When Chester Kallman died

“…Chester Kallman’s last
days in Athens. We who
were there and do, cannot
read the dismal People magazine
prose without protest.”
—David Jackson NYR 11/5/1984

When Chester Kallman died—
In Athens, his posthumous stepmother
Dorothy Farnan gave a patchy, inaccurate
Account of his life akin to the dismal prose
People magazine publishes without protest.

Dishing somebody dead is easy—
They can’t talk back to defend themselves
About their lovers (like Auden, Yannis,
Vassilis & other young often ambidextrous
Greek males.) Words like “squandered” &

“Disposed of” by his stepmother & the
Hostile, alienated attitude of the Kallman
Family are typical of what happens when
Gay lovers are lost & who owns the estate
Inevitably, depressingly, greedily comes up.

Chester’s family didn’t attend—
His funeral in Athens, Chester didn’t
Have much to do with his family once
Wystan entered his life for many decades.
Chester’s lifestyle was unacceptable to them.

But despite that the Kallman Estate sued
The Berg Collection of the New York Public
Library to get its hands on Auden’s priceless
Papers, valuable property for the Family
And the heirs whoever they would be.

“Unfortunately Chester’s stepmother—
Wasn’t up to describing a friendship between
Two poets without belittling the life and work of
One, or courting fame and royalties through
Having known the other.” NYR 11/5/1984

“Less gush and anguish—
Than this pointless book totters beneath.
We played those songs in the living room where
Farnan wrongly credits a photograph of Chester
With Yannis Boras as having been taken by…

David Kalstone. I took that picture myself, in the
Athens house I shared with Mames Jerrill—”not his
Real name,” as Farnan loves to add. (And at least
One of her pseudonyms is delicious: “Nikos
Piraeus”—as who should say “Joe Brooklyn.”)