Related to the previous post, here is what Alan Bennett says about Auden and the contexts:

About Benjamin Britten and Kathleen Ferrier and Auden and niceness. I've often thought this paradox of badness of behviour and goodness of art. What Pablo Piacsso said of Modigiliani, a tragic fiigure, was sad and insulting (can't now recall which comment it was as there were many, spiced with envy or wicked wit, I saw a Modigliani exhibition with a very informative guide in 2014). I have often wondered how disagreeable Leo Tolstoi must have been, and how  he hated Shakespeare and criticised Chekhov.

 

 

 

This is one of my favourite topics: to be "authentic" or not? To edit or not? Is the First Version of War & Peace by Tolstoy worth publishing? (I think it is a very interesting book, though the "authentic" one is better). Does plagiarism or imitation matter? There are the twelve master plots in literature, and everyone can apply them. Does fanfiction matter? It may sometimes be the voice of the emancipated minorities, and can be a very powerful audience participation in art, homage to the original with love.  But of course if one cries havoc because they've once written a story of an orphan boy who is a witch and goes to witch school, and say it is the Source for J.K. Rowling, it may be too much to believe. Moreover, the twelve basic plots in literature: Orphan Surviving is one of them.

An Auden article on originality, and readership, among other topics: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/08/10/auden-dyers-hand-reading-writing/