WH Auden formed ‘intense friendship’ with sex worker who burgled him, unseen letters reveal
Exclusive: The newly released correspondence reveals how a strong bond developed between the Funeral Blues poet and the sex worker who broke into his homeA “once in a century” discovery...
By Philip Oltermann European culture editor · The Guardian Culture
Exclusive: The newly released correspondence reveals how a strong bond developed between the Funeral Blues poet and the sex worker who broke into his home A “once in a century” discovery of a cache of long-lost letters has revealed how the English poet WH Auden developed a deep and lasting friendship with a Viennese sex worker and car mechanic after the latter burgled the Funeral Blues author’s home and was put on trial. York-born Auden, a prominent member of a generation of 1930s writers that also included Christopher Isherwood, Louis MacNeice and Stephen Spender, described his unconventional arrangement with the man he affectionally called “Hugerl ” in the posthumously published poem Glad. Continue reading...