Profession: poet

W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden

poet, critic, playwright

1907 (York, England) – 1973 (Vienna)

Isherwood (first met at at school, when Auden was eleven) was a long-time friend and collaborator, and his lover when they emigrated to the U.S. MacNeice and Eliot helped him get work published; Spender, Day-Lewis, Ashbery and Schuyler were among other poet friends. Britten, Bowles, McCullers, Mann (and Gipsy Rose Lee) were all co-tenants with Auden of a house in Brooklyn, and Arendt (who took his photo) part of a wider circle of friends. He wrote or co-wrote libretti for Stravinsky, Britten and Henze, and corresponded at length with Tolkien.

W. H. Auden knew…

Victor Hugo

poet, novelist, playwright

1802 (Besançon, France) – 1885 (Paris)

Heine, Delacroix and Hugo frequented the same literary/artistic salons. Berlioz became a friend after reading ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ and writing to him. Hugo contributed to Dumas’ journal; Dumas dedicated a play to him. He encouraged Gautier (introduced by Nerval) to write. Sainte-Beuve, a friend, cuckolded him. Andersen, never close, visited him across thirty years; with Balzac too the relationship was of mutual respect, Hugo visiting Balzac on his deathbed. His badly cooked macaroni led Mérimée to invite him home and show him how it should really be done. Nadar, a friend for many years, visited him as he lay dying.

Victor Hugo knew…

Thomas Blacklock

poet

1721 (Annan, Scotland) – 1791 (Edinburgh)

Hume made over his librarian’s salary to the blind Blacklock, describing him however, after a later falling-out, as “bigoted.” Blacklock was among the first to acknowledge Burns’ genius, and in a famous letter halted the disappointed Burns as he was about to emigrate to Jamaica. He offered the young Walter Scott the free run of his library, and called Smellie his “good old friend”. Johnson breakfasted with him on his return from the Western Isles, held his hand, and is said to have drunk 19 cups of tea while talking reverently with him. Few online resources do justice to Blacklock.

Thomas Blacklock knew…

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot

poet, critic, playwright, publisher

1888 (St. Louis, Mo.) – 1965 (London)

Russell taught Eliot, became a close friend, and seemingly slept with his wife. Pound helped get his early work published, named him “Old Possum”, and was ‘The Waste Land’s dedicatee. Woolf published his second book and recognised that his poetry came out of his torments. The young Betjeman was one of his pupils. Alain-Fournier taught him French, Stravinsky was a friend and collaborator, and Lewis, his stern critic, ended up a friend. Marx visited Eliot in London, and Lowell described him “dashingly dancing.” Eliot published Auden, Spender, MacNeice and Muir, but turned down a long poem by MacDiarmid as uncommercial.

T. S. Eliot knew…

Stéphane Mallarmé

poet, critic

1842 (Paris) – 1898 (Valvins, France)

Villiers was a close friend, and Manet (who painted Mallarmé’s portrait and illustrated several of his poems) especially dear. Proust, Valéry, Yeats, Rilke, Verlaine, Gide, Louÿs and George were all visitors at Mallarmé’s Tuesday salons. He dined regularly with Morisot, was asked advice by Huysmans on ‘À rebours’, commiserated with Rodin and spoke at Verlaine’s funeral. Degas photographed Renoir and Mallarmé together, Redon was a neighbour and Vuillard a visitor. Mallarmé thought Debussy’s work based on his own was sublime, and told Whistler (who’d warned him by telegram) that his evening with Wilde had in fact been rather dull.

Stéphane Mallarmé knew…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

poet, critic

1772 (Ottery St. Mary, England) – 1834 (London)

Charles Lamb was a friend from schooldays, his sister Mary becoming Coleridge’s confidante. Coleridge and Southey shared ideals as young poets, wrote a play together, and planned a utopian community in the U.S. De Quincey was their Lakeland neighbour. Wedgwood and his brother supported Coleridge financially, Davy gave him laughing-gas – Coleridge said Davy’s lectures extended his stock of metaphors. Allston, a lifelong friend, introduced Morse to him. Coleridge and Wordsworth met Klopstock in Hamburg, on their way to a miserable winter in the Harz. Clare thought Coleridge’s conversation over-rehearsed, but his eloquently barbed lines appear on his former friend Hazlitt’s tomb.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew…

Samuel Beckett

dramatist, novelist, poet

1906 (Dublin) – 1989 (Paris)

Beckett assisted Joyce (a strong influence) on ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ but distanced himself following Joyce’s daughter’s infatuation; Joyce also introduced him to Pound. He met Duchamp and Giacometti at the same time, and encountered Stravinsky on a voyage to Amsterdam. His publisher Calder played chess and billiards with him in Paris bars. Bion was Beckett’s psychoanalyst, de Beauvoir at one point his landlady. He bought a painting on credit from his friend Yeats, hid at Sarraute’s during a resistance roundup, and bailed Behan out of prison. He corresponded admiringly with O’Casey, despite never meeting, but his letter to Eisenstein never arrived

Samuel Beckett knew…

Robert Southey

writer, poet

1774 (Bristol, England) – 1843 (Keswick)

Southey and Coleridge met as young poets with shared ideals. They married two sisters, wrote a play together and dreamed about a utopian community in America (or else Wales), where the men would be tended by ‘mild and lovely’ women. The Wordsworths and de Quincey were their neighbours in the Lake District; Shelley also visited, but soon moved on. Southey took laughing-gas with his friend Davy and corresponded with Scott. He met Telford through a mutual friend, and accompanied him for several weeks on a tour of engineering works in the Scottish Highlands, writing a poem about the Caledonian Canal.

Robert Southey knew…

Robert Desnos

poet

1900 (Paris) – 1945 (Theresienstadt, now Terezin, Czech Republic)

Desnos befriended Limbour, Péret and Vitrac, but while they engaged in Dada activities, he was still doing military service. Breton said he embodied the true spirit of literary surrealism, and collaborated on a play with him and Péret. Bataille published his writing after Breton (characteristically) excluded him from the official surrealist group. Milhaud and Honegger set his words to music. Desnos claimed Duchamp’s alter ego had dictated his 199 puns, and intervened to get Artaud given ECT treatment. Barrault wrote to him when he was a prisoner of the Nazis in Buchenwald, en route to Terezin, where he died of typhoid.

Robert Desnos knew…

Robert Creeley

poet

1926 (Arlington, Mass.) – 2005 (Odessa, Tex.)

Creeley met Koch at Harvard, and wrote to Pound, Williams and Zukofsky for contributions to a magazine (they all became friends and influences). He and Olson corresponded daily for four years before meeting (Olson then invited him to teach at Black Mountain). He met Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Snyder and Rexroth when he moved to California, and Levertov in Provence. Pollock was a friend. He typed out ‘Howl’ for Ginsberg, met de Kooning regularly at the Cedar bar in New York, and collaborated with Dine, Katz and Chamberlain. Ashbery, Myles and Baraka were all good friends.

Robert Creeley knew…