Journey to a War

First US edition
(publ. Random House)

Journey to a War is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939.

The book is in three parts: a series of poems by Auden describing his and Isherwood's journey to China in 1938 ; a "Travel-Diary" by Isherwood (including material first drafted by Auden) about their travels in China itself, and their observations of the Sino-Japanese War; and "In Time of War: A Sonnet Sequence with a Verse Commentary" by Auden, with reflections on the contemporary world and their experiences in China. The book also contains a selection of photographs by Auden.

Auden revised many of the poems in this book for his later collections; "In Time of War" was renamed "Sonnets from China" (with many original sonnets discarded) and the verse commentary was dropped entirely.

References

W. H. Auden, Prose and Travel Books in Prose and Verse, 1927-1938, ed. Edward Mendelson (1997)
John Fuller, W. H. Auden: A Commentary (1999).
Edward Mendelson, Early Auden (1981).

External links

The W. H. Auden Society

Christopher Isherwood

Novels	The Memorial (1932) Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) Goodbye to Berlin (1939) Prater Violet (1945) The Berlin Stories (1945) The World in the Evening (1954) Down There on a Visit (1962) A Single Man (1964)

Plays (with W. H. Auden)	The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935) The Ascent of F6 (1937) On the Frontier (1938)

Memoirs and diaries	Christopher and His Kind (1976)

Travel writings	Journey to a War (1939, with W. H. Auden)

Screenplays	Little Friend (1934) Forever and a Day (1943) Adventure in Baltimore (1949; story) Rage in Heaven (1949) The Great Sinner (1949) Diane (1956) The Loved One (1965) The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967) Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)

Adaptations	I Am a Camera (1951 play) I Am a Camera (1955 film) Cabaret (1966 musical) Cabaret (1972 film) A Single Man (2009) Christopher and His Kind (2011)

Miscellaneous writings	"Jacob's Hands: A Fable" (1997, with Aldous Huxley)

Other	Don Bachardy Sally Bowles Vedanta Society of Southern California Chris & Don (2008)

W. H. Auden

Books of poetry	Poems (1930) The Orators (1932) On This Island (1936) Another Time (1940) The Double Man (1941) For the Time Being (1944) The Age of Anxiety (1947) Nones (1951) The Shield of Achilles (1955) Homage to Clio (1960) About the House (1966) City Without Walls (1969) Academic Graffiti (1971) Epistle to a Godson (1972) Thank You, Fog (1974)

Books containing prose and verse	Letters from Iceland (1937, with Louis MacNeice) Journey to a War (1939, with Christopher Isherwood)

Prose works and other books	The Enchafèd Flood (1950) The Dyer's Hand (1962) Secondary Worlds (1968) A Certain World (1970) Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

Individual poems	"The Orators" (1932) "Funeral Blues" (1936) "Spain" (1937) "Musée des Beaux Arts" (1938) "Refugee Blues" (1939) "September 1, 1939" (1939) "The Unknown Citizen" (1939) "Hymn to St. Cecilia" (1940) "For the Time Being" (1944) "The Sea and the Mirror" (1944) "The Age of Anxiety" (1947) "In Praise of Limestone" (1948) "The Platonic Blow" "Horae Canonicae" (1949–55) "The Shield of Achilles" (1955)

Plays	Paid on Both Sides (1928) The Dance of Death (1933) The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935) The Ascent of F6 (1936) On the Frontier (1938) The Play of Daniel (1958)

Libretti	Paul Bunyan (1941) The Rake's Progress (1951) Elegy for Young Lovers (1961) The Bassarids (1966) Love's Labour's Lost (1973)

Screenwriting	Night Mail (1936)

Family	George Augustus Auden (father) John Bicknell Auden (brother) Chester Kallman (companion)

Related	W. H. Auden bibliography

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