Poet and essayist, born in York, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. He studied at Oxford, and in the 1930s wrote passionately on social problems from a far-left standpoint, especially in his collection of poems Look, Stranger! (1936). He went to Spain as a civilian in support of the Republican side, and reported on it in Spain (1937), followed by a verse commentary (with prose reports by Christopher Isherwood) on the Sino-Japanese war in Journey to a War (1939). He also collaborated with Isherwood in three plays in the 1930s: The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1938). He emigrated to New York early in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1946. There he became converted to Anglicanism, tracing his conversion in The Sea and the Mirror (1944) and For the Time Being (1944). Later works include Homage to Clio (1960) and City Without Walls (1969). He was also professor of poetry at Oxford (1956–61).