Autograph Notes Stella Musulin 1968-02-13--1968-02-14

PIDhttps://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C322-F
AuthorMusulin, Stella
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
  • 1968-02-13
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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 .

Lunch with W.H.A. at the Opern-Café on
13th' Feb.1968 .

Talk of awful impasse in Vietnam
War; W. so afraid of use of nuclear
weapons that he can hardly bear to
read or listen to the news , Feels US
will have to get out;perhaps to
blame for the "Pueblo" affair & wars
in territorial waters.
may have to vote Republican, though
he's never done so before,because the
Democrats really have no one for
President.
Says the Hippies are moving in on
his district. I asked what a hippy
does when he gets old; W, said thats'
What he asks them; too soon to tell .
Told him about Hundertwasser &
his naked protests.
Said I was glad he had told
British young people that L.S.D is
a dead duck for creative workers .
W, told me at some length about
his trials of LSD &mescalin,
Point is that young people need
to discover who & what they are .-

&L.S.D. doesn't tell them, its' a
passive effect in which there is
alienation from self . You concentrate
on things (chair, ceiling []),people
become unimportant. []s
effect of listening to music -
intolerable as the sounds lose
their interrelation & form.
Basically, you achieve a mild
degree of schizophrenia. Huxley
did a lot of harm by publishing
his experiences with mescalin,
making people think it is
an artistic experience. W.
had to add colour effects .
Awful story about young people
having gone blind was invented -
quite untrue. He did it in
company with his doctor and
they went round to local pub.
Suddenly saw a postman waving
at him & thought "this is it.-
Later postman said " I waved
at you , why didn't you answer?"

2

Talked with great enthusiasm
about "Mayhew". Said this is the
greatest work of the 19th' century .
Has just reviewed new issue
in 4 Volumes in the New Yorker.
Said how well it pays to do
a lecture / reading tour. In
6 weeks he can clear 15,000 $.
But it's "killing" - the social
side which you can't skip. And
if you do meet someone
interesting your'e torn apart
after 2 or 3 minutes,
W. had flown over for 4 days
to interview couple for Kirchstetten ,
& had to return to N_Y.