Wystan and Chester [Paperback]

Thekla Clark (Author), James Fenton (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1997

-- Robert Craft, New York Review of Books

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though Thekla Clark turned down a marriage proposal from W.H. Auden in the early 1950s, she remained close to the poet and his companion Chester Kallman until Auden's death in 1973. In memoir, Clark follows the lives of this unconventional couple, recalling their home on the Italian island of Ischia, their romps through Europe, and the more troubling times Auden spent in New York. While Kallman embraced his homosexuality and was campily outrageous, Auden was uncomfortable in his and became conservative and conventional. Despite their differences, or maybe because of them, their relationship endured--they met in 1939 and Kallman died less than two years after Auden, seemingly of a broken heart. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1951, Thekla Clark, a 24-year-old American from Oklahoma, sailed to Italy. On the island of Ischia in the bay of Naples, a family friend (the young poet Anthony Hecht) introduced her into a small circle of expatriates, at whose center were W.H. Auden and his companion, the librettist Chester Kallman. Clark became close friends with both men, and "The Visit," as she called it, became an annual summer ritual, first on Ischia and, after 1957, at Auden's house in Kirchstetten, Austria. Recounting particular incidents scattered over more than two decades, Clark casts light on the private lives of these two men as distinct individuals and as a couple. She describes Auden as a disciplined writer, passionate conversationalist and devoted friend who believed that "happiness, like grief, should be private" and who rejected Yeats's dictum that one must chose either "perfection of the life or of the work" with the remark that "perfection is possible in neither." While accepting his homosexuality, he nonetheless professed that homosexuality was wrong. Kallman comes across as a more unbuttoned character, an emotional man of much charm and considerable talent who was undone by his private demons. Clark writes frankly about Auden and Kallman's "extracurricular" affairs, their reliance on alcohol and Kallman's disintegration, but is never titillating or judgmental. Bringing considerable insight to bear on critical debate over the trajectory of Auden's career while defending Kallman's own creative work, this memoir is rich in personal vignettes. By turns humorous, ironic and poignant, Wystan and Chester is a valuable supplement to Humphrey Carpenter's 1982 Auden biography. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231107072
• ISBN-13: 978-0231107075
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,196,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thekla really loved them!, March 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wystan and Chester (Paperback)

In her recent memoir of the time of her life that she spent with Wystan and Chester, Thekla Clark gives us an unassuming and very personal view of these two great characters of the 20th. century. Although I probably should'nt compare the two, it is a far more personal and approachable account than that of Richard Davenport-Hines' very bookish biography, which I have also just read.(Perhaps they should be read in series to balance things out a bit!) In any case, Thekla Clark's love for these two is apparent and charming, as her perception of the moralistic age in which they were forced to live. A must-read for any Audenophile or Kallmanist!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Thekla, Wystan, and Chester, January 16, 2011

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disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wystan and Chester (Paperback)

This is not biography or an essay about the titular couple, but rather more like selections from Clark's daily diary that concerned Auden and Kallman during her summers in Italy and Austria. Written in stream-of-consciousness recollections, each paragraph flits from reminscence to reminscence, with Clark as the central figure, raising her daughter and reflecting on the meaning of her marriages. Unless a reader is familiar with all the vacationers crossing paths with Clark, many of the paragraphs in this slim volume will be puzzling more than illuminating. The book may be of value to dissertation writers sifting through Audeniana for obscure name references or datelines; for general readers this will vie for longest 120-page book. The personality characteristics of Auden and Kallman come through in some of the anecdotes, while most are snapshots of 50s and 60s domestic life in Europe.