American poet, librettist and translator, best known for his longtime companionship (34 years) and literary collaborations with W. H. Auden.
Chester Kallman’s father was a Manhattan dentist. His mother, a nurse, died of an embolism on 8/10/1925 when the boy was four. After his father remarried, a half-brother was born on 1/29/1929.
Chester was a brilliant, gentle and beautiful boy, 5’ 11″, blond and slender with gray-blue eyes, flawless skin and a full mouth. Educated at Brooklyn College, NY, and the University of Michigan, Kallman
published three literary works, “Elegy,” 1951, “Storm at Castle Franco,” 1956 and “Absent and Present,” 1963. In his musical poetry, he was often admired for his technical skills, his observance of meter and form and talented use of metaphors. His first love was opera and he was regarded mostly as an operatic erudite. He collaborated with Auden on works such as “The Rake’s Progress,” 1951.
When Kallman met W.H. Auden during a college interview on 4/08/1939, Auden (aged 32) fell in love with the 18-year-old immediately, and his love for him remained strong for the 34 years they shared until Auden’s death in 1973, despite the vast differences in their personalities and lifestyles. Auden called Chester his “l’ange gauche,” (an awkward divinity, half angel and half changeling). After six months residence with Auden in Italy, he spoke Italian fluently, while the straight-laced, frugal Auden in his second-hand clothes, struggled to communicate with the locals.
In July 1941, the couple ceased sleeping together after Auden learnt that Kallman was having an affair with a sailor. The extroverted and friendly, petulant and promiscuous Kallman loved cooking, ribald jokes and entertaining. His sexual penchant for “rough trade” resulted in his being bashed and robbed throughout
his life.
After Auden’s death, the distraught Chester said “I lost my criterion.” He sold Auden’s expensive Austrian house to their maid for next to nothing and squandered his money on Greek rent boys . Fifteen months later Kallman too, was dead. After years of alcohol abuse, he died in a drunken sleep in Athens on 1/18/1975, 7:45 AM, shortly before eight in the morning.
Link to Wikipedia biography