PID | https://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C309-C |
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Author | Auden, W. H. |
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Publisher | Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Vienna 2021 |
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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 . |
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Previous document: | Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1965-09-29 |
Next document: | Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1967-11-08 |
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W.H.Auden
77 St Mark's Place
New York City 3
New York IOOO3
U.S.A.
Air-Mail
Die Baronin
Stella Musulin
Fridau
32 OO Obergrafendorf
N.Ö.
Austria
New York City 3
New York IOOO3 Feb 3rd,I96 6
Dear Stella:
Many thanks for your nice long letter. Stephen has a genius for
subtle misrepresentation. "Serious insistence on unseriousness'
telescopes two distinct 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 political history of Eur ope,with the same horrors,
would be what it has been,if Dante,Shakespeare,Goethe,Titian,
Mo zart,et al,had never existed.
2) I believe that the only way in which,to-day at any rate,one can
speak seriously about serious matters(the alternati ve
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
suffering, the contradictions of human existence,and the relation
between man and God,occasions for humorous expression.
e.g,: "If the rich could hire other people to die for them,the poor
cou ld make a wonderful living", or "Truth rests with God alone,and
a little bit with me",or "God will provide - ah,if only He wou ld till
He does so."
So! you encountered the one-whose-name-we-never-mention. Why Chest er should
have been so foolish as to invite him to a p arty,I cannot imagine. If he
is to be seen at all,he must 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 kit chen roof. No doubt you read about
our Black-Out and Transit Strike.(My typewriter is on the blink,hence the
hiatuses.) A 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. " I happen to know him quite well",said my friend. To which the
girl in astonishment:"You mean to say,he's still alive!".
Expect to get back to Kirchstetten about April 20th.
Wystan.
Harrison
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 composer Harrison 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