Inscribed presentation copy, signed by Auden on the half-title to "John [Thompson], with love, from Wystan." Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–1973) the great English poet and critic, is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the twentieth century. He spent the first part of his life in the United Kingdom, but later moved to the United States and became an American citizen. John Thompson, a psychiatrist who studied and trained in Switzerland with Sigmund Freud, was apparently W.H. Auden's lover for many years.