Background
Elizabeth Mayer was born in Germany and spent her early life in Munich. Her father had been chaplain to the Grand Duke of Mecklenberg. She studied music and was a skilled pianist.
Elizabeth Mayer was born in Germany and spent her early life in Munich. Her father had been chaplain to the Grand Duke of Mecklenberg. She studied music and was a skilled pianist.
In the 1940s her homes in Long Island and New York served as an artistic salon for many émigré writers. In collaboration with Marianne Moore she translated Adalbert Stifter"s Bergkristall (Rock Crystal 1945). Bogan and Mayer also translated ).
With West. H. Auden, she translated Goethe"s Italian Journey (1962).
She also translated Hans Graf von Lehndorff"s Token of a Covenant: Diary of an East Prussian Surgeon, 1945-1947 (1965)
She was the dedicatee and recipient of Auden"s poem New Year Letter and the book that included it, The Double Manitoba (1941). Auden regarded her the emotional equivalent of a mother, and was close to her for many years.
Near the end of her life he wrote about her (without naming her) in his poem Old People"s Home. Elizabeth Mayer is the dedicatee of the sixth section, titled "Interlude," of Britten"s "Les Illuminations," Operation
18, settings of Rimbaud for high voice and string orchestra.