On February 23, 1950, a pregnant woman from Connecticut was in New York City to hear the New York Philharmonic perform Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, under the direction of Bernstein himself.
The symphony had been inspired by Wystan Hugh “W. H.” Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem “The Age of Anxiety” (1947).
As the woman rode home on the train that night, her labor pains began. She made it to the hospital just in time for the birth.
What did she name her baby girl? Auden.
Sources:
- Dempsey, David. “In and Out of Books.” New York Times 2 Apr. 1950: 184.
- Downes, Olin. “Bernstein Offers His Own Symphony.” New York Times 24 Feb. 1950: 26.