Introduction to "Alma"
That Was the Year That Was (1965)
Context: Last December 13th, there appeared in the newspapers the juiciest, spiciest, raciest obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read.
It was that of a lady named Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel, who had, in her lifetime, managed to acquire as lovers practically all of the top creative men in central Europe. And, among these lovers, who were listed in the obituary, by the way, which is what made it so interesting, there were three whom she went so far as to marry: One of the leading composers of the day, Gustav Mahler, composer of "Das Lied von der Erde" and other light classics, one of the leading architects, Walter Gropius, of the "Bauhaus" school of design, and one of the leading writers, Franz Werfel, author of the "Song of Bernadette" and other masterpieces.
It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
“I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
Richard Ames; chapter 3, p. 27
Source: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
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Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean [Episode 1]
“An autobiography is obituary in serial form with the last installment missing.”
Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 29
“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.”
“Poetry has been the longest pleasure of my life.”
“If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.”
Source: Love Is the Higher Law
Source: Invitation to Sociology (1963), Chapter 1
“I read the newspapers avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.”
Interview in The Times (29 March 1960), p. 7
1950s
