian working-class characters.
November 17, 2019
Stephen Spender saw the world through a poets eyes. His autobiography is a reflection on life in Europe mostly during the first half of the 20th century. His formative and young adult years were during the tumultuous time of wars, violence and uncertainties. This is a beautifully written memoir, lots of history, but mostly an honest self appraisal and acknowledgment that individuals are products of their own experience, always a work in progress.
N.B.: This poet was mentioned by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in her memoir "A Million Years with You". (In the chapter titled "Writing").
N.B.: This poet was mentioned by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in her memoir "A Million Years with You". (In the chapter titled "Writing").
July 23, 2011
c1951. Before I read this, I had no idea of who Spender ((28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was but I was going through a non-fiction stage. Disturbing relationships which must have caused a real buzz when first published. It is beautifully written but of its time. There is a sort of local connection as he went to school in Worthing but he wasn't very happy there. Spender is succinctly described by Christoper Hitchens writing in The Atlantic as "The vaguely preposterous Stephen Spender spent a great deal more of his life "being a poet" than he ever did writing poetry. And yet beneath the surface he had a pith of seriousness and principle". "At our first luncheon he asked me what I wanted to do. I said: "Be a poet." "I can understand you wanting to write poems, but I don't quite know what you mean by 'being a poet,'" he objected.."
June 19, 2013
Spender's biographical-prose is excellent, he has a way of expressing feelings and thoughts and experiences in a way that is both instructive and moving. He came of age at a very dramatic time, to see Germany fall to the Nazis as well as his friendship at Oxford with Auden and eventually Isherwood. The so called "Auden Generation" and yet he also was able to become his own writer and poet, like many of his time he also befriended and engaged in conversation with some of the best writers of his time and beyond such as Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh and others. World Within World is worth reading as an introduction to a great writer and poet who was able to express his humanity in all its frailty and greatness.
January 9, 2017
"Even at a very early age, I was struck by the refusal of people to admit the elements of existence out of which they make their lives. Most lives are like dishonest works of art in which the values are faked, certain passages blurred and confused, difficulties evaded, and refuge taken by those bad artists who are human beings, in conventions which shirk unique experiences."
"[Isaiah] Berlin excelled in descriptions of people by metaphor. 'X,' he said to me one day, speaking of a contemporary essayist, 'is like a man who at a certain stage in his career decided that his talents were worth exactly so many pounds. So then he went and changed himself into threepenny bits. He has been publishing threepence a week ever since'."
"[Isaiah] Berlin excelled in descriptions of people by metaphor. 'X,' he said to me one day, speaking of a contemporary essayist, 'is like a man who at a certain stage in his career decided that his talents were worth exactly so many pounds. So then he went and changed himself into threepenny bits. He has been publishing threepence a week ever since'."
July 31, 2015
Read for dissertation.
Stephen Spender's autobiography is not only an exploration of his own life, but of the 1930s and the nature of British and European society. Spender's prose is poetic, some lines you read and you have to stop and re-read them again because they are so beautiful - and so true. He puts into words some of the thoughts I've had before but judged to be ineffable. A really informative and enjoyable read.
Stephen Spender's autobiography is not only an exploration of his own life, but of the 1930s and the nature of British and European society. Spender's prose is poetic, some lines you read and you have to stop and re-read them again because they are so beautiful - and so true. He puts into words some of the thoughts I've had before but judged to be ineffable. A really informative and enjoyable read.
March 7, 2012
Spender gives a clear, personal, and emotional account of his life in England and Europe, focusing on the late 1920s and 1930s. He was briefly a journalist for the Communist party in Spain during the Civil War, and was a friend of W.H. Auden, Virginia Wolff, and other well-known writers of the day.
September 4, 2013
I enjoyed this mainly for Spender's reflections about fascism vs. communism 1930s Europe, his memories of his involvement in the Spanish Civil War, and his memories of Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden.
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June 25, 2008poetic, philosophical, an insight into human relationships through Spender's detailed observations of himself and others.
August 5, 2008
One of many good memoirs from literary figures in the early 1900s - interesting first person accounts of Auden, Woolf, Eliot, Isherwood, and Stephen Spender is interesting in himself.
May 2, 2010
I started 3 times reading this book, finally finished it. Was a bit boring in the begin, but it became fascinating stuff later.
June 30, 2012
Is billed as one of the great autobiographies of the 20th Century and it is...
January 3, 2008
One of the most beautiful things I've ever read. Gave me hope for my future.
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