Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1964-12-23

PIDhttps://hdl.handle.net/21.11115/0000-000E-C307-E
Author
Editor(s)Mayer, Sandra; Frühwirth, Timo; Grigoriou, Dimitra
PublisherAustrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Vienna 2024
Licence(s)
  • 1 . licence status:
  • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
  • You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Notices: You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation. No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
Source Information
  • State Collections of Lower Austria
  • Stella Musulin (Depot)
  • St. Pölten
Origin
  • 1964-12-23T00:00:00+01:00--1964-12-23T23:59:59+01:00
  • Hubertusbader Straße 43

Correspondence between:
Previous document:Autograph Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin 1963-05-12
Next document:Typed Letter Signed W. H. Auden to Stella Musulin with Typescript W. H. Auden "Joseph Weinheber" 1965-03-15
Language(s):
  • English
  • German
Sent at:
  • Postamt Berlin 33 (post office Berlin 33)
Sent from:
  • Berlin
Sent at:
  • 1964-12-23T14:00:01+01:00--1964-12-23T15:00:00+01:00
Transmitted by:
  • Postamt Ober-Grafendorf (post office Ober-Grafendorf)
Transmitted at:
  • Ober-Grafendorf
Transmitted at:
  • 1964-12-28T17:00:01+01:00--1964-12-28T18:00:00+01:00
Redirected by:
Redirected at:
  • Fridau
Received by:
Received at:
  • Neulinggasse 26

mit Luft Post

Weinheber-Gedicht

Die Baronin
Stella Musulin
Fridau
Obergrafendorf
bei. S. Pölten
NÖ
Osterreich

Wien IV
Neulinggasse 26/14

W H Auden
Berlin-Dahlem
Hubertusbaderstrasse 43
Deutsc[]land·

Berlin.Dahlem
Hubertusbaderstrasse 43 Dec 23rd

Dear Stella:

It was sweet of you to think of me at
Christmas ,especially since it's a little einsam here.
Am beginning to know some local inhabitants. Oddly enough,
the ones I can talk to most easily ar from Ost-Berlin,
The most awful thing about the Bifkies is that
they are so much nicer under a little Druck.
When they feel their oats they are so apt to become
uppish.

If I'd known,I'd have warned you about The
National Review. I once reviewed a Charles Williams
book for them - never again. Of course you're right
about the lib-labs ostrich attitude to those who
wish to destroy them, but one cannot let one's name
be associated with shits.

Torture is the iniquity which utterly bewilders me.
I know something about the evil in my own heart and
[]in the sort of people I knowmeet, but I cannot conceive of myself
or them torturing anybody. Where do the torturers
come from? What class? Whom do they marry?
Have you ever met one? To what pubs do they go?

much love and best wishes for 1965

Wystan

It was sweet of you to think of me at Christmas

In her memoirs ("Auden in Kirchstetten" 210, "The Years in Austria" 14-15), Stella Musulin refers to her own previous letter to Berlin, in which she had mentioned Brian Bunting's non-fiction book The Rise of the South African Reich in relation to the issue of torture.

External Evidence: ph_007

Where do the torturers come from? What class? Whom do they marry? To what pubs do they go?

In her memoir "The Years in Austria" (14r-15r), Stella Musulin relates the lines "(In what bars are they welcome? / What girls marry them?)" in the version from 15 March 1965 of W. H. Auden's poem "Joseph Weinheber" to a passage ("Where do the torturers come from? What class? Whom do they marry? Have you ever met one? To what pubs do they go?") in the poet's letter to her from 23 December 1964: "When I told Chester about how Auden's letter to me had made its own infinitesimal contribution to English literature, Chester snapped: 'Wystan never wastes anything!'"

External Evidence: ph_023

Musulin, Elsa von

The handwriting has been identified as Elsa von Musulin's by her grandson Marko Musulin.

External Evidence: ph_027