Letters from Iceland

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First edition LettersFromIceland.jpg
First edition

Letters from Iceland is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, published in 1937.

Contents

The book is made up of a series of letters and travel notes by Auden and MacNeice written during their trip to Iceland in 1936 compiling light-hearted private jokes and irreverent comments about their surrounding world.

Auden's contributions include the poem "Journey to Iceland"; a prose section "For Tourists"; a five-part verse "Letter to Lord Byron"; a selection of writings on Iceland by other authors, "Sheaves from Sagaland"; a prose letter to "E. M. Auden" (E.M. was Erika Mann), which included his poems "Detective Story" and "O who can ever praise enough"; a prose letter to Kristian Andreirsson, Esq.; a free-verse letter to William Coldstream, and, in collaboration with MacNeice, "W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament" (in verse).

MacNeice's contributions include a verse letter to Graham and Anne Shepard; the satiric prose "Hetty to Nancy" (unsigned); a verse Epilogue; and MacNeice's contributions to "W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament".

Auden revised his sections of the book for a new edition published in 1966.

The book is mentioned multiple times throughout the 2007 Oscar-nominated film, Away from Her , in which several passages are read aloud during the film.

Letters from Iceland is categorised under the "Inter-war pastorals" style of writing, [1] where poets are attached to an imaginary countryside from where they contemplate people, literature and politics.

The book is considered as a thirties classics.

Legacy

In 1994, poets Simon Armitage and Glyn Maxwell visited Iceland for a documentary for BBC Radio 3, Second Draft from Sagaland, and wrote a follow-up book to Auden and MacNeice's, entitled Moon Country: Further Reports from Iceland. [2]

Editions

"20 editions published between 1937 and 2007 in 4 languages and held by 916 libraries worldwide"

"For this edition W. H. Auden has made several revisions of certain sections of the work and has written a new Foreword.
"In April 1964, I revisited Iceland..." -W. H. Auden, 1965

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References

In Film

Letters from Iceland is referenced in several scenes of the 2006 film Away from Her . The protagonist, whose wife is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, reads to her passages from the book, which - until she lost her memory - was dear to both of them.