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December 21, 2015

The Autobiography of W.H. Auden

aauden.jpg

Each dust jacket bears a photograph of Auden from the corresponding period, and they are all striking;
we witness him moving from brash youth to sagging middle age to the final cragginess of his last decade. Auden’s aged face was famously described as looking like “a wedding cake left out in the rain,” but to me his final features, with their weathered furrows and arroyos of wrinkles, look more like an outcropping of battered rock, “a secret system of caves and conduits.” The Autobiography of W.H. Auden - WSJ

Posted by gerardvanderleun at December 21, 2015 7:25 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

W.H. Auden--he aged horribly but what one would expect and hope would be the fate of a Communist.

Dan Kurt

Posted by: Dan Kurt [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 25, 2015 11:38 AM

Well, despite his temporary dip into communist clay, bless his soul for his co-translating from the Swedish, Dag Hammarskjold's "Markings" -- "The pride of the cup is in the drink, its humility in the serving. What, then do its defects matter?"

WHA's translation of DH's spiritual diary occurred years after WHA's dis-enthrallment from Communist ideology and practice.

Posted by: Stug Guts [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 25, 2015 6:50 PM

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