W. H. Auden and Johnson were the two poets on the drafting committee for the retranslation of the psalms, contained in The Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church (USA), a retranslation also adopted for use by Lutherans in the USA and Canada, The Anglican Church of Canada, and the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church’s psalms are still approved for use by the Church of England.
The literary critic, Edward Mendelson, who wrote the introduction to Johnson’s volume of verse, St. Paul’s Chapel & Selected Shorter Poems, and who also serves as literary executor and principal biographer for W. H. Auden, ends his latest biography, Later Auden, with correspondence between Auden and Johnson on the retranslation project.
