An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Stephen Spender was born on February 28, 1909, in London. The son of a journalist, he grew up steeped in the art of writing. Spender was educated at University College, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree. His life as a poet and writer began in the 1920s while he was at Oxford, where he surrounded himself with respected writers, such as W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Cecil Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. Spender was also closely associated with the literary giants Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot. In fact, the two are often referred to as Spender's surrogate parents.

Spender took a particularly keen interest in politics and was a self-proclaimed socialist and pacifist. His early poetry was often inspired and fueled by social protest. In 1937, he served for a short time in the International Brigades, an international force of volunteers dedicated to protecting the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. Spender explored the experiences of the war in Poems for Spain (1939), which he edited with John Lehmann, and in Ruins and Visions (1942), a collection of his own poems spanning the years 1934 to 1942.

Although Spender was associated with the Socialist and Communist movements, he eventually became disillusioned with their ideologies. He expressed much of his dissent and frustration with the politics of the 1930s and 1940s through his poetry and essays as well as in his autobiography, World within World (1951), which delves into his political beliefs, social frustrations, and much-hidden homosexuality.

In 1936, Spender married Agnes Marie Pearn, from whom he was later divorced. In 1941, he married the pianist Natasha Litvin; they had two children. He enlisted in the London Fire Service during World War II. After the war, Spender joined UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as a cultural emissary. He coedited two magazines, Horizon (published from 1939 to 1941) and, later, Encounter (published from 1953 through 1966). He also worked for the Congress of Cultural Freedom, International PEN, and the British Council. Spender's poem "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" first appeared in 1964 in his Selected Poems.

Spender was a prolific writer, authoring and editing many books. Besides poetry, he published several plays, novels, and short stories and many nonfiction works. His books of poetry include Poems of Dedication (1946), The Edge of Being (1949), The Generous Days (1969), and Dolphins (1994). His nonfiction works include The Creative Element (1953), The Struggle of the Modern (1963), and Love-Hate Relationships (1974). In 1970, Spender became a professor of English at University College in London, a post he held for seven years. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1973, and in 1983 he was knighted.

Although Spender is rarely heralded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, his work is well respected. The bulk of his acclaim can be credited to his passionate, charming, and insightful work concerned with politics, education, and the rights of all human beings. From his early break into the literary scene until his death on July 16, 1995, in London, Spender pursued literary recognition amidst colleagues who far exceeded him in their own abilities; his achievements were thus dwarfed by the greatness of the company he kept.