Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1964-12-23

PIDhttps://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C307-E
AuthorAuden, W. H. Musulin, Elsa von
Editor(s)
  • Mayer, Sandra
  • Frühwirth, Timo
  • Grigoriou, Dimitra
PublisherAustrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Vienna 2021
Licence(s)
Source Information
  • State Collections of Lower Austria
  • Stella Musulin (Depot)
  • St. Pölten
Origin
  • 1964-12-23
  • Hubertusbader Straße 43
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Cite this Source (MLA 9th Edition)Andorfer Peter, Elsner Daniel, Frühwirth Timo, Grigoriou Dimitra, Mayer Sandra, Mendelson Edward and Neundlinger Helmut. Auden Musulin Papers: A Digital Edition of W. H. Auden's Letters to Stella Musulin. Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2022, amp.acdh.oeaw.ac.at .

Sent at:
  • Postamt Berlin 33 (post office Berlin 33)
Sent from:
Sent at:
  • 1964-12-23
Transmitted by:
  • Postamt Ober-Grafendorf (post office Ober-Grafendorf)
Transmitted at:
Transmitted at:
  • 1964-12-28
Redirected by:
Redirected at:
Received by:
Received at:

mit Luft Post

Weinheber-Gedicht

Die Baronin
Stella Musulin




Osterreich

Wien IV
Neulinggasse 26/14

W H Auden
Berlin-Dahlem
Hubertusbaderstrasse 43
Deutschland·

Berlin.Dahlem
Hubertusbaderstrasse 43
Dec 23rd

Dear Stella:

It was sweet of you to think of me at
Christmas ,especially since it's a little einsam here.
Am beginning to know some local inhabitants. Oddly enough,
the ones I can talk to most easily ar from Ost-Berlin,
The most awful thing about the Bifkes is that
they are so much nicer under a little Druck.
When they feel their oats they are so apt to become
uppish.

If I'd known,I'd have warned you about The
National Review. I once reviewed a Charles Williams
book for them - never again. Of course you're right
about the lib-labs ostrich attitude to those who
wish to destroy them, but one cannot let one's name
be associated with shits.

Torture is the iniquity which utterly bewilders me.
I know something about the evil in my own heart and
in the sort of people I meet, but I cannot conceive of myself
or them torturing anybody. Where do the torturers
come from? What class? Whom do they marry?
To what pubs do they go?

much love and best wishes for 1965

Wystan

It was sweet of you to think of me at Christmas

In her memoirs ("Auden in Kirchstetten" 210, "The Years in Austria" 14-15), Stella Musulin refers to her own previous letter to Berlin, in which she had mentioned Brian Bunting's non-fiction book The Rise of the South African Reich in relation to the issue of torture.

External Evidence: ph_007

Where do the torturers come from? What class? Whom do they marry? To what pubs do they go?

In her memoir "The Years in Austria" (14-15), Stella Musulin relates the lines "(In what bars are they welcome? / What girls marry them?)" in the version of W. H. Auden's poem "Joseph Weinheber" from 15 March 1965 to a passage ("Where do the torturers come from? What class? Whom do they marry? To what pubs do they go?") in the poet's letter to her from 23 December 1964: "When I told Chester about how Auden's letter to me had made its own infinitesimal contribution to English literature, Chester snapped: 'Wystan never wastes anything!'"

External Evidence: ph_023

Musulin, Elsa von

The handwriting has been identified as Elsa von Musulin's by her grandson Marko Musulin.

External Evidence: ph_027