One of the 20th century's greatest poets, Auden (1907–1973) has also joined the ranks of its most popular. His "Funeral Blues," a 16-line song about lost love, became a widespread favorite after its use in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral
; his "Sept. 1, 1939" ("Those to whom evil is done/ Do evil in return") seemed to be everywhere after September 11, 2001, as readers used its somber public voice to make sense of a senseless day. Mendelson—Auden's literary executor, and the man who knows more than anyone else alive about Auden's life and writings—has already assembled the standard books Auden fans know, among them an earlier 100-poem Selected
, which included poems famous during Auden's life, such as "Sept. 1" and "In Memory of W.B. Yeats," but excluded some of his finest light verse—the tongue-in-cheek self-descriptive haiku series called "Profiles," for example, the barbed wartime quatrains of "Leap Before You Look," and "Funeral Blues" itself. Mendelson now rectifies those faults, adds 17 more poems and amplifies his articulate preface, just in time for the centennial of Auden's birth. The volume reveals a poet by turns charming and authoritative, masterful and humble, deftly evasive and ringingly quotable. (Feb.)
