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February 21, 1907


W. H. Auden was born on February 21, 1907. His cats were many, and we now highlight just this domestic scene regarding the father of his lover, Chester Kallman. Auden and the elder Kallman parted ways after the old man, deaf by then, accidentally banged a door. The door was not the one Auden was trying to coax a homeless kitten through, but the sound made the kitten run away. Auden lost his temper, and this incident seems to have been a major one in the annals of his in-laws. The way the story is told by one participant is that "it was just an alley cat."

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