The Worlds of Stephen Spender

Book excerpt: British poet Stephen Spender (1909-95), through his life spanning the 20th century, befriended, collected or was otherwise connected to a pantheon of artists such as Arp, Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Giacometti, Gorky, Guston, Hockney, Moore, Morandi, Picasso and others. Including examples of their work as well Spender's poems chosen by Auerbach, this publication is addressed to what Spender termed the "shared subject matter" of art and literature. Interweaving poetry, essay, artwork and generous archival photographs, The Worlds of Stephen Spender: I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great takes for its inspiration themes that preoccupied Spender and which have taken on a renewed urgency: art's movement across borders; collaboration between artists and writers; solidarity against their censorship; and the moral responsibility of the creative individual in times of social crisis.