The Prolific and the Devourer Author:W. H. Auden W.H. Auden is unquestionably one of the most fascinating and influential literary figures of the twentieth century. T he Prolific and the Devourer, a book of aphorisms and reflections that Auden wrote in the Spring and Summer of 1939, displays his attitudes at a moment of transition between his vocal Marxism of the 1930... more »'s and his committed Christianity in the 1940's and after. It is an essential work for understanding the evolution of Auden's life and writings.
Exploring the uneasy ground between art and politics, the book takes its title from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, from which Auden borrowed the opposition between two basic human types. In Auden's interpretation, the Prolific are those who produce: the farmer, the skilled worker, the scientist, the cook, the innkeeper, the doctor, the teacher, the athlete, the artist. The Devourers are the politicians who depend on what is already produced for their well being. The strongest and most bitter energies of the book are directed against the idea that art should serve a political cause.
A revealing work, The Prolific and the Devourer captures a fundamental shift in the thinking of a great artist.« less