Journals, 1939-1983

A central figure in the political and cultural life of our time for over fifty years, Sir Stephen Spender has witnessed and participated in some of this century's most significant events and has known many of its most interesting and gifted individuals. Having kept journals intermittently for most of this time, Spender has recorded his vivid observations and reflections on the scenes he has witnessed, portrayed his friends and acquaintances--including W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Igor Stravinsky, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, and many others--and set down his ideas, hopes, aims, and regrets.

This first paperback edition of Stephen Spender's journals makes for constantly entertaining and illuminating reading. One comes away from this fascinating inside look at one man's extraordinary life full of admiration for his vitality, his enduring interest in others, and his remarkable honesty about himself.