Stephen Spender
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Sir Stephen Spender (1909 - 1995) was an English poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work.
He was friends with gay fellow poets Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Auden, with whom he had a mentoring relationship. Spender himself had many homosexual affairs in his earlier years, most notably with Tony Hyndman (who is called "Jimmy Younger" in his memoir World Within World). During World War II, he decided to shift his focus to heterosexuality, marrying concert pianist Natasha Litvin. Consequently, he toned down homosexual allusions in later editions of his poetry, for example the line
"Whatever happens, I shall never be alone. I shall always have a boy, a railway fare, or a revolution."
got revised to read
"Whatever happens, I shall never be alone. I shall always have an affair, a railway fare, or a revolution...