Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an English-American novelist.
Early life and work
Born at Wyberslegh Hall,
High LaneHigh Lane is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Historically within Cheshire, it is five miles from Stockport, on the Macclesfield Canal. It has a population of 5852.-Governance:...
, Cheshire in
North West EnglandNorth West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, was stationed. After his father was killed in the First World War, he settled with his mother and his younger brother, Richard, in London and at Wyberslegh.
Isherwood attended
preparatory schoolIn English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
,
St. Edmund'sSt. Edmund's School is a coeducational nursery, pre-prep and preparatory school originally founded in Hunstanton, Norfolk, England in 1874, and subsequently moved to Hindhead, Surrey, England in 1900, where the school moved into a large country house named Blen Cathra, previously a home of George...
, Surrey, where he first met
W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
. At
Repton SchoolRepton School, founded in 1557, is a co-educational English independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the British public school tradition, located in the village of Repton, in Derbyshire, in the Midlands area of England...
he met his lifelong friend
Edward UpwardEdward Falaise Upward was a British novelist and short story writer and, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author.-Biography:...
, with whom he wrote the extravagant "Mortmere" stories, of which one was published during his lifetime, a few others appeared after his death, and others he summarised in
Lions and Shadows. He deliberately failed his
triposThe University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelor's degree by Tripos , plural Triposes. The word has an obscure etymology, but may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations...
and left
Corpus Christi College, CambridgeCorpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
without a degree in 1925. For the next few years he lived with violinist André Mangeot, worked as secretary to Mangeot's string quartet and studied medicine. During this time he wrote a book of nonsense poems,
People One Ought to Know, with illustrations by Mangeot's eleven-year-old son, Sylvain. It was not published until 1982.
In 1925 he was reintroduced to
W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
and became his literary mentor and partner in an intermittent, casual liaison. Auden sent his poems to Isherwood for comment and approval. Through Auden, Isherwood met
Stephen SpenderSir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
, with whom he later spent much time in Germany. His first novel,
All the Conspirators, appeared in 1928. It was an anti-heroic story, written in a pastiche of many modernist novelists, about a young man who is defeated by his mother. In 1928–29 Isherwood studied medicine at
King's College LondonKing's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, but gave up his studies after six months to join Auden for a few weeks in Berlin.
Rejecting his
upper middle classThe upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
background and attracted to males, he remained in Berlin, the capital of the young
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, drawn by its reputation for sexual freedom. There, he "fully indulged his
taste for pretty youthsEphebophilia is the sexual preference of adults for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and has been more recently revisited by Ray Blanchard. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed...
. He went to Berlin in search of boys and found one called Heinz, who became his first great love." Commenting on
John Henry Mackay'sJohn Henry Mackay was an individualist anarchist, thinker and writer. Born in Scotland and raised in Germany, Mackay was the author of Die Anarchisten and Der Freiheitsucher . Mackay was published in the United States in his friend Benjamin Tucker's magazine, Liberty...
Der Puppenjunge (
The Hustler), Isherwood wrote: "It gives a picture of the Berlin sexual underworld early in this century which I know, from my own experience, to be authentic."
In 1931 he met Jean Ross, the inspiration for his fictional character,
Sally BowlesSally Bowles is a fictional character created by Christopher Isherwood. She originally appeared in Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles published by Hogarth Press. The story was later republished in the novel Goodbye to Berlin...
. He also met
Gerald HamiltonGerald Bernard Francis Hamilton was a memoirist, critic and internationalist.-Life:Born in Shanghai in the 1880s, but educated at England's Rugby School, he counted amongst his friends such notables as Winston Churchill, Aleister Crowley, Robin Maugham, Tallulah Bankhead and Christopher Isherwood,...
, the inspiration for the fictional Mr Norris. In September 1931 the poet
William PlomerWilliam Charles Franklyn Plomer CBE was a South African author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. He was educated mostly in the United Kingdom...
introduced him to
E. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
. They became close and Forster served as his mentor. Isherwood's second novel,
The Memorial (1932), was another story of conflict between mother and son, based closely on his own family history. During one of his return trips to London he worked with the director
Berthold ViertelBerthold Viertel , born in Vienna, Austria was a screen writer and film director.-Arrival in America:He was married to screenplay writer and actress Salka Viertel from 30 April 1918 to 20 December 1947. The pair came to Los Angeles in 1928 planning to stay for just three years...
on the film
Little Friend, an experience that became the basis of his novel
Prater VioletPrater Violet is Christopher Isherwood's fictional first person account of film-making. The Prater is a large park and amusement park in Vienna, a city important to characters in the novel for several reasons. Though Isherwood broke onto the literary scene as a novelist, he eventually worked in...
(1945). He worked as a private tutor in Berlin and elsewhere while writing the novel
Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and a short novel called
Goodbye to BerlinGoodbye to Berlin is a 1939 short novel by Christopher Isherwood set in pre-Nazi Germany. It is often published together with Mr Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.-Details:...
(1939) (often published together in a collection called
The Berlin StoriesThe Berlin Stories is a book consisting of two short novels by Christopher Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains. It was published in 1945....
). These works provided the inspiration for the play
I Am a CameraI Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play inspired by Christopher Isherwood's novel Goodbye to Berlin which is part of The Berlin Stories...
(1951), the 1955 film
I Am a Camera (both starring
Julie HarrisJulia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
), the Broadway musical
CabaretCabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
(1966) and the
filmCabaret is a 1972 musical film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing National Socialist Party....
(1972) of the same name. In 1932 he met and fell in love with a young German man named Heinz Neddermeyer.
After leaving Berlin in 1933, he and Heinz moved around Europe, and lived in
CopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
,
SintraSintra is a town within the municipality of Sintra in the Grande Lisboa subregion of Portugal. Owing to its 19th century Romantic architecture and landscapes, becoming a major tourist centre, visited by many day-trippers who travel from the urbanized suburbs and capital of Lisbon.In addition to...
and elsewhere. Heinz was arrested as a draft-evader in 1937 following his brief return to Germany after he was ejected from Luxembourg as an "undesirable alien". Convicted of "reciprocal onanism", he was sentenced to six months in prison, a year of state labour and two years of compulsory military service. Isherwood collaborated on three plays with Auden:
The Dog Beneath the SkinThe Dog Beneath the Skin, or Where is Francis? A Play in Three Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the first Auden-Isherwood collaboration and an important contribution to English poetic drama in the 1930s...
(1935),
The Ascent of F6The Ascent of F6: A Tragedy in Two Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the second play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1936...
(1936), and
On the FrontierOn the Frontier: A Melodrama in Two Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the third and last play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1938....
(1939). Isherwood wrote a lightly fictionalised autobiographical account of his childhood and youth,
Lions and Shadows (1938), using the title of an abandoned novel. Auden and Isherwood travelled to China in 1938 to gather material for their book on the
Sino-Japanese WarThe Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
called
Journey to a WarJourney to a War is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939.The book is in three parts: a series of poems by Auden describing his and Isherwood's journey to China in 1938 ; a "Travel-Diary" by Isherwood about their travels in China itself, and...
(1939).
Life in the United States
After visiting New York on their way back to Britain, in January 1939, Auden and Isherwood decided to emigrate to the United States. Their emigration happened just months before Britain entered the Second World War, and exposed them to charges that they lacked patriotism and commitment to the war effort. After a few months with Auden in New York, Isherwood settled in Hollywood, California.
During this period, Isherwood also befriended
Truman CapoteTruman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, an up-and-coming young writer who would be influenced by Isherwood's
Berlin Stories, most specifically in the traces of the story "Sally Bowles" that surface in Capote's famed novella,
Breakfast at Tiffany'sBreakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...
. Isherwood also met
Gerald HeardHenry Fitzgerald Heard commonly called Gerald Heard was an historian, science writer, educator, and philosopher. He wrote many articles and over 35 books....
, the mystic-historian who founded his own monastery at Trabuco Canyon that was eventually donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Through Heard, who was the first to discover
Swami PrabhavanandaSwami Prabhavananda was an Indian philosopher, monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and religious teacher.-Biography:...
and
VedantaVedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
, Isherwood joined an extraordinary band of mystic explorers that included
Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
,
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Chris Wood (Heard's lifelong friend), John Yale and
J. KrishnamurtiJiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
. He embraced
VedantaVedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
, and, together with Swami Prabhavananda, he produced several
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
scriptural translations, Vedanta essays, the biography
Ramakrishna and His Disciples, novels, all imbued with the themes and character of Vedanta and the Upanishadic quest. Through Huxley, Isherwood befriended the Russian composer
Igor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
.
A chance encounter in a Los Angeles bookstore with the fantasy writer
Ray BradburyRay Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
led to a favourable review of
The Martian ChroniclesThe Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction short story collection by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists...
, which boosted Bradbury's career and helped to form a friendship between the two men.
Isherwood considered becoming an American citizen in 1945 but balked at taking an oath that included the statement that he would defend the country. The next year he applied for citizenship and answered questions honestly, saying he would accept non-combatant duties like loading ships with food. The fact that he had volunteered for service with the Medical Corps helped as well. At the naturalisation ceremony, he found he was required to swear to defend the nation and decided to take the oath since he had already stated his objections and reservations. He became an American citizen on 8 November 1946.
He began living with the photographer William "Bill" Caskey. In 1947 the two travelled to South America. Isherwood wrote the prose and Caskey took the photographs for a 1949 book about their journey,
The Condor and the Cows.
On
Valentine's DaySaint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
1953, at the age of 48, he met teenaged
Don BachardyDonald Jess "Don" Bachardy is an American portrait artist. He resides in Santa Monica, California.- Life and work :Born in Los Angeles, California, Bachardy was the life partner of writer Christopher Isherwood, whom he met on Valentine's Day 1953, when he was 18 and Isherwood was 48. They...
among a group of friends on the beach at
Santa MonicaSanta Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
. Reports of Bachardy's age at the time vary, but Bachardy later said "at the time I was, probably, 16." In fact, Bachardy was 18. Despite the age difference, this meeting began a partnership that, though interrupted by affairs and separations, continued until the end of Isherwood's life.
During the early months of their affair, Isherwood finished—and Bachardy typed—the novel on which he had worked for some years,
The World in the Evening (1954). Isherwood also taught a course on modern English literature at Los Angeles State College (now
California State University, Los AngelesCalifornia State University, Los Angeles is a public comprehensive university, part of the California State University system...
) for several years during the 1950s and early 1960s.
The 30-year
age differenceAge disparity in sexual relationships refers to sexual relations between people with a significant difference in age. Whether these relationships are accepted and the question of what counts as a significant difference in age has varied over time; and varies over cultures, different legal systems,...
between Isherwood and Bachardy raised eyebrows at the time, with Bachardy, in his own words, "regarded as a sort of child prostitute", but the two became a well-known and well-established couple in
Southern CaliforniaSouthern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
n society with many Hollywood friends.
Down There on a Visit, a novel published in 1962, comprised four related stories that overlap the period covered in his Berlin stories. In the opinion of many reviewers, Isherwood's finest achievement was his 1964 novel
A Single ManA Single Man is a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood.Set in Southern California during 1962, it depicts one day in the life of George, a middle-aged, gay Englishman who is a professor at a Los Angeles university....
, that depicted a day in the life of George, a middle-aged, gay Englishman who is a professor at a Los Angeles university. During 1964 Isherwood collaborated with American writer
Terry SouthernTerry Southern was an American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style...
on the screenplay for the
Tony RichardsonCecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
film adaptation of
The Loved OneThe Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy is a short satirical novel by British novelist Evelyn Waugh about the funeral business in Los Angeles, the British expatriate community in Hollywood, and the film industry.-Conception:...
,
Evelyn Waugh'sArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
caustic satire on the American funeral industry.
Isherwood and Bachardy lived together in
Santa MonicaSanta Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
for the rest of Isherwood's life. Bachardy became a successful
draughtsmanA draughtsman or draftsman , is a person skilled in drawing, either:*drawing for artistic purposes, or*technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering...
with an independent reputation, and his portraits of the dying Isherwood became well known after Isherwood's death.
Isherwood died at age 81 in 1986 in
Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
from
prostate cancerProstate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
. His body was donated to medical science, specifically to the UCLA Medical School.
Later recognition
The house in the
SchönebergSchöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....
district of Berlin where Isherwood lived bears a memorial plaque to mark his stay there between 1929 and 1933.
The 2008 film
Chris & Don: A Love StoryChris & Don: A Love Story is a 2008 documentary film that chronicles the life-long relationship between author Christopher Isherwood and his much younger lover, artist Don Bachardy. Chris & Don combines present-day interviews, archival footage shot by the couple from the 1950s, excerpts from...
chronicled Isherwood and Bachardy's lifelong relationship.
A Single Man was adapted into a
film of the same nameA Single Man is a 2009 drama film based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is the first film directed by Tom Ford. The film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George Falconer, a depressed gay British university...
in 2009.
In 2010 Isherwood's autobiography,
Christopher and His KindChristopher and His Kind is a 1976 memoir by the British author Christopher Isherwood, covering the period 1929 to 1939 and principally covering his years in Berlin. Isherwood's real-life experiences during this period formed the basis of his novel Goodbye to Berlin.It was adapted for television in...
, was adapted into
a television filmChristopher and His Kind is a 2011 BBC television film. It tells the story of Christopher Isherwood's life in Berlin in the early 1930s. The film was adapted by Kevin Elyot from Isherwood's autobiography of the same title, produced by Mammoth Screen and directed by Geoffrey Sax...
by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, starring Matt Smith as Isherwood and directed by
Geoffrey SaxGeoffrey Sax is a British film and television director, who has worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and popular drama productions in both the UK and the United States....
. It was broadcast in France and Germany on the
ArteArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
channel in February 2011, and in the UK on BBC 2 the following month.
List of works
- All the Conspirators (1928; new edition 1957 with new foreword)
- The Memorial
The Memorial is a 1932 English novel by author Christopher Isherwood. The novel tells the story of an English family's disintegration in the days following World War I. Isherwood's second published novel, this is the first of his works for which he adapted his own life experiences into his fiction....
(1932)
- Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935; U.S. edition titled The Last of Mr Norris)
- The Dog Beneath the Skin
The Dog Beneath the Skin, or Where is Francis? A Play in Three Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the first Auden-Isherwood collaboration and an important contribution to English poetic drama in the 1930s...
(1935, with W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
)
- The Ascent of F6
The Ascent of F6: A Tragedy in Two Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the second play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1936...
(1937, with W.H. Auden)
- Sally Bowles (1937; later included in Goodbye to Berlin)
- On the Frontier
On the Frontier: A Melodrama in Two Acts, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the third and last play in the Auden-Isherwood collaboration, first published in 1938....
(1938, with W.H. Auden)
- Lions and Shadows (1938, autobiography)
- Goodbye to Berlin
Goodbye to Berlin is a 1939 short novel by Christopher Isherwood set in pre-Nazi Germany. It is often published together with Mr Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.-Details:...
(1939)
- Journey to a War
Journey to a War is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939.The book is in three parts: a series of poems by Auden describing his and Isherwood's journey to China in 1938 ; a "Travel-Diary" by Isherwood about their travels in China itself, and...
(1939, with W.H. Auden)
- Prater Violet
Prater Violet is Christopher Isherwood's fictional first person account of film-making. The Prater is a large park and amusement park in Vienna, a city important to characters in the novel for several reasons. Though Isherwood broke onto the literary scene as a novelist, he eventually worked in...
(1945)
- The Berlin Stories
The Berlin Stories is a book consisting of two short novels by Christopher Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains. It was published in 1945....
(1945; contains Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to BerlinGoodbye to Berlin is a 1939 short novel by Christopher Isherwood set in pre-Nazi Germany. It is often published together with Mr Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.-Details:...
; reissued as The Berlin of Sally Bowles, 1975)
- Vedanta for the Western World (Unwin Books, London, 1948, ed. and contributor)
- The Condor and the Cows (1949, South-American travel diary)
- What Vedanta Means to Me (1951, pamphlet)
- The World in the Evening
Christopher Isherwood writes another quasi-fictional account of love, loss, and regret in The World in the Evening. As in many Isherwood novels, the main character of World... is caught in a contest between his personal egoism and the needs of friends and lovers...
(1954)
- Down There on a Visit
Down There on a visit is the 1962 novel from English author Christopher Isherwood.Through his political advocacy and the literary success of his friends, Auden and Spender, Christopher Isherwood became something of a literary rockstar...
(1962)
- An Approach to Vedanta (1963)
- A Single Man
A Single Man is a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood.Set in Southern California during 1962, it depicts one day in the life of George, a middle-aged, gay Englishman who is a professor at a Los Angeles university....
(1964)
- Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965)
- Exhumations (1966; journalism and stories)
- A Meeting by the River (1967)
- Essentials of Vedanta (1969)
- Kathleen and Frank (1971, about Isherwood's parents)
- Frankenstein: The True Story (1973, with Don Bachardy; based on their 1973 filmscript)
- Christopher and His Kind
Christopher and His Kind is a 1976 memoir by the British author Christopher Isherwood, covering the period 1929 to 1939 and principally covering his years in Berlin. Isherwood's real-life experiences during this period formed the basis of his novel Goodbye to Berlin.It was adapted for television in...
(1976, autobiography)
- My Guru and His Disciple (1980)
- October (1980, with Don Bachardy)
- The Mortmere Stories (with Edward Upward
Edward Falaise Upward was a British novelist and short story writer and, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author.-Biography:...
) (1994)
- Where Joy Resides: An Isherwood Reader (1989; Don Bachardy and James P. White, eds.)
- Diaries: 1939–1960, Katherine Bucknell
Katherine Bucknell, American scholar and novelist who resides in England.Katherine Bucknell is the editor of W. H. Auden's Juvenilia and of three volumes of the diaries of Christopher Isherwood....
, ed. (1996)
- Jacob's Hands: A Fable (1997) originally co-written with Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
- Lost Years: A Memoir 1945–1951, Katherine Bucknell
Katherine Bucknell, American scholar and novelist who resides in England.Katherine Bucknell is the editor of W. H. Auden's Juvenilia and of three volumes of the diaries of Christopher Isherwood....
, ed. (2000)
- Lions and Shadows (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000)
- Kathleen and Christopher, Lisa Colletta, ed. (Letters to his mother, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press], 2005)
- Isherwood on Writing (University of Minnesota Press, 2007)
Translations:
- Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, Intimate Journals (1930; revised edition 1947)
- The Song of God: Bhagavad-Gita (with Swami Prabhavananda, 1944)
- Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination (with Swami Prabhavananda, 1947)
- How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (with Swami Prabhavananda, 1953)
Work on Vedanta and the West
Vedanta and the West was the official publication of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. It offered essays by many of the leading intellectuals of the time and had contributions from
Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
,
Gerald HeardHenry Fitzgerald Heard commonly called Gerald Heard was an historian, science writer, educator, and philosopher. He wrote many articles and over 35 books....
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Alan WattsAlan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York...
, J. Krishnamurti,
W. Somerset MaughamWilliam Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, and many others.
Isherwood was Managing Editor from 1943 until 1945. Together with Huxley and Heard, he served on the Editorial Advisory Board from 1951 until 1962.
Isherwood wrote the following articles that appeared in
Vedanta and the West:
Further reading
- Christopher Isherwood, The Lost Years 1945–1951
- J. J. Berg & C. Freeman, eds., Conversations with Christopher Isherwood (2001)
- Brian Finney, Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography (1979)
- James J. Berg and Chris Freeman, eds., The Isherwood century: essays on the life and work of Christopher Isherwood (2000)
- Norman Page, Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years (2000)
- Peter Parker, Isherwood: A Life (2004)
- Lee Prosser, Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me (2001) ISBN 0-595-20284-5
- Lee Prosser, Night Tigers (2002) ISBN 0-595-21739-7
External links