GLR November-December 2024

In 1971, Isherwood came out in print for the first time, writ ing candidly about his homosexuality, tellingly enough, in a bi ography of his parents titled Kathleen and Frank . The death of W. H. Auden in 1973 prompted him to revisit his years in Berlin and write a memoir of that period in which he would make him self the central character, not just an observer, and be open about his sexuality. Christopher and His Kind , published in 1976, made Isherwood a celebrity in the increasingly visible gay com munity. As he said in his public talks, he had “found his tribe.” Despite many negative reviews, the book sold well. Katherine Bucknell was well positioned to write this new bi ography, having edited four large volumes of Isherwood’s di aries. She had access to the enormous archive of written material about Isherwood, and she interviewed both Don Bachardy—who still lives in the house they shared—and many people they knew. The result is a detailed life story and a brilliant critical study of the author’s books. Bucknell is adept at showing the origin of the books in the events of Isherwood’s life, particularly child hood experiences that stayed with him forever. This is a deeply penetrating psychological study written in direct, lucid, and graceful prose worthy of its subject. Bucknell takes us on a long journey that ends on an emo tionally shattering note. In 1986, when Isherwood lay dying in his bed at home, Bachardy cared for him and drew a new portrait of him every day, creating a diary of physical ruin. The writing had come to an end, but Bachardy’s chronicle contin ued until Isherwood’s Atman , his soul, was released from his body.

Christoher Isherwood in 1973. Photo by Allan Warren.

They found ways to express their love through the home they created together in Santa Monica and their collaboration in each other’s work. Before emigrating to America, Isherwood published several books based on his circle of English friends in which there are clear suggestions of homosexuality. But the two short novels that made him famous, Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Good bye to Berlin , were set in Berlin and derived from diaries that he kept of his daily—and nightly—life in the German capital. Pub lished in the U.S. as The Berlin Stories , they are the source of the 1951 play I Am a Camera and the 1966 musical Cabaret . Isherwood was not involved in either adaptation, but the royal ties he received from the musical and later the movie made him financially secure. In the Berlin novels, he made himself a char acter, an observing narrator who reveals little about himself, a “camera” recording the Nazis’ rise to power and the people, in cluding homosexuals, who were caught up in the cataclysm that would soon engulf them. Isherwood’s appearance in his own books became his trademark and was key to his search for au thenticity as a writer. Once in America, he again began keeping copious diaries, filled with touching self-examination, that he later mined for a steady output of novels, memoirs, and biographies. His books received mixed reviews and were never bestsellers. In 1964, he published a landmark in gay literature, A Single Man . The novel, about one day in the life of George, a closeted college profes sor whose lover has died in a car accident, stemmed from his ex periences teaching at Los Angeles area colleges and his ever-present fear that he might lose Bachardy. It is notable for the open rage that George expresses against the heterosexual world, and also for a beautiful metaphorical passage near the end of the book in which tide pools washed over by ocean waves represent individual identity subsumed into a larger con sciousness. Indirectly, Isherwood revealed here both his sexu ality and his spirituality. The novel received mixed (or negative) reviews in 1964, but he never doubted its worth, and it has since become a classic of gay literature.

Castello St. Angelo , 31 x 41 inches, acrylic on canvas ©2022 Bill Grainge

BILL GRAINGE More info at www.billgrainge.com

November–December 2024

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