Letters from Iceland
# Letters from Iceland

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

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, where poets are attached to an imaginary countryside from where they contemplate people, literature and politics.

The book is considered as a thirties classics.

## Editions

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

* Date Published: 1937 Description: Hardback. 1st. Ed. 8.7" x 5.7". 268 pp. Publisher: Faber and Faber, London
* Date Published: 1969 Description: Hardback. "First Printing" 8.7" x 5.7". 253 pp.+ Publisher: Random House, New York

    "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
* Date Published: 1973 ISBN 978-0-571-08155-4 ISBN 057108155X
* Date Published: 1985 ISBN 978-0-571-13297-3 ISBN 0571132979
* Date Published: 2002 ISBN 978-0-571-13297-3 ISBN 0571132979 Binding: Paperback Publisher: Faber and Faber
