0001
In Retrospect.
0002
Since then the Auden industry has not been idle. An
0003
excellent biography was published1 and in this the Austrian
0004
period was dealt with but not locally researched. Edward
0005
Mendelson edited Auden´s early works and wrote superb commentaries.
0006
There has been a biography of Chester Kallman. Writers of PhD
0007
theses have been out here and have shaken us up, particularly
0008
Michael O´Sullivan of Trinity College, Dublin who - not speaking
0009
a word of German - organised a full-scale exhibition and an
0010
international symposium in Vienna. The editor of this volume
0011
Peter Müller had brought Michael out to see me at Fri dau in the
0012
preceding year; now he came again, and after the closure,
0013
exhausted, he spent a long weekend in the country to recover.
0014
We dug out ancient files containing original Auden manuscripts,
0015
letters, personal notes and newspaper cuttings, and now we tried
0016
to winnow the wheat from the chaff. After some general discussion
0017
it seemed to us all that there remain certain aspects of Auden´s
0018
life in Lower Austria which are not on record, or where they are,
0019
not from the worm´s eye view. As an older man he was happier
0020
here than anywhere else: he felt at home. He was at Kirchstetten
0021
not only during the summer, as is often said, but with
0022
interruptions for five months, depending on his engagements.
0023
In the course of these years he was still highly
0024
creative. So that it might, we thought, be of value to put some
0025
of those things on record which would otherwise be lost. Not
0026
for the first time self -criticism was expressed, but while doubts
0027
concerning self-importance and sell-out of f riendship were not
0028
entirely banished, the view prevailed that the local witness
0029
needs to be put on paper. Scholarship is at work elsewhere;
0030
here a few appendices and footnotes are on offer.
0031
Auden´s opinions on biographies of creative artists in general
0032
were, as Humphrey Carpenter pointed out, highly contradictory.
0033
Again and again he said that the private life of poets and other
0034
people engaged in creative work is none of the public´s business
0035
but he also said:´`The biography of an artist, if his life as a whole
0036
was sufficiently interesting, is permissible, provided that the
0037
biographer and his readers realise that such an account throws no
0038
light whatsoever upon the artist´s work." And "I do believe,
0039
however, that, more often than most people realise, his works
0040
may throw light upon his life."
0041
1 Hum phrey Carpenter: W.H. Auden, a Biography (Houghton Mifflin
0042
Company, Boston 1981.)
0043
- 2 -
0044
Carpenter´s book calls itself "a first biography", and the
0045
author expressly restricts his aims: "It is not a work of literary
0046
criticism". It may also be felt to lack an analysis of some
0047
fundamental questions: about the depths of the poet´s personality,
0048
his "otherness" (to confine this to his homosexuality would be to
0049
oversimplify) and the basis of his all-important relationship
0050
with Chester Kallman. As a star ting point, "Early Auden"1 which
0051
presents an d comments on the poetry, drama and prose up to 1939
0052
is most valuable, and Edward Mendelson will produce further works
0053
of scholarship.
0054
What would Wystan Auden say if he could read "Auden in Love"
0055
by Chester´s old coll ege friend and last-minute stepmother Dorothy
0056
J. Farnon?2 In July 1985 the Sunday Times published a list of
0057
recommended holiday reading. The assessment of "Auden in
0058
Love" was a model of compression: "emetic but compulsive".
0059
I more than once came up against Auden´s idée fixe about the
0060
irrelevance of the poet´s private self, and asked him one day:
0061
"So no rotting apples in the desk drawer?" "No, no rotting apples
0062
"And if you have an attack of the trots and interrupt your work?"
0063
"That would make no difference at all." Chester´s sole explanatio[]
0064
was that it was "a tick like any other", and that in any case he
0065
was totally inconsistent. Be that as it may, if the effect on the
0066
general public was judged as emetic, Auden´s nausea can be
0067
imagined. All the same, it is a fascinating book, and for people
0068
who knew the two men only in the later years of their lives, does thro[]
0069
light on apparently conflicting phenomena and makes their actions,
0070
and Chester´s character in particular, more comprehensible.
0071
When Auden first met Kallman he was just 32 and already a poet
0072
with an established reputation, respected and even revered on
0073
many a campus. Kallman was an 18 year old undergraduate,
0074
brilliant, beautiful, foca l point and leader of a crowd of young
0075
intellectuals of both sexes. He was a Dorian Grey figure,
0076
sparkling and damned, hero and victim, immature and over-ripe,
0077
sensitive and heartless, a man capable of loving and of being
0078
1Edward Mendelson: Early Auden, Faber and Faber 1981. Also:
0079
W.H. Auden: Collected Poems, ed.by E.Mendelson, Faber 1976, and
0080
The English Auden, same Editor, Faber 1977.
0081
2Dorothy J Farnon: Auden in Love. Simon & Schuster, NY, Faber
0082
London 1
0083
- 3 -
0084
loved but who was already - though Auden did not know it -
0085
addicted to promiscuity. In literature and music his knowledge
0086
was, for his age, above average, but when important examinations
0087
loomed a kind of petulant mood would come over him and he would
0088
fail to appear.
0089
Chester never wanted to earn his living, and all his life he was
0090
supported financially by other people, particularly by Auden.
0091
He usually promptly lost what he was given because he was
0092
perpetually being robbed by se amen picked up on the wharfs of
0093
New York. By one of them he was robbed of three months´ income
0094
in succession. Or else he gave it away: no matter what actually
0095
happened, the money left his pocket.
0096
The scene shifts to a flat in the Esslingasse in Vienna´s
0097
3rd District, where Kallman once spent the winter. He gave a
0098
party one evening, and afterwards I took two or three of the men
0099
part of t heir way home in my car. When Chester told me later on
0100
that the m an who, as it chanced, had been sitting beside me, had
0101
gone off with 2,000 schillings taken out of the pocket of a
0102
jacket hanging on the bedroom door, I could not know that this
0103
was not a mere incident but almost a matter of routine. When,
0104
ultimately, he took with him to Athens 80,000 sch. in cash
0105
(proceeds of the sale of a building plot) and lost it all on the
0106
way, this mishap was almost a foregone conclusion.
0107
That the sexual relationship between Auden and Kallman
0108
ceased as far back as 19 41 is well known: from that time on -
0109
there is evidence in the poetry - sex and love became, for Auden,
0110
t wo separate matters. He felt married to Chester (when he was
0111
not Mother) for the rest of his life, and he wrote that Chester
0112
was the only person who, emotionally and intellectually, was
0113
wholly indispensable to him.
0114
Like it or not, this statement has to be accepted with all
0115
the weight it carries. It was never possible, even in the
0116
Austrian era, to keep Chester in purdah for long, and when there
0117
was a visitor from Athens at Hinterholz 6 there could be tensio n.
0118
Auden gave orders to Yannis Boras in the abrupt tones of a
0119
colonial Englishman of yore speaking to the "boy", and when I
0120
asked one day at lu nch: "Where is, er....?" he said with a
0121
- 4 -
0122
smirk of satisfaction: "I sent him up on to the roof to mend tiles."
0123
But fundamentally nothing had changed between them: this explains
0124
Auden´s intense anxiety over the death of Boras in a car accident in
0125
Lower Austria, and his fear communicated itself to me as I searched
0126
for Chester in Vienna. It was nearly Christmas, what on earth
0127
would become of him, distraught and alone? (He had in fact not
0128
go ne to Austria after all, but had not let Auden know.) There
0129
followed the gloomy summer of 1969 when Chester was sunk in deep
0130
depression while Wyśtan had a full work programme, and when he
0131
told me he could hardly think how Chester would get through the
0132
summer1this was indeed Mother speaking.
0133
What was it in Chester Kallman that made him so entirely
0134
indispensable to Auden? Perhaps the question is impossible to
0135
answer; some may hold it to be inadmissible, or attempts to find
0136
points of reference impertinent. Others again may find the whole
0137
subject unappetising. But to anyone with an interest in psychology
0138
in the processes of creativity in general and in those of Auden
0139
in particular, there is no way of getting round this essential
0140
relationship. It may, after all, come to be seen as one of the
0141
most curious in the history of English literature.
0142
In their love of music, of opera above all, Kallma nwas in
0143
the lead. He was a minor poet who wrote because he needed to do so
0144
but his output was slight. Yet in many spheres which were of
0145
intense interest to Auden he had little, sometimes nothing to offer:
0146
German literature (though Chester picked up languages with uncommon
0147
facility; Wystan´s spoken German was execrable but his compre-
0148
hension unerring), the history of cultures, religion and liturgy,
0149
translation. When I was with them Wystan did not only most of the
0150
talking, but of the asking as well; his great charm lay in his
0151
alert interest in other people´s work, and he would draw one out
0152
on the odder backwaters of Austrian history. This side of him comes
0153
out in a letter dated 6 July 1970. When the historian Friedrich
0154
Heer and Auden, both entranced, struck sparks off one another all
0155
afternoon, Kallman was silent. Kallman lacked Auden´s sensitivity
0156
to places and people, to the genius loci; perhaps it was just
0157
that he was an American, and a New Yorker, while Auden never
0158
1 refers to 1976 text.
0159
- 5 -
0160
lost his roots in Europe.
0161
On his own ground, operatic libretti, Chester Kallman was
0162
still in good running order, and when the Rake´s Progress was put
0163
on in Vienna he wrote a letter to Die Presse protesting sharply
0164
against the cuts made by the producer. But of that
0165
conversational brilliance which old friends have described there
0166
was little sign. A scene comes to mind: Auden was away, and Chester
0167
asked me to meet him for lunch at a restaurant off the Kärntner-
0168
strasse. A young man whose background clearly lay somewhere
0169
within the crime belt near the Prater was with him, and soon the
0170
youth sand I were engrossed in conversation, while Chester, feeling
0171
out of it, sulked. Immediately after coffee it seemed best to
0172
leave them. Chester´s intelligence and wit had not deserted him
0173
but they had too little scope, and, perhaps owing to his carp-like
0174
appearance, he was liable to be underestimated. He was good-natured,
0175
in course of time even affectionate, hospitable and amusing. He
0176
looked after Auden devotedly and we know that he was able to banish
0177
Auden´s loneliness as no one else could. His misfortune was that
0178
he lacked those qualities which Auden possessed and which decide
0179
between success and failure.
0180
It cannot, all the same, have been easy living on a long-term
0181
basis with Auden in New Yo rk while attempting, even though
0182
fitfully, to develop his own personality and talents. Putting up with Auden´s
0183
fads, his insistence on punctuality and the rigid routine was one
0184
thing; to grow up, to mature in the shadow of this oversized tree
0185
was another. There was not enough light. So he fled, but without
0186
Mother there was no way he could live at all.
0187
It is essentia l, in the light of what happened later on, to
0188
remember Auden´s generosity. His biographer mentioned the two boys
0189
whose further education was financed by Auden: I can confirm this
0190
as we lived next door to them for a few years. They were the sons of
0191
an artist; both made rapid careers in industrial management. But
0192
there were other examples. Wystan had telephoned and asked me to
0193
meet him and Chester at the Operncafé - the much-missed café-
0194
restaurant next to the Opera, now a car salesroom. They were waiting
0195
for Balanchine to join them after the performance, but we waited in
0196
vain and finally gave up and went home. There was a fourth at our
0197
table, a silent young man who, Chester said in an undertone, was
0198
a student of technology and Wystan was helping with his studies.
0199
- 5a -
0200
It turned out that he lived not far from my flat so we drove
0201
off together, and he suddenly broke his silence to ask: "Who
0202
is this Professor Auden - is he well known?"
0203
There was a brief flurry after the 1968 uprising in
0204
Czechoslovakia. Towards the end of Auden´s summer residence at
0205
- 6 -
0206
Kirchstetten the question cropped up whether he would be willing
0207
to lend the house to a Czech refugee and his wife. By mid-
0208
October Auden was in England, and he wrote from London, c/o
0209
Heyworth, 32 Bryanston Square:
0210
Dear Stella, Got back from Oxford yesterday and found your
0211
letter waiting. 1) I think I ought to take the couple in,
0212
but I m ust leave it to you to decide whether they are O.K.
0213
If they are, all rooms, including my study (which can´t be
0214
heated) are open to them. 2) How m uch money will they need
0215
to keep going? And how shall I make the arrangements for
0216
payment. 3) Will they be able to find work or emigrate
0217
before I return in April, when I´m afraid there will not
0218
be room for them? 4) I´m worried about how they will get
0219
gas cylinders for cooking from Neulengbach, since, presumably,
0220
they have no car. I expect someone in the village will help.
0221
5) If and when they come, I must know in advance so that I
0222
can write a note to the Burgom eister..." (sic).
0223
In the end nothing came of it, but the letter is quoted
0224
here because it is so characteristic; the follow-up is even
0225
more so.
0226
77 St. Mark´s Place Nov 6th
0227
NYC
0228
NY.1003
0229
Dear Stella,
0230
Many thanks for your letter. Of course,
0231
selfishly, I´m rather relieved. How horrid
0232
one is!
0233
The U.S. is grim.
0234
Love,
0235
Wystan.
0236
Great generosity (these facts, even separately, are known
0237
to no more than two or three people) combined in Auden´s
0238
character quite readily with his legendary stinginess in the
0239
small things of everyday life such as stamps or cigarettes.
0240
"Life" magazine, he told me one day with a beaming smile, had
0241
just paid him 5,000 dollars for an article. "I´m thinking
0242
of building on a diningroom." "Very good idea" I said,
0243
"but for a start I shall smoke your cigarettes for the rest of
0244
the afternoon." I very much doubt whether I did. On the other
0245
hand he would order things to be sent out from Vienna without
0246
a second thought. After his car accident he sent me a message
0247
and I drove out to Kirchstetten. He was dishevelled and cross.
0248
It´s a curious thing, he said, but the first chap who
0249
takes any notice of you when you´re carried into hospital is not
0250
- 7 -
0251
the doctor but the man from the accounts offic e who wants to
0252
know how you propose to pay for your treatment. No, he said,
0253
he didn´t really need anything and Chester would arrive shortly,
0254
but he was running out of gin. If I´d be an angel and ring
0255
up Wild on the Neuer Markt and ask them to send a few bottles out -
0256
he told me the brand name - that would be splendid.
0257
When the friendly voice on the end of the line had repeated
0258
the order I asked when they would be making their next delivery
0259
in the area around Kirchstetten. "Oh but we never deliver out
0260
there" said the voice, "We make a special trip for the Herr
0261
Professor." Startled, I exclaimed "For goodness´ sake, that must
0262
cost him a packet - you can buy that brand of gin in Böheimkirchen!"
0263
"Certainly you can" said the voice which now sounded amused,
0264
"but why do we have to worry our heads over the way a Herr
0265
Professor flings his money around?" I liked the "we".
0266
What was so American about the kitchen?1
0267
When fitted kitchens first came in the Austrians calle dd
0268
them "American" - the term is now as ex tinct as "Russian" tea
0269
but m ust still have been common parlance in Kirchstetten.
0270
There was a tidy line-up consisting of fridge, sink, low
0271
cupboards providing a good working surface,,a corner cupboard
0272
the interior of which s wung out, and a gas stove. Both men were
0273
very proud of the kitchen and it became Chester´s habitat.
0274
But the whole point of a modern kitchen: the labour-saving
0275
working area, ample storage space, accessibility, was totally
0276
cancelled out by the permanent clutter. It was a matter of
0277
principle with Chester to have all cooking ingredients con veniently
0278
to hand, which meant that nothing was ever put away, and where
0279
his loving eye saw method, even the least fussy visitor could
0280
only see a shambles. But an interesting shambles owing to the
0281
exotic nature of the preserved foods and spices which Chester
0282
brought with him. There was for example a dried leaf which,
0283
detected by me in a casserole, was said to have no flavour but
0284
to serve as a stimulus or bridge to other flavours.
0285
It was clear from the beginning that the two of them were
0286
not so much drinking as eating their way into their graves owing
0287
1 Wystan Auden, On Installing an American Kitchen in Lower
0288
Austria, in Homage to Clio, (Faber and Faber 1960).
0289
- 8 -
0290
to the enormous fat content of some of the dishes. I remember
0291
my horror as I watched a sauce being prepared in the mixer before
0292
it was re-heated to accompany the roast duck. It consisted of
0293
equal parts of rendered down duck fat and cream, and would have
0294
sustained a miner at the coal face for an indefinite period
0295
of time. If they could possibly help it, of course, neither
0296
Wystan nor Chester ever walked a yard.
0297
Whether or not - and Chester was convinced that this was so -
0298
the business about alleged arrears of income tax shortened Auden´s
0299
life must be left open. The "Declaration" to the tax authorities
0300
in which a great poet patiently explains how poetry comes to be
0301
written must be unique and deserves a place in the history of
0302
literature.
0303
Declaration. 1
0304
Gentlemen,
0305
My position is very simple: one pays income tax where one
0306
earns money, that is to say in my case, as a writer writing in
0307
English, in the United States and in England. In Austria I
0308
earn not one groschen, I merely spend sch illings.
0309
You maintain that I possess a "material interest" in Austria,
0310
by which you presumably mean a "financial" interest. That might
0311
conceivably be the case if I had to say to myself: "I must go
0312
to Austria because I can only work in Austria!" But that is not
0313
the case. I have lived in many places in many different countries
0314
and was always able to work wherever I might be.
0315
I naturally have a "personal" interest in Austria, otherwise
0316
I should not come here. The landscape is pleasing, and I find
0317
the Austrians whose acquaintance I have made, friendly ansd
0318
charming.
0319
You say correctly that I once received an Austrian prize
0320
for lieterature. This was a great honour of which I am very
0321
proud. You cannot however serioiusly believe, Gentlemen, that I
0322
calculated: "If I continue to go to Austria maybe I shall be
0323
given a prize"? Until it was awarded to me I had never heard
0324
of this prize. It is equally clear that I cannot receive it a
0325
1Translation from the German text which is a manuscript, not a
0326
letter. An English original is not known to exist and it is
0327
assumed that Auden destroyed his draft.
0328
- 9 -
0329
second time. You also go on to say that a road in Kirchstetten
0330
has been named Audenstraße after me. That was a very kind gesture
0331
on the part of the local council, but it cannot be maintaine dd
0332
that I profit from it financially.
0333
Further, you say with truth that I have written several poems
0334
o n Austrian themes. To this I would like to make three
0335
statements.
0336
1. I have never, in Austria, received so much as one
0337
penny for my poems. One or two of them have been trans-
0338
lated into German, but in these cases the translators have
0339
received the money, not I.
0340
2. I believe you are not clearly aware how poetry comes
0341
to be written. What is generally taken to be the subject
0342
matter is only a viewpoint, an occasion whereby certain
0343
thoughts about nature, God, history, mankind etc. may be
0344
expressed which the poet may have had in mind for a very
0345
long time. I wrote, for example, a poem to commemorate the
0346
20th anniversary of the death of Josef Weinheber.
0347
Fundamentally however the poem is concerned with quite
0348
different things. First of all it is about the love
0349
which every poet, whatever his nationality, has for his
0350
mother tongue, and secondly about what happened after the
0351
war in the countries which were defeated, i.e. not only
0352
in Austria but in Germany and Italy. Again: in 1964
0353
I wrote a poem with the title "Whitsunday in Kirchstetten"
0354
because it was where I happ ened to be. But the place is
0355
unimportant. In real ity the question in this poem is
0356
what, for a Christian, is the meaning of the Feast of
0357
Pentecost. And this is valid for all countries in the
0358
same way.
0359
3. I believe you do not clearly recognize a poet´s (Dichter)
0360
financial s ituation. If he is successful, a novelist
0361
can ma ke a good deal of money. A poet (Lyriker) cannot,
0362
even if he is very well known, because he is only read
0363
by a minority. By far the greater part of my income
0364
comes not from the sale of my volumes of poetry but from
0365
book reviews, translations, lectures etc., activities
0366
which have nothing to do with Austria. And while we are
0367
- 10 -
0368
on the subject of translation s you rightly say that
0369
I have a great int erest in German and Austrian literatur
0370
I may add in music as well - but I do not have to come
0371
to Austria in order to read or to hear them.
0372
You see f rom all this that the arguments brought
0373
forward by you for subjecting me to payment of income tax are not
0374
valid. The most pertinent argument against it is that in the
0375
course of one year I always stay under six months in Austriaa
0376
and never spend more than three months here consecutively.
0377
A word in conclusion: if this in my view entirely unjustifiable
0378
nonsense does not cease, I shall leave Austria never to return,
0379
which would be very sad for me and perhaps too for the shopkeepers
0380
of Kirchstetten. One thing, Gentlemen, I cannot conceal from you:
0381
if this should happen it m ight give rise to a scandal of worldwide
0382
dimensions.
0383
W.H. Auden.
0384
1 You ask why I have made over my half of our property in
0385
Kirchstetten to Mr Chester Kallman who is not related to me.
0386
Mr Kallman is my heir. I have no children and for years past
0387
he has been my literary collaborator. Jointly, we have written
0388
five new opera libretti, "The Rake´s Progress, "Elegy for Young
0389
Lovers", "The Bassarids_" and "Love´s Labours Lost". And
0390
together we have made new translations of "The MagiccFlute",
0391
"Don Giovanni", "Die Sieben Todsünden", "Mahagonny" and
0392
"Archifanfaro". I am now 65 years old and must reckon with all
0393
eventualities such as a heart attack. As you know better than
0394
I, in the event of sudden death great difficulties arise for the
0395
heirs to landed property, particularly in a foreign country.
0396
1 The German text was typed on a different machine, and the
0397
separate page joined to the eclaration.
0398
- 11 -
0399
"Every day f or the past year" said Chester "I have stood
0400
outside his door in the early morning, afraid to go in."
0401
This was later. Now, Auden was dead, the voice issuing
0402
from the car radio had just said so. A few days ago we had
0403
talked about his reading in the Society for Literature on 28
0404
September. Unfortunately, I said, I was obliged to drive to
0405
Linz and to spend the n ight there, but they were welcome to use
0406
my Vienna flat. It was maddening and I would just as soon
0407
put it off. No, said Auden, mustn´t do that, one should stick
0408
to one´s commitments. "And you won´t be missing much" he
0409
reassured me, "you´ve heard it all before." We would meet again
0410
in a few days´time and then he would tell me all about it. He was
0411
not sure about the fla t but he would let me know in good time.
0412
On 24 September he wrote a note to say that he did not need the
0413
flat, he would go to the Hotel Altenburgerhof. The handwriting
0414
is ragged.
0415
Linz already lay far behind, the car radio went on m uttering
0416
to itself unheeded until the familiar voice of Friedrich Heer e
0417
came through, reading one of his book reviews. It was consoling
0418
in a world where, suddenly, a signpost was missing. W hat are
0419
you howling about, I asked myself, what gives you the right to
0420
mourn for Wystan? Think of Chester. It was impossible not to
0421
think of Chester: it was not so much a question how much he
0422
would grieve over the death of Wystan, as how he would survive
0423
at all. Leaving the autobahn at St.Pölten I drove straight to
0424
Kirchstetten; it seemed to be just possible that he might have
0425
arrived in the meantime. But the green shutters were closed
0426
and there was no one about apart from the wall-eyed dog, an
0427
exceptionally hideous mongrel belonging to Frau Strobl, which
0428
barked in an irritating falsetto. He barked from a position close
0429
beside me while I wrote a note and stuck it in the chink between
0430
the door´s shutters, and he was still barking as I shut the
0431
garden gate behind me.
0432
The answer to my note was a telephone call from Frau Strobl:
0433
Herr Kallman said, would I come over to tea the next day?
0434
That was the Sunday.
0435
-12-
0436
The sittingroom seemed to be full of people. Chester was
0437
sitting on the corner-seat facing the door, where Auden always
0438
used to sit, every chair appeared to be occupied and two young
0439
men were sitting on the floor. Chester hurried
0440
across the room, hugged me and said "The whole thing´s terrible,
0441
you have to help me."
0442
I was introduced to the others. Mrs. Thekla Clark and her
0443
daughter had come up from Florence as soon as t hey heard the
0444
news; there was Frau Maria Seitz, headmistress of the high school;
0445
r Herr Enzinger the mayor
0446
of Kirchstetten, the film scriptwriter Adolf Opel, and the young men.
0447
Clearly, the meeting to discuss the funeral arra ngements was
0448
not proceeding smoothly. The mayor looked annoyed, Frau Seitz
0449
looked worried and Mrs Clark bewildered. There were, of course,
0450
language difficulties. Mayor Enzinger spoke not a word of
0451
English and the Clarks no German, while the headmistress had a
0452
certain command of English but did not feel up to acting as
0453
interpreter and adviser in one; Chester´a German was perfectly
0454
adequate.
0455
The root of the problem lay on a deeper level, where two
0456
separate cultures collided head on. Chester was barely coherent,
0457
but he managed to explain his point of view. He loathed, from
0458
the bottom of his hearteverything in the way of pompes funèbres.
0459
He wanted to bury Auden, he said, quietly and privately and, if
0460
it could possibly be managed, on Tuesday. He had already informed
0461
Wyst an´s brother Dr. John Auden, Stephen Spender and o thers
0462
of the arran gements and asked them to arrive, if not tomorrow,
0463
then on Tuesday morning at the latest. On the other hand the
0464
mayor of Kirchstetten, he went on, wanted to lay on a really big
0465
show with brass bands and all the rest of it, and what was more
0466
on the Saturday to give as many people as possible the chance to
0467
come. The Ministry of Education and the provincial council of
0468
Lower Austria were to be represented, and as the last straw the
0469
hearse was to drive up to the house. He would not allow any of
0470
this, he said: "I can´t bear it and I won´t have it."
0471
Mayor Enzinger drew a deep breath. The first thing we ha d
0472
to realise, he pointed out, was that the body had not yet been
0473
-13-
0474
released by the authorities. In all cases where the cause of death
0475
is not wholly clear certainkformalities are obligatory, and even
0476
intervention at a high level would not work miracles. Everything
0477
takes time. And how could anyone expect it of him, the Bürgermeister,
0478
that he should refrain from notifying the Ministry and the Cultural
0479
department of the Council of the death of Professor _Auden? It
0480
was as much as his job was worth. Now Frau Seitz spoke. The
0481
inhabitants of Kirchstetten, she believed, would hardly bury a dog
0482
in the manner proposed by Herr Kallman, let alone a great poet.
0483
Chester Kallman´s position was entirely comprehensible - to
0484
some of us. To him, an American of Jewish origin and a non-believer,
0485
the whole pomp and circumstance of a traditional Austrian funeral
0486
was abhorrent. Where prominent personages are concerned, there
0487
would certainly be the local brass band, and where appropriate delegations representing
0488
the voluntary fire brigade, the federal railways, the veterans´
0489
association and others besides, and the gamekeepers would blow
0490
their horns and wish him good hunting in the Elysian fields.
0491
To Chester´s mind such folksy rituals were as foreign as the burial
0492
rites of the Incas. He did not know that not very long ago in
0493
Lower Austria, Auden as a bachelor would have been accompanied in
0494
the funeral procession by a "bride" dressed in white. He was
0495
unable to understand that his intentions were an intolerable affront
0496
to the population of Kirchstetten. In his despair, it certainly
0497
never occurred to him that Auden himself would very likely have
0498
been entranced at the idea of a slap-up funeral with all the
0499
trimmings - one can almost hear his Olympian laughter - followed
0500
by a hearty meal at the inn where he had so often had his l unch.
0501
As it turned out, Chester got no marks in local opinion for this
0502
finale either, as the meal consisted of Leberkäs with vegetables:
0503
This consisted of fried slices off a loaf of a flabby substance which is neither liver nor cheese related to the
0504
Frankfurter sausage. It is a
0505
homely, juicy meal all too familiar to every Austrian; a nd it is
0506
cheap. There would be much talk of this also after all was over
0507
For their part, the local people were forgetting that Chester was
0508
probably in financial straits - not that this would have been taken
0509
as an excuse.
0510
For a moment the discussion had come to a standstill.
0511
The young men who took no part in it and conversed in whispers,
0512
- 14 -
0513
fetched more beer, Frau Strobl walked in and out and rolled a
0514
baleful eye on us as she spoke into Chester´s ear.
0515
The points at issue were not only When and How Much; there
0516
was also the matter of the church service and the prayers at the
0517
graveside. Many people in Akustria had assumed Auden to be of the
0518
Roman Catholic faith; he had of course remained : member of the
0519
Anglican and Episcopalian churche s. The misunderstanding arose
0520
from his regular attendance at mass in the parish church and his
0521
friendly relationship with Father Lustkandl, the parish priest
0522
referred to in "Whitsunday in Kirchstetten". Auden asked
0523
Lustkandl´s sucessor for permission to be buried in the churchyard,
0524
and his wish was acceded to. Evid ently, the next logical thing to do, then,
0525
was to approach the chaplain to the British Embassy in Vienna,´
0526
the Revd. Bruce Duncan, and ask him to officiate. What form of
0527
service this should be - there could be no question of a funeral
0528
mass - left everyone present at a loss. We agreed at last that
0529
it ought to be some kind of ecumenical ceremony held jointly by
0530
the two clergymen, but that first of all, the plan must be put
0531
before D r John Auden.
0532
At this juncture Chester Kallman withdrew his insistence on
0533
the impossibly early date for the
0534
funeral. The room had become much too warm, the oxygen was
0535
running out and Chester would not be able to stand much more
0536
pressure. The most urgent objective waslquite simply to
0537
free him from our burdensome presence. Once everyone had agreed
0538
that Auden´s relations must be told immediately that the funeral
0539
had been postponed, the moment had come to dissolve the meeting.
0540
Mrs Clark undertook to telephone to London and Frau Strobl would
0541
drive her to the Post Office. Chester asked me to talk everything
0542
over with Frau Seitz and Herr Enzinger and reach definite concl u-
0543
sions. We all stood up, Chester came across the room to me and
0544
spoke in an undertone. He was completely exhausted, he said,
0545
he couldn´t stand much more. "I´ll do anything you want, you
0546
must just try to hold the others in check." Finally he said
0547
"It´ll be all right, I´m crammed full of tranquillizers, all I
0548
need is a bit of a rest." He embraced me warmly and left the room.
0549
- 17 -
0550
the chief mourners. It was "he-whose-name-we-never-mention";
0551
or if it was, Chester had said, Auden crossed himself.
0552
At the lowest point in Kirchstetten where the roads divide
0553
thr procession halted while the coffin was transferred from the
0554
hearse to a hand-drawn bier. At this point the Church took charge
0555
and the procession resumed its steady pace; photographs exist
0556
which were taken during the brief interval.
0557
To British ears quite unremarkable, the ecumenic al service
0558
was much ta Iked about in A ustrian circles because nothing of the
0559
kind had been known before. The Revd. Bruce Du ncan, today Rector
0560
of Crediton in Devon, can remember little about the general
0561
circumstances but confirms that he used the Book of Common Prayer
0562
and the long reading from the first Letter of St.Paul to the
0563
Corin thians, chapter 15, verses 20-58. Beyond that, all he recalls
0564
is his difficulties with Chester.
0565
Reaching for my Authorised Version, for surely no one would
0566
have dared to use any other, on second thoughts I also took out the
0567
New Testament as translated into German by Martin Luther. After
0568
reading the English text through ve ry slowly, and then a second
0569
time, I did the same with the Luther an Bible and lost in thought
0570
compared the two, verse by verse.
0571
"How nice to see you" said Auden who was sitting on one of the
0572
white garden chairs with the red covers, "it´s a bit einsam here.
0573
And I wanted to write and tell you that the technical word for
0574
buddle is Erzwaschtrog. I hope there is an equivalent German
0575
euphemism for `senior citizen´. Oh and adit is stollen, and although
0576
I may be wrong, I guess concentrating mill is Vereinigungsmühle."
0577
"What a mercy you´ve told me" I said, relieved. "I should have
0578
to have dug up such frightful words in the British Council library.
0579
But do you think people will understand all that about the primary
0580
and secondary worlds, or will they get muddled?"
0581
"It´s perfectly simple" said Auden. "The initial impulse to
0582
create a secondary world is a feeling of awe aroused by encounters,
0583
in the primary world, with sacred beings or events."
0584
"There is one glory of the sun" I heard myself say, "and
0585
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for on
0586
- 18 -
0587
star differeth from another in glory."
0588
"Ah" he said, "you´ve been reading Corinthians One, chapter 15.
0589
`Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.´ Chester and I took
0590
that bidding rather too literally."
0591
"Who would know where that familiar quotation comes from?"
0592
I wondered.
0593
"I would" said Auden. "I´ve been looking up the German text.
0594
Have you ever compared the Autho rized Version with Martin Luther?"
0595
"Funny you should ask that" I said. "It´s one of the things
0596
I forgot to talk to you about. `Be not deceived: evil comm unica-
0597
tions corrupt good manners.´ He renders that as `Lasset euch nicht
0598
verführen! Böse Geschwätze verderben gute Sitten.´"
0599
"Very neat" said Auden happily. I like `evil chatter´
0600
better than `comm unications´."
0601
"The publishers" Isaid "have a rather heavy-handed way of
0602
printing the more quotable bits in bold-face. But in the next
0603
verse Luther seems to flounder. `Werdet doch einmal recht nüchtern
0604
und sündiget nicht!´" Do be a bit sober for once, he pleads. And
0605
sin not. King James´s translators fancied that St Paul cried out
0606
`Awake to righteousness!"
0607
"Who knows what he really said."
0608
"Luther´s language is very fine as he reaches the clim ax:
0609
`Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis... ´"
0610
But Auden was speaking. "Behold, I shew you a mystery:
0611
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment,
0612
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet
0613
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
0614
shall be changed.´" And with that he vanished. Now wide awake, I
0615
put the two books back on their shelf and settled down to re-type
0616
Auden´s speech at Neulengbach.
0617
Sehr verehrter Herr Landeshauptmann, Ladies and gentlemen:
0618
I hope you will pardon me if I speak somewhat personally. I do so,
0619
not out of vanity...