Reserve lists for his courses
"When I was a student, contemporary literature was something we looked at for ourselves and I think we were reasonably informed. We wouldn't have dreamt of going to a teacher and saying, 'We want to have a course.'"*
The reserved book lists Auden prepared for his courses show the texts that he used in his teaching and recommended for his students. These works were intended as supplementary materials - in his class on Shakespearean sonnets, for example, Auden encouraged familiarity with Chaucer and Plato, as well as Kierkegaard and C.S. Lewis, to illuminate the Bard's poetry.
Click on the thumbnails to view larger images of Auden's reserved book lists from 1943 and 1944.
*From a question-and-answer session with visiting professor Brendan Kennelly's class (1971), transcribed in the College Bulletin (May 1972): "When I was a student, contemporary literature was something we looked at for ourselves and I think we were reasonably informed. We wouldn't have dreamt of going to a teacher and saying, 'We want to have a course.'"