Ask Mecha: Identify that Poet My Aunt Had An Affair With in 1950s Boho NYC. So last night I was talking with my boho auntie →[More:]and she was telling me about a famous British - maybe Irish - poet she had an affair with in NYC in the early 50s. She can't remember his name (she has mild to moderate vascular dementia from a stroke in 08 and proper nouns were one of the things that just - went) and so she told me all about him while I took notes and assured her I could find him on the computer. Only I'm coming up blank & I already used my askme question this week. THEREFORE I present to you my assorted notes to see if it rings any bells.

He is anthologized "in that famous book with all the poems." "The Oxford Book of English Verse?" I said, "Yes," she said but then you can't really rely on her and titles. His most famous poem was something about his drunken Irish mother and her shaking hands. But he's not Brendan Behan; I asked. He was probably born in the teens, since he told her a story about eating one of the queen's swans during the Depression. She was born in 29 and said he was a little older than her.

The affair happened in the early 50s; he was living in New York, married to a writer. His wife wrote a book called something like Lost in Grand Central Station which was well known at the time. She was apparently an underage babysitter in California when he met her and he ended up going to jail for a while under the Mann Act (no transporting underage women across state lines for immoral acts) which is what the book is about. They had many kids. Probably not hundreds (her grasp on numbers is also gone) but many. One of those kids grew up to be a ballet dancer in London in the 70s or 80s where she attended a party given by my aunt and her long time partner, the author Jakov Lind.

He was very sexy, very charming and bisexual - I quote, here: "All the women brought him home to meet their husbands and he would screw them both! Everyone was madly in love with him. Quite unique!"

Now I'm curious. Annie (the link is to her website; she was a fairly well known painter) was a wild woman and I'm sure the whole story is true, so, metachat, any thoughts? If we can't find it does anyone have an Askme they could spare on it? I promised I'd call my auntie today with the answer.