The literature of World War II (1939-1945) marked the end of an era of great intellectual and creative exuberance. The rationing of people affected the production of magazines and books during this time. Poetry and short stories were the favored means of literary expression, with the New Apocalypse movement, characterized by a surreal and rhetorical style, being prominent with poets like Dylan Thomas, George Barker, David Gascoyne, and Vernon Watkins. Writers like Alun Lewis, Sidney Keyes, and Keith Douglas provided detached accounts of the battlefield. However, no significant new novelists or playwrights emerged during this period.