auden wanted to succeed where mallory had failed. rather like the space race of the cold war, in those years every major european if power wanted to claim an ascent on a peak over 8,000 meters. in the western himalaya, it was germany's mountain of destiny. and, of course, everest -- the highest mountain in the world -- was reserved for great britain. indeed, why climb everest if not to assert great britain if's power over the power of nature to raise a mountain beyond its reach? in this way the himalayas became a proxy stage where the power and virility of a nation could be broadcast to the world. and in the case of germany, its national honor reclaimed from the indignity of its great war defeat. this is a nazi flag. but the british fantasy of conquering everest had a flipside. failure might unman the nation, strip the king emperor naked for all to see. there were four efforts to reach the summit in the 1930s, all failed. among john auden's papers, i found a letter from another himalayan explorer, the older brother of the poet steven
