On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 10:43:56 +0000, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
"I forgot to say, I'm not sure how US Immigration procedures work, but
Auden's exits to America have an almost magical quality about them.
It's almost as if he's got a fairy godmother in the State Department."
Conspiracy theorists will detect that fairy godmother's reincarnation in
the current Secretary of State, who might have celebrated his birthday
using her Hoover Institute / Stanford University connections:
"Washington, D.C. -- The National Endowment for the Arts announces All I
Have Is a Voice: A Celebration of W. H. Auden's 100th Birthday, a two-day
event to honor the legacy of poet W. H. Auden, considered one of the most
important writers of the twentieth century. Sponsored by the NEA, the
Folger Shakespeare Library, Poetry Daily Magazine, and the Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities -- Center for the Book, the event is part of
a national commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Auden's birthday on
February 21. The celebration includes discussions and readings of Auden's
work at St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville, Virginia and at the
Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC on February 26 and 27,
respectively.
"W. H. Auden was one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century," said
NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "Although born in England, he spent half his life
in the United States and died an American citizen. Few poets have ever
equaled his combination of imaginative force, musical genius, and moral
authority. It is important for his centenary to be celebrated in the
capital of his adopted country."
Both events will pay tribute to Auden's comprehensive contributions to
literature in genres ranging from poetry to theater to music. The event in
Charlottesville will feature leading Auden scholar Arthur Kirsch, professor
emeritus of English at the University of Virginia; Eavan Boland, Stanford
Creative Writing Program Director and celebrated Irish poet; and a
presentation of "Cabaret Songs," Auden poems set to music by Sir Benjamin
Britten. At the Folger Library, several poets and critics will discuss and
read their favorite Auden works, among them Christopher Hitchens, renowned
author, literary critic, and frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly,
Slate, and Vanity Fair. Hitchens will be joined by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia,
poet and scholar William Logan, and Edward Mendelson, director of the W. H.
Auden Society. The Folger presentation will conclude with a performance of
excerpts from "The Sea and the Mirror," Auden's poetic commentary on
Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest.
Among the other Auden commemorations, a February 21 event at Yale
University and a March 5 Auden tribute at the The 92nd Street YM-YWHA.
Several readings will take place in England, Auden's birthplace, in London,
Oxford, and York."
I never considered attending, and didn't send a secret agent, though a
guerrilla performance of "a gobble poem snatched from the notebooks of W.H.
Auden" by its original publisher, Ed Sanders, might have been amusing to
behold. Barry Alpert
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