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    W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet
    W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet
    W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet
    Ebook65 pages52 minutes

    W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet

    By Michael Buergermeister

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    W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was an English poet, playwright, and essayist. His work, from his early strictly metered verse, plays, and libretti written in collaboration with Chester Kallman, to his later dense poems and penetrating essays, represents one of the major achievements of twentieth-century literature. The book "W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet" is a series of interviews with friends and family and provides a unique, fascinating and invaluable insight into the private world of W.H.Auden. It is of interest both to scholars and general readers and deals with themes as varied as: sex, love, religion, ideas, poetry, craft and art. The work is essentially a prose poem. The members of the "chamber orchestra", the voices in the book: Amerigo Franchetti, Lord Gowrie, Rita & Anita Auden, Matthew Spender and Thekla Clark, are perspicacious, wise, and brilliant. They not only provide one with stimulating and rich food for thought, they are also a pleasure to listen to in their own right.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael Buergermeister
    Release dateFeb 14, 2016
    ISBN9781310755170
    W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet
    Author

    Michael Buergermeister

    Born in Vienna in 1967 Michael Buergermeister was brought up in London. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Vienna and Max Reinhardt Seminar. A writer, filmmaker and video artist he lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

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      Book preview

      W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet - Michael Buergermeister

      W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet

      W. H. Auden, The Life and Love of a Poet


      by Michael Buergermeister


      Copyright: 2016 Michael Buergermeister


      Published at Smashwords

      Photos courtesy of Anita Auden & The National Portrait Gallery

      The Making of Wystan, The Life, Love and Death of a Poet

      The birth of Wystan, The Life, Love and Death of a Poet can be traced to the reading of Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of W. H. Auden.

      As I sat in a library devoted to English Literature at the University of Vienna, a quiet former hospital ward dating from the Age of Enlightenment, with white walls, vaulted ceiling, shelves of red and blue books, and arched windows looking out onto pale, austere façades, I read about Auden and Hugo.

      The theme of a world famous poet consorting with a male prostitute in a seedy bar inspired my imagination and seemed worthy of a film. That the prostitute turned out to be a thief, who stole from Auden’s own house using Auden’s own car, gave it added spice. The fact that the poet forgave the sinner and helped him to his feet made it all the more interesting. I dreamt of a documentary in which an elderly Hugo would recount his point of view of these events: the burglary, the arrest, the imprisonment, and above all else: the redemption.

      The reason I was reading Carpenter that sunny autumn afternoon was that I was doing research for a series of talks on English poetry. I had chosen three poets: Milton, Keats and Auden and was reading both their works and their biographies.

      After I had given my series of talks, which thankfully went very well, I returned to my idea of making a film about Auden and Hugo.

      The job of teaching however prevented much else. All I did was teach. I didn’t have a social life, felt like a poorly paid battery hen, and was, if the truth be told, perfectly miserable.

      A year later circumstances had changed and, having lost the job I’d hated so much, I finally had both the time and the motivation to start the project.

      At my absolute nadir, in poor health (I had torn my meniscus), unemployed and what was worse: without the prospect of ever being employed again, unable to sleep, broke, and in a state of extreme psychological and emotional distress, I threw myself into the project as if it were my only hope of salvation.

      It might prove futile and a complete waste of time, I told myself, but I needed desperately to do something, whatever that might be. Apart from which the newly found sense of purpose the project imbued me with gave me a sense of inner serenity. At last I had a raison d'être and, after many turbulent months, I was able to sleep once more.

      The problem was: I didn’t have the slightest idea about how to actually go about making a film. At one and the same time every book I read stated quite categorically and without the least shadow of doubt that one can’t possibly make a film about a poet. Where, they all asked, was the story? One had to show something, one had to have action. And how could a series of talking heads provide that? Ideas, I read again and again, do not make good films. Above all else: I didn’t know whether I could make a documentary about Auden. Who would want to see it and, more pertinently: who finance it? It all seemed an impossible dream.

      I returned to the library and to Humphrey Carpenter’s biography. I read how Auden had given his last poetry reading on the 28th of September 1973 at the Austrian Poetry Society. That seemed like a good place to start. The problem was: I’d never heard of them. Who was the Austrian Poetry Society? And where could they be found?

      I went to the Austrian Society of Literature, which is located in a baroque palace in the Herrengasse, in Vienna’s first district, not far removed from the Michaelerplatz, with its Café Griensteidl and Looshaus.

      I had a look at the pamphlets that were scattered on a windowsill next to the counter in the hope of

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