ABSTRACT
Poet, critic, novelist, and writer for children, Day-Lewis (1904–72) was the eldest of the soi-distant ‘Auden Generation’. In spite of being naturally more conventional in diction and sensibility than Auden, his work during the thirties came under Auden’s influence; but unlike Auden, he committed himself to the Communist Party for a while. Beginning with ‘Transitional Poem’ (1929) his work in poetry won wide critical attention, and he also enjoyed great popular success as a writer of detective novels under the nom-de-plume ‘Nicholas Blake’. Accomplished as a lecturer and recitalist, he was appointed Clark Lecturer at Cambridge in 1946; subsequently Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He became a Director of Chatto & Windus, and served, too, as Chairman of the Arts Council Literature Panel and, from 1958, as Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1968 he succeeded John Masefield as Poet Laureate.
