Editing W. H. Auden (section)

===United States and Europe, 1939–1973===
[[File:Isherwood and Auden by Carl van Vechten, 1939.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Christopher Isherwood]] (left) and W. H. Auden (right) photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 6 February 1939]]
{{anchor|Chester Kallman}}
Auden and Isherwood sailed to New York City in January 1939, entering on temporary visas. Their departure from Britain was later seen by many as a betrayal, and Auden's reputation suffered.<ref name="CarpenterNoPage"/> In April 1939, Isherwood moved to California, and he and Auden saw each other only intermittently in later years. Around this time, Auden met the poet [[Chester Kallman]], who became his lover for the next two years (Auden described their relation as a "marriage" that began with a cross-country "honeymoon" journey).<ref>{{cite book | first= Edward |last=Mendelson | author-link = Edward Mendelson | title = Later Auden
 | url= https://archive.org/details/laterauden0000mend | url-access= registration | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | location = New York | year = 1999 | page = [https://archive.org/details/laterauden0000mend/page/46 46] | isbn = 978-0-374-18408-7}}</ref>

In 1941 Kallman ended their sexual relationship because he could not accept Auden's insistence on mutual fidelity,<ref name="FarnanNoPage">{{cite book
 | first=Dorothy J. |last=Farnan | title = Auden in Love | url=https://archive.org/details/audeninlove0000farn | url-access=registration | publisher = Simon and Schuster | year = 1984 | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-671-50418-2}}</ref> but he and Auden remained companions for the rest of Auden's life, sharing houses and apartments from 1953 until Auden's death.<ref>{{cite book
 | first=Thekla|last=Clark | title = Wystan and Chester | publisher = Faber & Faber | year = 1995 | location = London | isbn = 978-0-571-17591-8}}</ref> Auden dedicated both editions of his collected poetry (1945/50 and 1966) to Isherwood and Kallman.<ref name="LaterNoPage">{{cite book
 | first=Edward|last=Mendelson | author-link = Edward Mendelson | title = Later Auden | url=https://archive.org/details/laterauden0000mend| url-access=registration| publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | year = 1999 | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-374-18408-7}}</ref>

In 1940–41 Auden lived in a house at 7 Middagh Street in [[Brooklyn Heights]], that he shared with [[Carson McCullers]], Benjamin Britten, and others, which became a famous centre of artistic life, nicknamed "[[February House]]".<ref>{{cite book| first = Sherrill| last = Tippins| title = February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America| publisher = Houghton Mifflin| location = Boston| year = 2005| isbn = 978-0-618-41911-1| url = https://archive.org/details/februaryhouse00tipp}}</ref> In 1940, Auden joined the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]], returning to the Anglican Communion he had abandoned at fifteen. His reconversion was influenced partly by what he called the "sainthood" of [[Charles Williams (UK writer)|Charles Williams]],<ref>{{cite book | editor-first=James A. |editor-last=Pike | editor-link = James Pike | title = Modern Canterbury Pilgrims | url=https://archive.org/details/moderncanterbury00pike | url-access=registration | publisher = Morehouse-Gorham | year = 1956 | location = New York | page = [https://archive.org/details/moderncanterbury00pike/page/42 42]}}</ref> whom he had met in 1937, and partly by reading [[Søren Kierkegaard]] and [[Reinhold Niebuhr]]; his [[existential]], this-worldly Christianity became a central element in his life.<ref name="Kirsch">{{cite book | first=Arthur |last=Kirsch | title = Auden and Christianity | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven | year = 2005
 | isbn = 978-0-300-10814-9}}</ref>

[[File:Auden's grave.JPG|thumb|upright|Auden's grave at Kirchstetten (Lower Austria)]]
After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Auden told the British embassy in Washington that he would return to the UK if needed. He was told that, among those his age (32), only qualified personnel were needed. In 1941–42 he taught English at the [[University of Michigan]]. He was called for the draft in the United States Army in August 1942, but was rejected on medical grounds. He had been awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for 1942–43 but did not use it, choosing instead to teach at [[Swarthmore College]] in 1942–45.<ref name="CarpenterNoPage"/>

In mid-1945, after the end of [[World War II]] in Europe, he was in Germany with the [[Strategic Bombing Survey (Europe)|US Strategic Bombing Survey]], studying the effects of Allied bombing on German morale, an experience that affected his postwar work as his visit to Spain had affected him earlier.<ref name="LaterNoPage"/> On his return, he settled in [[Manhattan]], working as a freelance writer, a lecturer at [[The New School]] for Social Research, and a visiting professor at [[Bennington College|Bennington]], [[Smith College|Smith]], and other American colleges. In 1946, he became a [[naturalised citizen]] of the US.<ref name="CarpenterNoPage"/><ref name="DNB"/>

In 1948 Auden began spending his summers in Europe, together with Chester Kallman, first in [[Ischia]], Italy, where he rented a house. Starting in 1958 he began spending his summers in [[Kirchstetten]], Austria, where he bought a farmhouse with the prize money of the ''[[Feltrinelli Prize|Premio Feltrinelli]]'' awarded to him in 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salzburg.com/nachrichten/oesterreich/kultur/sn/artikel/gedenkstaette-fuer-w-h-auden-in-kirchstetten-neu-gestaltet-164965|title=Gedenkstätte für W. H. Auden in Kirchstetten neu gestaltet|first=Salzburger|last=Nachrichten|website=salzburg.com|date=8 September 2015|access-date=30 September 2017|archive-date=26 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126054952/http://www.salzburg.com/nachrichten/oesterreich/kultur/sn/artikel/gedenkstaette-fuer-w-h-auden-in-kirchstetten-neu-gestaltet-164965/|url-status=live}}</ref> He said that he shed tears of joy at owning a home for the first time.<ref name="CarpenterNoPage"/> His later poetry, mostly written in Austria, includes his sequence "Thanksgiving for a Habitat" about his Kirchstetten home.<ref>Quinn, Justin (2013). "At Home in Italy and Austria, 1948–1973." Sharpe, Tony (ed.) ''W. H. Auden in Context.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 56–66. {{ISBN|978-0-521-19657-4}}</ref> Auden's letters and papers sent to his friend the translator Stella Musulin (1915–1996), available online, provide insights into his Austrian years.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Andorfer |first1=Peter |last2=Frühwirth |first2=Timo |last3=Mayer |first3=Sandra |last4=Mendelson |first4=Edward |last5=Neundlinger |first5=Helmut |last6=Stoxreiter |first6=Daniel |year=2022 |title=Auden Musulin Papers: A Digital Edition of W. H. Auden's Letters to Stella Musulin |url=https://amp.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/ |url-status=live |publisher=Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Austrian Academy of Sciences |access-date=11 July 2022 |archive-date=11 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711074235/https://amp.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/ }}</ref>

In 1956–61 Auden was [[Professor of Poetry]] at [[Oxford University]], where he was required to give three lectures each year. This fairly light workload allowed him to continue to spend winter in New York, where he lived at 77 [[St. Mark's Place]] in Manhattan's [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]], and to spend summer in Europe, spending only three weeks each year lecturing in Oxford. He earned his income mostly from readings and lecture tours, and by writing for ''[[The New Yorker]],'' ''[[The New York Review of Books]],'' and other magazines.<ref name="DNB" />

In 1963 Kallman left the apartment he shared in New York with Auden, and lived during the winter in Athens while continuing to spend his summers with Auden in Austria. Auden spent the winter of 1964-1965 in [[Berlin]] through an [[DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program|artist-in-residence program]] of the [[Ford Foundation]].<ref>Carpenter (1981) pp. 410-411</ref><ref>Davenport-Hines, Richard (1995). ''Auden''. London: Heinemann. pp. 314-315. {{ISBN|0-434-17507-2}}</ref>

Following some years of lobbying by his friend [[David Luke]], Auden's old college, Christ Church, in February 1972 offered him a cottage on its grounds to live in; he moved his books and other possessions from New York to Oxford in September 1972,<ref>Davenport-Hines, Richard (1995). ''Auden''. London: Heinemann. pp. 335-337. {{ISBN|0-434-17507-2}}</ref> while continuing to spend summers in Austria with Kallman. He spent only one winter in Oxford before his death in 1973.

<!-- ==Death== -->
Auden died at 66 of heart failure at the Altenburgerhof Hotel in Vienna overnight on 28–29 September 1973, a few hours after giving a reading of his poems for the Austrian Society for Literature at the [[Palais Pálffy]]. He had intended to return to Oxford the following day. He was buried on 4 October in Kirchstetten, and a memorial stone was placed in Westminster Abbey in London a year later.<ref>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Israel|last=Shrenker|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/09/30/archives/w-h-auden-dies-in-vienna-w-h-auden-dies-in-vienna-at-the-age-of-66.html?mcubz=1|title=W. H. Auden Dies in Vienna|date=30 September 1973|access-date=20 September 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-date=14 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214161853/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/09/30/archives/w-h-auden-dies-in-vienna-w-h-auden-dies-in-vienna-at-the-age-of-66.html?mcubz=1|url-status=live}}</ref>