The man behind the poems …

…Thom Gunn: the poet in his letters | TheArticle. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

In his letters —recently published as The Letters of Thom Gunn, edited by Michael Nott, August Kleinzahler and Clive Wilmer (Faber, £40) — Gunn adjusted appropriately to each correspondent: matey with Ander, dutiful with the two aunts who brought him up after his mother’s death, filial with Winters, literary with the two Tonys, and rather soppy in his declarations of love for his lifetime partner and sometimes lover, the Jewish-American actor-director Mike Kitay. Gunn’s letters show his interest in rock music, movies and plays, but not classical concerts, ballet (all about saying hello) and opera (all about saying goodbye).