explains to Reynolds how Mel Lasky worked 237–8
finds Chandler assuring Natasha of her musical genius 146
friendship with Auden 14–16
given a knighthood 245
impact of the Lake District on 12
interest in communism 24, 41–5
interrogated by MI5 117–18
involved in the Encounter affair 343–55
joins the National Fire Service 72–4, 77
joins the Political Information Department (PID) 77–8
laughs at Maro’s Eskimo poem 297
life during wartime 71–82
love and anxiety for Natasha 89–90, 93–4, 214–16
as magazine editor 51
male relationships 20–2, 25–6, 29–35, 37, 88, 93, 119–20, 155, 175–7, 185–6, 187–9, 192–4, 196, 197–200, 211–14, 237, 323–6, 327, 328, 336
Matthew’s adolescent feelings for 218–20
meets and marries Inez Pearn 37–40, 67, 327, 374
meets and marries Natasha 55–7, 67–9
moves to a cottage in Kent 47
need for silence 69
never considers Natasha as his equal 309
organises support for Litvinov 377–8
phones Plante and Nikos while at Matthew’s wedding 375
as Poetry Consultant at the Library of Congress 325
political interests 80, 97, 280, 372, 377–9
possible knowledge of CIA involvement in Encounter 350–5, 372, 378
prints early group of poems by Auden 15, 16
proposes founding a new magazine 86–7, 379
publishes article on Curtius in Horizon 82–4
reaction to being robbed 23
reaction to Matthew and Maro as a couple 268–9, 277, 283–4
reaction to Matthew and Maro getting married 359
relationship with his father 10–11, 12–13
remains friends with Reynolds Price 200–1, 237
reputation of 354–5
researches German intellectual life 80–4
resigns from Encounter and the Trust 349–50, 369, 381–2
scrutinised by intelligence services 41
seduced by Auden 16
self-loathing 26–7
sense of solitude 228
sent to Spain 41–5
separation and divorce from Inez 49–51
skirmishes with Chandler over money 157–9, 160, 161
spends hours drawing yews at Bruern 207–8
spends time in Germany 19–20, 23–7
stopped and breathalysed 331–2
supports Plante and Nikos in their relationship 341–2, 360, 365
tells Maro to SHUT.UP 295
tensions and emotions 89–94
tours India and Sri Lanka 139–40
tries to contribute towards cost of Matthew’s wedding 374
unsuccessful relationships 67
views on the working class 27
visits Bryan Obst in America 197–200
visits Japan 194, 195–6, 211–14
visits Matthew in Italy 390–3
visits Moscow and meets Burgess 239–41
visits Poland 164–5
and the ‘Wittersham Interlude’ 64–7
works for UNESCO 87–8
writes letter on fascism and America 345–6
writes the Marston poems 14–15, 16, 327, 331
The Approach to Communism 41
The Backward Son 13
Engaged in Writing 165–7, 194, 238
‘Escaped’ 20
‘The Fool and the Princess’ 92–3
Forward from Liberalism 40, 41
‘The Generous Days’ 332
The God That Failed 100–1
‘I think continually of those who were truly great’ 24
‘Instead of Death’ 20
‘Letter to a Colleague in America’ 53
The Temple 20–1, 27–8, 189, 327, 331, 332
Vienna 34
World within World 36, 79, 93, 100, 110–11
Spender, Violet Schuster
character and description 11
death of 11, 12, 66
explains why Wordsworth was a poet 12–13
poems written by 13
spends fortnight in Lake District 11–12
Springhall, Dave 241
Sri Lanka 140
Staerk, Emile de 152
Stalin, Joseph 96, 163, 276
Stangos, Nikos
character and description 323, 326, 339
correspondence with Spender 382
his relationship with Plante approved and helped by Spender 341–2, 375
meets Plante 338
relates a disturbing dream to Spender 325
and repeal of homosexual laws 364
Spender agrees to help him in his writing career 339–40
Spender’s correspondence with 336, 347
Spender’s feelings for 323–6, 328, 370
spends weekend with Spender in Sussex 324–5, 326
terminally ill with cancer 366
Stravinsky, Igor 62–3, 301, 390
The Flood 401
The Rake’s Progress 301–2, 389
Suez Canal 171–2
Sultana, Kyria 278–9
Surrealism 289, 367
Swinging Sixties 317
Tal-Coat, Pierre 289
Tate, Allen 126–7
Taylor, A. J. P. 229
Tempo Presente 393
Tessier, M. 289
Thomas, Dylan 186
Thomas, Norman 286
Thompson, Jack 285
Thoreau, Henry David, Walden 264
Time magazine 336
The Times 377
Tokunaga, Masao 196, 197, 211–14
Tokunaga, Shozo 195
Tokyo 211, 213
Tolkien, J. R. R., The Lord of the Rings 8
Tomei, Martino 114, 118, 119–20
Tomei, Oreste 118
Tonks, Henry 250
Torri del Benaco (Italy) 111–14, 118–20, 124–5, 156
Toynbee, Philip 38, 40, 44
Tresco 201
Trevor-Roper, Hugh 105–6, 229
Trieste 34
Trilling, Diana 107
We Must March My Darlings 285
Trilling, Lionel 285
Trotsky, Leon 96, 236, 299, 334
Turner, Chuck 152
Tvardovsky, Alexander 245–6
Twain, Mark, Huckleberry Finn 192–3
Twentieth Century 108, 110
Uccello, Paolo, The Battle of San Romano 388
Ukraine 287
UnAmerican Activities Committee 345
UNESCO 87–8, 99, 344, 350
Union of Soviet Writers 239–40, 245
United World Federalists 286
Valencia 42
Vayo, Alvarez del 42
Vedova, Emilio 354
Venice 34, 156, 165, 175, 194, 280, 390
Verlaine, Paul 186, 192, 366
Verona 78, 88–9, 119, 156
Vienna 34
Vietnam 128, 317–18, 343, 380–3
Wagner, Richard, Tristan und Isolde 253
Wales 133–6
Walmsley, Margot 235–6
Warner, Lucy 382
Warner, Rex 193, 382
Waugh, Evelyn 17
Way, Dr Berkeley 392–3
Wellfleet, Cape Cod 348
Werewolves 80
Wesleyan University, Connecticut 344–5, 347, 349
Westwell, Oxford 193–4
Wharton, Edith 273
Whitman, Walt 24
Wilde, Oscar 33
Wildeblood, Peter 131–3
Wilson, Angus 195
Wilson, Edmund 348
Wilson, Harold 347
Wind, Edgar 328–30
Wodehouse, P. G. 218
Wolfenden Committee 131
Wollheim, Richard 287
Woolf, Virginia 33, 56
Wordsworth, William 12, 148,
272
World Marxist Review 284
Writers and Scholars International 378
Writers’ Union 87, 165, 246
Yevtushenko, Yevgeni 275–6
Yugoslavia 34
Zedong, Mao 334
Zervos, Christian 259, 265–6
Zinik, Zinovy 165
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I WOULD LIKE TO thank the following archivists and archives:
The Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations of the New York Public Library; the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA; Isaac Gewirz at the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library; Chris Fletcher, Colin Harris, Charlotte McKillop-Mash and Judith Priestman at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; The British Library, London; William Hansen at Duke University Special Collections, Durham, NC; Callista Lucy at the Library of Dulwich College, London; Andrew Gray at Durham University Library (UK); the T. S. Eliot Archive, London, and Debbie Whitfield, secretary to the late Valerie Eliot; The Stefan Georg Archive; Kristina Rosenthal at the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa, OK; the Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX; Richard Ring at Trinity College, Hartford, CT; the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, TX; the Karl Marx Library, London; the National Archives at Kew; the University of Warwick Library.
Among My Friends and colleagues: Nelson Aldrich, Anita Auden, Don Bachardy, Simon Baddeley, Andrea Barzini, Theresa Booth, Keith Botsford, Katherine Bucknell, John Byrne, Joanna Clarke, Harald Clemen, Michele Cone, David Elliot, Jason Epstein, Natasha Fairweather, Michael Fishwick, Graham C. Greene, Walter Gsottschneider, Stephen Guise, Henry Hardy, Frank-Rutger Hausmann, Selina Hastings, Oliver Herford, Immy Humes, Chantal and John Hunt, Alan Jenkins, Nicholas Jenkins, Michael Jordan, Paul Keegan, Annette Kern-Stähler, Stephen Lushington, Edward Mendelson, Caroline Moorehead, Dominique Nabokov, Ute Oelmann, Peter Parker, Antony Percy, Matthew Pintus, Tristan Platt, Sarah Plimpton, Bill Price, Robin Ramsay, Vicky Randall, Tom Rivers, Georgie Rowse, Giovanni Russo, Stephen Schlesinger, Giles Scott-Smith, Bob Silvers, James Smith, Jane Spender, Rachel Spender, Julian Stern, Frances Stonor Saunders, John Sutherland, Martino Tomei, Jason Toynbee, Polly Toynbee, Ed Victor, Roman Vlad, Jennifer Josselson Vorbach, Willi Vossenkuhl, Hugh Wilford and Zinovy Zinik.
With Special Thanks to the late Reynolds Price, with whom, after a gap of forty years, I took up the thread of a conversation as if it had never been interrupted. To my sister Lizzie, who waived her copyright to our parents’ writings. To my cousin Philip Spender, who gave me several details I would otherwise have missed. Finally to Lara Feigel, Nico Mann, David Plante and our daughter Saskia, who read drafts of this book and gave excellent advice. And to Jonathan Galassi and Christopher Richards, my editors in New York; and Martin Redfern and Peter James, my editors in London.
NOTE
When quoting from letters or diary entries, I have retained the errors of spelling and punctuation. Some errors are mere laziness, such as ‘wont’ for ‘won’t’, but others are indicative of the writer’s state of mind.
About the Author
Matthew Spender is a sculptor and the author of Within Tuscany and From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. He lives with his wife, artist Maro Gorky, on a farm near Siena.
By the Same Author
Within Tuscany
From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky
Edited and introduced by Matthew Spender:
Goats on the Roof
Il Diario di Sintra (in Italian)
Francis Bacon: Inseguire i Sensi (in Italian)
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London, SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
A House in St John's Wood Page 45