{"product_id":"september-1-1939-a-biography-of-a-poem-isbn-9780062984609","title":"September 1, 1939: A Biography of a Poem","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne poet, his poem, New York City, and a world on the verge of change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eW. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality, became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left. And his poem, “September 1, 1939,” was his most famous and celebrated, yet one which he tried to rewrite and disown and which has enjoyed—or been condemned—to a tragic and unexpected afterlife.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese are the contributing forces underlying Ian Sansom’s work excavating the man and his most celebrated piece of literature. But Sansom’s book is also about New York City: an island, an emblem of the Future, magnificent, provisional, seamy, and in 1939—about to emerge as the defining twentieth-century cosmopolis, the capital of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd so it is also about a world at a point of change—about 1939, and about our own Age of Anxiety, about the aftermath of September 11, when many American newspapers reprinted Auden’s poem in its entirety on their editorial pages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, this is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this deeply personal and brilliantly funny exploration, Ian Sansom unpacks the life of a single poem:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Biography of a Poem:\u003c\/b\u003e Follow the strange journey of Auden’s most famous work—from its creation on the eve of war to the poet’s own attempts to erase it from history.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eNew York City on the Brink:\u003c\/b\u003e Explore the bars, streets, and anxieties of Manhattan in 1939, a city about to become the capital of the twentieth century.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Writer’s Obsession:\u003c\/b\u003e Dive into author Ian Sansom’s own witty, self-deprecating, and decades-long struggle to understand one of modern literature’s most enduring and controversial poems.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eFrom 1939 to 9\/11:\u003c\/b\u003e Discover how a poem about the start of World War II found a tragic new resonance in the twenty-first century, becoming a talisman for a new generation grappling with crisis.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Poetry lovers and readers intrigued by Auden and his considerable influence will have a rollicking time with this entertaining yet earnest tome.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eSeptember 1, 1939\u003c\/em\u003e, the book, is a deeply informed and unapologetically digressive dive into Auden’s life, as well as into the life of this singular poem. Along the way, we readers hear a good deal of nattering about Sansom’s own life: how, for instance, his sister in Australia thinks he should buy a barbecue grill, or how he, unlike Auden, lasted only two weeks on a misbegotten pilgrimage to New York City. Sansom says of Auden, the poet, that he’s ‘a terrible fidget. It’s what makes [his] poems entertaining, and infuriating.’ Much the same can be said of Sansom, the fidgety critic.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMaureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[Sansom’s] richly entertaining book explores what goes on in the poem and why it has had such an impact.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889306759397,"sku":"NP9780062984609","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062984609.jpg?v=1730230974","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/september-1-1939-a-biography-of-a-poem-isbn-9780062984609","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}