Research Catalog

Title

[Autograph letter, signed, to W. H. Auden, Oct. 14, 1967, 1 leaf (2 p.)].

Author

Berlin, Isaiah, 1909-1997.

Publication

Oxford, 1967.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973.

Description

[1] sheet; 18 x 12 cm.

Subject

• Bowra, C. M. (Cecil Maurice), 1898-1971 > Anecdotes
• Silvers, Robert B
• Strachey, Lytton, 1880-1932 > Anecdotes
• Woolf, Leonard, 1880-1969 > Anecdotes
• Hudson review
• New York review of books

Note

• On All Souls College letter head, with "All Souls College: emended in black pen by Wolfson to read "Wolfson College Office."
• Berlin says that he was about to write to Auden to ask if he (Berlin) might dedicate to him an article on Verdi and Schiller which was about to appear in the Hudson Review. But he then read Auden's piece on Maurice [C. M.] Bowra in the New York Review of Books [possibly, a review of Bowra's Memories, 1898-1939 (Harvard University Press, 1967)]. Bob Silver [NYRB editor], writes, Berlin had hinted to him that "you had enjoyed yourself at my expense," but it was not till Berlin read the piece that he realized how mean-spirited Auden had been. He affirms his admiration for Auden's character and genius, as well as his great affection for him, "and I assumed our relationship to be a genuine friendship. [...] But the disdain, the irony, that gratuitous malice [...] & your tone, wounds me [...]." He therefore assumes that his intended dedication to Auden would not be welcome; he will not speak to him unless spoken to; alleges that Auden's portrayal of Bowra is as unfair to Bowra as Leon[ard] Woolf says the new book on Lytton Strachey is to Strachey.
• Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra (1898-1971), a mentor to Isaiah Berlin, was an English classical scholar and one of Britain's foremost men of letters. He served as Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and as Oxford's Vice-Chancellor from 1951-1954. He was apppointed for the academic year 1948-1949 to Harvard University's Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetry, and he was President of the British Academy from 1958-1962.

Access (note)

• Restricted access;

Call Number

Berg Coll m.b. Berlin A.l.s. to Auden, WH 1967

OCLC

822995810

Author

Berlin, Isaiah, 1909-1997.

Title

[Autograph letter, signed, to W. H. Auden, Oct. 14, 1967, 1 leaf (2 p.)].

Imprint

Oxford, 1967.

Access

Restricted access; request permission in holding division.

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Added Author

Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973. Addressee

Research Call Number

Berg Coll m.b. Berlin A.l.s. to Auden, WH 1967