| PID | https://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C309-C |
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| Editor(s) | Mayer, Sandra; Frühwirth, Timo; Grigoriou, Dimitra |
| Publisher | Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Vienna 2024 |
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| Cite this Source (Chicago Manual of Style) | Auden, W. H.1966/2024. "Typed Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1966-02-03." In Auden Musulin Papers: A Digital Edition of W. H. Auden's Letters to Stella Musulin, edited by Sandra Mayer, Timo Frühwirth, Dimitra Grigoriou, Edward Mendelson, Peter Andorfer and Daniel Elsner. Vienna: Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Austrian Academy of Sciences. https://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C309-C. |
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| Previous document: | Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1965-09-29 |
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Many thanks for your nice long letter. Stephen has a genius for
s ubtle misrepresentation. "Serious insistence on unseriousness'
telescopes two cnvictuonsdis tinct convictions of mine,falsifying both.
I) I believe it to be a serious moral error when an artist overestimates
the importance of art and,by implication,of himself. One must admit
that the plotical political history of Euriope,with all itsthe same horrors,
would be what it has been,if Dante,Shakespeare,Goethe,Titian,
Moxzart,et al,had never existed.
2) I believe that the only way in which,to-day at any rate,one can
s peak seroiu s eriously seriously about serious matters(the alternaticve
is silence) is comically. I am surprised to hear from you that
Jews find this hard to accept. I have enormously admired - and been
influenced by - the tradition of Jewish humor. More than any other
people,surely,they have seen in serious matters,that is to say,human
s uffering,and the contradictions of human existence,and the relation
betw een man and God,occasions for humorous expression.
e.g,: "If the rich could hire other people to die for them,the poor
couold make a w onderful living", or "Truth rests with God alone,and
a little bit with me",or "God will provide - ah,if only He wouold till
He does so."
So! you encountered the one-whose-name-we-never-mention. Why Chestrer should
have been s o foolis h as to invite him to a pearty,I cannot imagine. If he
is to be seen at all,he jymust be seen alone. Incidentally,next time you see
Chester,scold him a) for not writing to me b) for not answering Harrison's
cable.
All well here.except for a leaking kitvchen roof. No doubt you read about
our Black-Out and Trans it Strike.(My typewriter is on the blink,hence the
hiatuses.) A firen friend of mine who teaches schyzophrenics,has a seventeen
year old girl who is interested in poetry. Asked what poets she liked,she
mentioned me. "iI happen to know him quite well",said my friend. To which the
girl in astonishment:"You mean to say,he's still alive!".
Harrison
"Harrison" might be identified as the composer Harrison Birtwistle. In his W. H. Auden: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter reports that "[i]n about 1968 Auden began to look round for another composer with whom to write an opera" (428). Peter Heyworth arranged a meeting with Birtwistle, but nothing came of the intended collaboration. In a 2014 interview, Birtwistle recalls that "[h]e was once approached by WH Auden, who wanted to write an operatic version of Love's Labour's Lost with him", but refused. Auden and Kallman eventually realized the project in collaboration with Nicolas Nabokov.
External Evidence: ph_010