Letters from Iceland was published by Faber and Faber in August 1937, the product of a trip Auden and Louis MacNeice took to Iceland in the summer of 1936. It is one of the oddest and most engaging books in the English literary travel tradition — part verse epistle, part prose reportage, part guidebook parody, part extended in-joke among a brilliant circle of friends. Its centerpiece, Auden’s “Letter to Lord Byron” in rhyme royal, is one of the great light-verse achievements of the century.
The Book
Letters from Iceland is genuinely collaborative and genuinely miscellaneous. It includes:
“Letter to Lord Byron” — Auden’s 240-stanza poem in rhyme royal (he chose the form because Byron used ottava rima, and Auden found the eighth line “too easy”), discussing everything from the Icelandic landscape to English class structure to the poet’s role in society. It is simultaneously a travel poem, an intellectual autobiography, and a comic masterpiece.
“Letter to R.H.S. Crossman, Esq.” — MacNeice’s verse letter, a brilliant piece of discursive poetry.
Prose chapters by both authors — Auden on traveling in Iceland, MacNeice on Icelandic history and culture.
“Last Will and Testament” — a collaborative verse piece bequeathing imaginary legacies to friends and enemies.
Photographs, charts, and appendices that give the book the feel of an eccentric guidebook.
Context
The trip was funded by Faber (who commissioned the book) and took place during the politically fraught summer of 1936 — the Spanish Civil War had just begun, Europe was sliding toward catastrophe. The decision to go to Iceland rather than Spain was itself a statement — or an evasion, depending on one’s politics. Auden later went to Spain (1937) and wrote about it; but Iceland came first, and the book’s deliberate lightness has a quality of last-days-of-peace about it.
The collaboration between Auden and MacNeice was natural — they were close friends, both Northern Irish-connected (MacNeice by birth, Auden by marriage to Erika Mann and general affinity), both formally accomplished, both witty. The book captures their friendship at its height, before the war scattered the 1930s generation.
”Letter to Lord Byron”
This poem deserves separate attention as one of Auden’s supreme achievements. Written in an extended conversational style that owes as much to Don Juan as to Byron’s letters, it ranges across:
- Auden’s social origins and education
- The English class system
- The state of modern poetry
- The relationship between art and society
- Iceland’s geology and culture
- Personal confession (Auden discusses his homosexuality more openly here than in any poem published during his lifetime)
The rhyme royal stanza gives the poem both discipline and freedom — the seven lines are long enough for argument but short enough to demand wit at every turn.
Collecting Letters from Iceland
First edition (Faber and Faber, London, 1937): Cream cloth with blue lettering and blue map endpapers. Photographic dust jacket showing Icelandic landscape.
Identification points:
- “First published in August Mcmxxxvii” on copyright page
- Joint credit: Auden and MacNeice
- Photographs throughout
- Map endpapers
Market values: Fine copies in dust jacket bring $600–$1,500. The book’s physical production — large format, photographs, colored endpapers — means that truly fine copies with unclipped, unfaded jackets are scarce.
First American edition (Random House, New York, 1937): Published simultaneously. Less sought than the Faber first ($300–$600).
Signed copies: Extremely scarce signed by both authors. Single-signed (Auden) copies bring $1,500–$3,000.
The dual authorship makes this collectible across two markets — Auden collectors and MacNeice collectors both need it. MacNeice’s relative undervaluation compared to Auden means the book is sometimes available at prices that don’t reflect its quality.