Editing Christopher Isherwood

{{Short description|English-American novelist (1904–1986)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name          = Christopher Isherwood
| image         = Christopher Isherwood en route to China, 1938. (7893554712) (cropped1).jpg
| alt           =
| caption       = Isherwood in 1938
| pseudonym     =
| birth_name    = Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=y|1904|8|26}}
| birth_place   = [[High Lane, Manchester|High Lane]], [[Cheshire]], England
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=y|1986|1|4|1904|8|26}}
| death_place   = [[Santa Monica, California]], U.S.
| alma_mater    = [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] <br /> [[King's College London]]
| occupation    = Novelist
| citizenship   = [[British people|British]] (1904–1946) <br/> [[American nationality law|American]] (1946–1986)
| period        =
| genre         = Modernism, realism
| subject       =
| movement      =
| notableworks  =
* ''[[The Berlin Stories]]''
** ''[[Mr Norris Changes Trains]]'' (1935)
** ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'' (1939)
* ''[[A Single Man (novel)|A Single Man]]''
* ''[[Christopher and His Kind]]''
| spouse        =
| partner       = Heinz Neddermeyer (1932–1937) <br/> [[Don Bachardy]] (1953–1986)
| influences    = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        =
| signature     = Christopher Isherwood signature.svg
| signature_alt =
| website       =
| portaldisp    =
}}
'''Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood''' (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/biography.html |title=Biography |website=Isherwoodfoundation.org |access-date=3 April 2020 |archive-date=27 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627074926/http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/biography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Berg |editor-first=James J. |title=Isherwood on Writing |location=Minneapolis |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |year=2007 |page=19 |isbn=9781452912936 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-DnN-8vDmAC }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Variety Obituaries: 1905-1928 | series = [[Variety Obituaries|Obituary]] |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=15 January 1986 |isbn=9780824008444 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g3rMvgEACAAJ | last1 = Bartelt | first1 = Chuck | last2 = Bergeron | first2 = Barbara }}</ref> His best-known works include ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel which inspired the musical ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'' (1966); ''[[A Single Man (novel)|A Single Man]]'' (1964), adapted into [[A Single Man|a film]] directed by [[Tom Ford]] in 2009; and ''[[Christopher and His Kind]]'' (1976), a memoir which "carried him into the heart of the [[Gay Liberation]] movement".<ref>Katherine Bucknell and Kevin Clarke, exhibition text, "My Dearest Sweet Love: Christopher Isherwood & Don Bachardy", Schwules Museum, Berlin, 15 June – 26 August 2019</ref>

== Biography ==
=== Family ===
Isherwood was the elder son of Francis Edward Bradshaw Isherwood (1869–1915), known as Frank, a professional soldier in the [[York and Lancaster Regiment]], and Kathleen Bradshaw Isherwood, née Machell Smith (1868–1960), the only daughter of a successful wine merchant.<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Kathleen and Frank'', 2013, Vintage, p. 3.</ref> He was the grandson of John Henry Isherwood, squire of Marple Hall and [[Wyberslegh Hall]], Cheshire, and he included among his ancestors the Puritan judge [[John Bradshaw (judge)|John Bradshaw]], who signed the death warrant of [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] and served for two years as Lord President of the Council, effectively President of the English Republic.<ref>Isherwood, ''Kathleen and Frank'', 2013, Vintage, pp. 306, 309.</ref>

Isherwood's father Frank was educated at the [[University of Cambridge]] and [[Sandhurst Military Academy]], fought in the [[Boer War]], and was killed in the [[First World War]].<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, Kathleen and Frank, 2013, Vintage, p. 471.</ref> 

Isherwood's mother, Kathleen, was, through her own mother, a member of the wealthy Greene brewing family of [[Greene King]], and Isherwood was a third cousin of the novelist [[Graham Greene]], who was also related to the brewing family.<ref>Parker, ''Isherwood'', 2004, Picador, p. 54.</ref>

=== Early life and work ===
Isherwood was born in 1904 on his family's estate in [[Cheshire]] near [[Stockport]] in the north-west of England.<ref>Parker, Peter. ''Isherwood'', 2004, Picador, p. 6.</ref> 

His parents christened their first son Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood, which Isherwood simplified on becoming a [[United States citizen]] in 1946.<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, Lost Years, 2001, Vintage, p. 78.</ref> Christopher was enrolled at [[St Edmund's School, Hindhead|St. Edmund's school, Hindhead]], Surrey beginning in 1914, where he met [[W. H. Auden]] who became a life-long friend and colleague. Isherwood left for [[Repton School|Repton]], his boarding school in [[Derbyshire]] in 1918.

[[File:ReptonSchool2007.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Repton School]]
At Repton, Isherwood met his lifelong friend [[Edward Upward]], with whom he invented an imaginary English village called Mortmere, as related in his fictional autobiography, ''Lions and Shadows'' (1938).<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Lions and Shadows'', 2013, Vintage, p. 71-82.</ref> He went up to [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]], as a history scholar, but wrote jokes and limericks on his second-year [[Tripos|academic exam]] and was asked to leave without a degree in 1925.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

At Christmas 1925, he was reintroduced to a prep school friend, W. H. Auden. Through Auden, Isherwood met the younger poet [[Stephen Spender]], who printed Auden's first collection, ''Poems'' (1928).<ref>Sutherland, John, ''Stephen Spender: A Literary Life'', 2004, Oxford University Press, p. 84.</ref> Upward, Isherwood, Auden, and Spender were identified as the most exciting new literary group in England in the 1930s. Auden dubbed Isherwood the novelist in what came to be known as the [[Auden Group]] or Auden Generation.<ref>Spender, Stephen, ''World Within World'', 1966, University of California Press, p. 101</ref> With [[Cecil Day-Lewis]] and [[Louis MacNeice]], Auden and Spender later attracted the name the MacSpaunday Poets, with which Isherwood is also associated.

After leaving Cambridge, Isherwood worked as a private tutor, and then as secretary to a string quartet led by the violinist [[André Mangeot]]. During this time he completed his first novel, ''All the Conspirators'', published in 1928, about the struggle for self-determination between children and their parents. Isherwood enrolled as a medical student at [[King's College London]] in October of 1928, but he left after six months.<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Lions and Shadows'', 2013, Vintage, p. 235.</ref>

=== Sojourn in Berlin ===
In March 1929, Isherwood joined Auden in Berlin, where Auden was spending a post-graduate year. His primary motivation for making the trip was the sexual freedom that [[Weimar Republic|Weimar-era]] Berlin offered, as he later wrote: "To Christopher, Berlin meant Boys".<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Christopher And His Kind'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976, p. 2.</ref> The ten-day visit changed Isherwood's life. He began an affair with a German boy whom he met at a cellar bar called The Cosy Corner,<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, pp. 3–4.</ref> and he was "brought face to face with his tribe" at [[Magnus Hirschfeld]]'s [[Institute for Sexual Science]].<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, p. 16. See also Auden's 1929 Berlin Journal which makes clear that he and Isherwood visited Hirschfeld together and went around the museum in March / April.</ref> Isherwood visited Berlin again in July and relocated there in November.<ref>Isherwood,''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, p. 12.</ref>

{{CSS image crop|Image = Jean ross.jpg|bSize = 310|cWidth = 160|cHeight = 190|oTop = 15|oLeft = 70|Location = right|Description = [[Jean Ross]], a British expatriate and [[cabaret]] singer upon whom Isherwood based the character of Sally Bowles|Link = Jean Ross}}
In Berlin, Isherwood completed his second novel, ''The Memorial'' (1932), about the impact of the First World War on his family and his generation. He also continued his habit of keeping a diary. In his diary, he gathered raw material for ''Mr. Norris Changes Trains'' (1935), inspired by his real-life friendship with [[Gerald Hamilton]],<ref>Isherwood, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, p. 76.</ref> and for ''Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), his portrait of the city in which [[Adolf Hitler]] was rising to power — enabled by poverty, unemployment, increasing attacks on Jews and [[Communism|Communists]], and ignored by the defiant hedonism of night life in the cafés, bars, and brothels. ''Goodbye to Berlin'' included stories published in the leftist magazine ''[[New Writing]]'', and it included Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'', in which he created his most famous character, based on a young Englishwoman, [[Jean Ross]], with whom he briefly shared a flat.<ref>Isherwood, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, p. 61.</ref>

In the United States, the Berlin novels were published together as ''[[The Berlin Stories]]'' in 1945.<ref>Isherwood, Christopher, ''Diaries: Volume One: 1939–1960'', 2011, Vintage, p. 910.</ref> In 1951, ''Goodbye to Berlin'' was adapted for the New York stage by [[John van Druten]] using the title ''[[I Am a Camera]]'', taken from Isherwood's opening paragraphs.<ref>Isherwood, ''Diaries: Volume One: 1939–1960'', 2011, p. 912.</ref> The play inspired the hit Broadway musical ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'' (1966), later adapted to film as ''[[Cabaret (1972 film)|Cabaret]]'' in 1972.

In 1932, the 27-year-old Isherwood started a relationship with a 16-year-old German boy, Heinz Neddermeyer.<ref>{{cite book|last=Parker|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Parker (author)|title=Isherwood: A Life Revealed|year=2005|orig-year=2004|pages=205–206|publisher=[[Picador (imprint)|Picador]]|location=London|isbn= 978-0-330-32826-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdF2UXFgcFcC|url-access=subscription|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Isherwood, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, pp. 92–94.</ref> They fled [[Nazi Germany]] together in May 1933, traveling initially to [[Greece]]. Neddermeyer was refused entry to England in January 1934,<ref>Isherwood, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, pp. 164–166.</ref> launching an odyssey in search of a country where they could settle together. They lived in the [[Canary Islands]], [[Copenhagen]], [[Brussels]], [[Amsterdam]], and [[Sintra, Portugal]], while trying to obtain a new nationality and passport for Neddermeyer. 

In May 1937, while he and Isherwood were living in [[Luxembourg]], Neddermeyer was suddenly [[Deportation|expelled]] to Germany.  Neddermeyer was arrested the next day by the [[Gestapo]] for [[draft evasion]] and reciprocal [[masturbation|onanism]]. Neddermeyer was sentenced to three and a half years of [[Penal labour|hard labor]] and military service. He married in 1938, and the couple had one child, a son, born in 1940. Neddermeyer survived the war, and in 1956 sent Isherwood a letter asking for money to help escape [[East Germany]], which Isherwood provided. The last known contact between the two men was a note of condolence from Neddermeyer to Isherwood on the death of Isherwood's mother in 1960. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://gayhistory.wikidot.com/heinz-neddermeyer | title=Heinz Neddermeyer - Gay History Wiki }}</ref>

During this period, Isherwood returned often to London where he took his first movie-writing job, working with Viennese director [[Berthold Viertel]] on the film ''[[Little Friend (film)|Little Friend]]'' (1934).<ref>Parker, ''Isherwood'', 2004, Picador, p. 271.</ref> He collaborated with Auden on three plays: ''[[The Dog Beneath the Skin]]'' (1935), ''[[The Ascent of F6]]'' (1936), and ''[[On the Frontier]]'' (1938) – all produced by [[Robert Medley]] and [[Rupert Doone]]'s [[Group Theatre (London)|Group Theatre]]. He also worked on ''Lions and Shadows'' (1938), a fictionalized autobiography of his education — both in and out of school — in the 1920s.

In January 1938, Isherwood and Auden traveled to [[China]] to write ''[[Journey to a War]]'' (1939), about the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Sino-Japanese conflict]].<ref name="Isherwood, Christopher 2012, pp. 304, 310">Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind, 2012, Vintage, pp. 304, 310.</ref> They returned to England the following summer via the United States and decided to emigrate there in January 1939.<ref name="Isherwood, Christopher 2012, p. 326">Isherwood, ''Christopher and His Kind'', 2012, Vintage, p. 326.</ref>

=== Life in the United States ===
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1    = Isherwood and Auden by Carl van Vechten, 1939.jpg
| width1    = 190
| caption1  = Isherwood (left) and [[W. H. Auden]] (right), photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1939
| image2    = Bachardy, Donald (1934-viv.) - 1954 foto Van Vechten.jpg
| width2    = 170
| caption2  = [[Don Bachardy]] at age 19 (1954), photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]]
}}

While living in Hollywood, California, Isherwood befriended [[Truman Capote]], 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's (novella)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]''.<ref>{{cite web | title=Year with Short Novels: Breakfast at Sally Bowles' | url=http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/short-novels-breakfast-at-sally-bowles/ | magazine=[[Open Letters Monthly]] | date=1 July 2010 | access-date=12 November 2012 | author=Norton, Ingrid | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819185024/http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/short-novels-breakfast-at-sally-bowles/ | archive-date=19 August 2011 }}</ref>

Isherwood also befriended [[Dodie Smith]], a British novelist and playwright who had also moved to California, and who became one of the few people to whom Isherwood showed his work in progress.<ref name="test">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40481 "Smith &#91;married name Beesley&#93;, Dorothy Gladys &#91;Dodie&#93; (1896–1990)"], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''. Retrieved 3 March 2014.</ref>

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|Medical Corps]] also helped. 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.<ref>Bucknell (ed.), pp. 40, 77–8.</ref>

He began living with the photographer William "Bill" Caskey. In 1947, the two traveled to South America. Isherwood wrote the prose and Caskey took the photographs for a 1949 book about their journey entitled ''The Condor and the Cows''. In a 1949 letter to [[Gore Vidal]], Isherwood discussed gay relationships like his own:<ref name="ibson">{{cite book |last1=Ibson |first1=John |title=Men without Maps: Some Gay Males of the Generation before Stonewall |date=22 October 2019 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-65611-3 |page=13 |language=en}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Homosexual relationships can be and frequently are happy. Many men live together for years and share their lives and their work, just as heterosexuals do. This truth is particularly disturbing and shocking even to “liberal people,” because it cuts across the romantic, tragic notion of homosexual fate.}}

=== Meeting Don Bachardy ===
On [[Valentine's Day]] 1953, at the age of 48, he met the teenager [[Don Bachardy]] among a group of friends on the beach at [[Santa Monica]]. Reports of Bachardy's age at the time vary, but Bachardy later said: "At the time I was probably 16."<ref>The biographical film ''Chris & Don: A Love Story''.</ref> In fact, he was 18.<ref>Bachardy was born in May 1934, meaning that in February 1953 he was 18 years old.</ref> Despite the age difference, this meeting began a partnership that, though interrupted by affairs and separations, continued until Isherwood's death.<ref>Parker, ''Isherwood'', 2004.</ref>

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 Angeles]]) for several years during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The 30-year [[age disparity in sexual relationships|age difference]] between Isherwood and Bachardy raised eyebrows at the time, with Bachardy, in his own words "regarded as a sort of [[child prostitute]]",<ref>[http://amanidreamtup.blogspot.com/2008/11/first-couple-don-bachardy-and.html "The First Couple: Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood"], by [[Armistead Maupin]], ''[[The Village Voice]],'' Volume 30, Number 16, 2 July 1985.</ref> but the two became a well-known and well-established couple in [[Southern California]]n society with many Hollywood friends.
[[File:Christopher Isherwood 6 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Isherwood in 1973]]
''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 Man'', that depicted a day in the life of George, a middle-aged, gay Englishman who is a professor at a Los Angeles university.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8751943/The-Britons-who-made-their-mark-on-LA.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8751943/The-Britons-who-made-their-mark-on-LA.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Britons who made their mark on LA|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=11 September 2011|access-date=5 July 2018|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 2009.

During 1964, Isherwood collaborated with [[American literature|American writer]] [[Terry Southern]] on the screenplay for the [[Tony Richardson]] [[The Loved One (film)|film adaptation]] of ''[[The Loved One (book)|The Loved One]]'', [[Evelyn Waugh]]'s caustic satire on the [[Death care industry in the United States|American funeral industry]].

=== Final years and death ===
Isherwood and Bachardy lived together in [[Santa Monica]] for the rest of Isherwood's life. Isherwood was diagnosed with [[prostate cancer]] in 1981, and died of the disease on 4 January 1986 at his Santa Monica home, aged 81. His body was donated to medical science at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]], and his ashes were later scattered at sea.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 23105). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> Bachardy became a successful artist with an independent reputation, and his portraits of the dying Isherwood became well known after Isherwood's death.<ref>Bachardy, Don, ''Christopher Isherwood: Last Drawings'', Faber and Faber: 1990, {{ISBN|978-0571140756}}</ref>

=== Association with Vedanta ===
[[File:Swami Prabhavananda.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Swami Prabhavananda]] circa 1972]]
[[Gerald Heard]] had introduced British writer [[Aldous Huxley]] to [[Vedanta]] (Hindu-centered philosophy) and meditation. After migrating to America in 1937,<ref>Sawyer, Dana, ''Aldous Huxley: A Biography'', 2002, p. 101.</ref> Heard and Huxley became Vedantists attending functions at the [[Vedanta Society#Vedanta Society of Southern California|Vedanta Society of Southern California]], under the guidance of founder [[Swami Prabhavananda]], a monk of the [[Ramakrishna Order]] of India. Both were initiated by the Swami.<ref>Sawyer, ''Aldous Huxley: A Biography'', 2002, p. 111.</ref> Heard and Huxley introduced Isherwood to the Swami's Vedanta Society.<ref>{{cite web |last=Braubach |first=Mary Ann |url=http://huxleyonhuxley.com/about/synopsis/ |title=Huxley on Huxley |publisher=Cinedigm |date=2010 |access-date=5 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108065138/http://huxleyonhuxley.com/about/synopsis/ |archive-date=8 November 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Over time, Isherwood developed a close friendship with Huxley, with whom he sometimes collaborated. Isherwood became a dedicated Vedantist himself and was initiated by Prabhavananda, his guru.<ref name="ReferenceB">Isherwood, ''My Guru and His Disciple''.</ref>

The process of conversion to Vedanta was so intense that Isherwood was unable to write another novel between the years 1939–1945, while he immersed himself in study of the Vedanta Scriptures, even becoming a monk for a time at the Society.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="Izzo">{{cite book |last1=Izzo |first1=David Garrett |title=Christopher Isherwood: His Era, His Gang, and the Legacy of the Truly Strong Man |date=2001 |publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1570034039 |pages=163–64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPkBlBCmfbsC&pg=PA83 |access-date=1 June 2017 }}</ref> For the next 35 years, Isherwood collaborated with the Swami on translations of various Vedanta scriptures, including the [[Bhagavad Gita - Song of God|''Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God'']], writing articles for the Society's journal, and occasionally lecturing at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara temples. For many years he would come to the Hollywood temple on Wednesday nights to read the ''[[Gospel of Ramakrishna]]'' for a half an hour, then the Swami would take questions from the devotees.<ref name="Hinduism Today">{{cite web |title=Christopher Isherwood 1904–1986; Vedantist Writer/Seeker, An Inner Man of Wit, Warmth and Depth |url=https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=366 |website=Hinduism Today |publisher=Himalayan Academy |access-date=1 June 2017}}</ref>

From 1950 to 1978, Isherwood gave 53 lectures at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara Vedanta Temples. He mentions in his diaries and the book, ''My Guru and His Disciple'', that he feels unqualified to preach, so most of his lectures were readings of papers written by others, primarily Swami [[Vivekananda]]. There were a few original lectures including, ''Who Is Ramakrishna'', ''The Writer and Vedanta'', and a lecture on [[Girish Chandra Ghosh]], a householder disciple of Ramakrishna.<ref>As listed in the monthly bulletins of the Vedanta Society of Southern California.</ref>

Isherwood was also very involved in the production of the bi-monthly journal of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, ''Vedanta and the West''. From 1943 to 1945, he was Managing Editor; from 1951 to 1962, he was an editorial advisor together with [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Gerald Heard]], and additionally with [[John van Druten]] from 1951 to 1958. From 1949 to 1969, he wrote 40 articles for the journal.<ref>Vedanta and the West publication history.</ref>

=== Isherwood and war ===
Isherwood's father, Frank Bradshaw-Isherwood, was a colonel in the British Army. He was killed during World War I in the [[Battle of Ypres]], France, in May 1915, at the age of 46. Isherwood was 10 years old at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Christopher Isherwood, Whose Tales Inspired 'Cabaret,' Dies |date=1986-01-06 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411164150/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-06-me-13515-story.html |archive-date=2023-04-11 |url-status=live |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-06-me-13515-story.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Christopher Isherwood is dead at 81 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=6 January 1986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307195733/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/06/obituaries/christopher-isherwood-is-dead-at-81.html |archive-date=2023-03-07 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/06/obituaries/christopher-isherwood-is-dead-at-81.html}}</ref> His father's death "...deeply affected him, not only in his perspective of his father and how he would relate to his mother, but in his attitude towards the military and war itself."<ref>Biographical sketch the Harry Ransom archive at the University of Texas, Austin [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00061#:~:text=The%20death%20of%20Isherwood%27s%20father%20on%20May%208%2C,his%20attitude%20towards%20the%20military%20and%20war%20itself.]</ref> Isherwood's second novel, ''[[The Memorial]]'', published in 1932, describes the impact on a family from the death of the father in World War I. ''The Memorial'' was the first of what would become the trademark for Isherwood: reflecting his life experience into the plot of a novel.<ref>[https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-memorial Review of ‘’The Memorial’’] by UMN.edu.</ref>

After being asked to leave Cambridge, he lived in Berlin and witnessed the rising power of Fascism, the Nazi Party, and Hitler. Isherwood describes the times in his autobiographical novels ''[[The Berlin Stories]]''. In 1933, Isherwood fled Germany with his friend Heinz Neddermeyer seeking asylum for Heinz — who was refused entry to England. Heinz was finally arrested in May 1937 by the Gestapo for draft evasion and practicing homosexuality.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/17/reviews/000917.17thomsot.html |title=Out of Film {{!}} Christopher Isherwood's memoir of his postwar years|newspaper=The New York Times |first=David|last=Thomson|date=September 17, 2000}}</ref>

Back in London, Isherwood's sympathies were with the left, but although the [[Anti-war movement]] flourished after World War I, it was fractured into opposing ideological groups. Some wanted to join the fight in the [[Spanish Civil War]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zvkn8xs/revision/4 |title=British and French appeasement, to 1938 {{!}} Spanish Civil War |publisher=BBC {{!}} Bitesize}}</ref> others wanting to just let the Germans in{{where?|date=January 2024}}, rather than go to war{{fact|date=January 2024}}, still others advocated [[Nonviolent resistance|non-violent resistance]], all of which had the effect of weakening their political power. The fighting in Spain was savage, and "...the left tore itself apart with squabbling and paranoia. Veterans came to feel that the idealism of the cause had been exploited, and many resented being policed by shadowy Communist enforcers."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The American Soldiers of the Spanish Civil War |date=2016-04-11 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401184311/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/the-americans-soldiers-of-the-spanish-civil-war |archive-date=2023-04-01 |url-status=live |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/the-americans-soldiers-of-the-spanish-civil-war}}</ref>

In 1937, two of the largest peace groups joined forces; the [[No More War Movement]] merged into the [[Peace Pledge Union]].<ref>[[Peace Pledge Union#Attitudes) towards Nazi|Peace Pledge Union - Attitudes towards Nazi Germany]]</ref> The members attested to the following pledge: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war". Some of the leading authors and intellectuals of the time gave speeches and lent their names to the cause, including [[Gerald Heard]], [[Aldous Huxley]], and [[Bertrand Russell]].<ref name="About">{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://www.ppu.org.uk/about-us|website=www.ppu.org.uk|date=24 July 2018 |publisher=Peace Pledge Union|access-date=3 November 2018|location=[[London Borough of Camden|Camden]]}}</ref>

Inspired by [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s reporting from the Spanish Civil War, in January 1938, Isherwood and his friend [[W. H. Auden]] traveled to China to cover the invasion by Japan and wrote ''[[Journey to a War]]'' (1939).<ref name="Isherwood, Christopher 2012, pp. 304, 310"/> They returned to England the following summer via the United States and decided to emigrate there in January 1939.<ref name="Isherwood, Christopher 2012, p. 326"/> At this point Isherwood wasn't clear about his own anti-war beliefs. On the way to America, he realized he was a [[Pacifism|Pacifist]], as he would be unwilling to kill his friend Heinz, "Heinz is in the Nazi army. I wouldn't kill Heinz. Therefore I have no right to kill anybody".<ref>{{cite book |last= Isherwood |first= Christopher |date= 1996|title= Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960, Edited and Introduced by Katherine Bucknell |publisher= HarperFlamingo|page= Introduction XII|isbn= 978-0061180002}}</ref> He had lost his political faith, "I couldn't repeat the left-wing slogans which I had been repeating throughout the last few years."<ref>{{cite book |last= Isherwood |first= Christopher |date= 1980|title= My Guru and His Disciple |publisher= Farrar Straus Giroux|page= 4|isbn= 978-0-374-21702-0  }}</ref>

After moving to California, Isherwood sought "...advice from [[Gerald Heard]] and [[Aldous Huxley]] about becoming a pacifist,<ref>{{cite book |last= Isherwood |first= Christopher |date= 1996|title= Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960 |publisher= HarperFlamingo|page= Introduction XIII|isbn= 978-0061180002}}</ref> and, like them, he became a disciple of the Ramakrishna monk, [[Swami Prabhavananda]], head of the [[Vedanta Society#Vedanta Society of Southern California|Vedanta Society of Southern California]]."<ref>{{cite book |last= Isherwood |first= Christopher |date= 1996|title= Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960 |publisher= HarperFlamingo|page= Introduction XII|isbn= }}</ref> He applied for citizenship and registered as a [[Conscientious objector|Conscientious Objector]]. In Pennsylvania, he worked in a [[Quakers|Quaker]] Hostel, helping to settle European Jews who were fleeing the Nazis.<ref>[https://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/biography#:~:text=Isherwood%2C%20Upward%2C%20and%20Auden%20formed%20the%20early%20core,and%20Shadows%3A%20An%20Education%20in%20the%20Twenties%20%281938%29 Biography] at The Christopher Isherwood Foundation.</ref>

In 1944, the translation of the Hindu scripture, [[Bhagavad Gita - Song of God|''Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God'']] that the Swami and Isherwood had been working on was published. In the appendix, there is an essay by Isherwood titled [[Bhagavad Gita - Song of God#The Gita and War|''The Gita and War'']]. There Isherwood explains the Vedantic view of war and duty. The plot of the poem is that the whole of India is drawn into a great battle, and on the eve of the fight, Arjuna, the hero warrior of the [[Epic poetry|epic poem]], ''[[Mahabharata|The Mahabharata]]'', is taken between the two armies and sees friends, family, and worthy people on both sides, throws down his weapons and says, "I will not fight." The rest of the book has [[Lord Krishna]], Arjuna's friend and advisor, explaining the nature of duty. It may be, for some person, at some time, proper to refuse to fight, but if the cause is righteous, and it's your duty as a warrior to fight, it would be a moral hazard to refuse.<ref>[[Bhagavad Gita - Song of God|''Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God'']] Article on the Bhagavad Gita.</ref>

== Legacy and recognition ==
[[File:Gedenktafel Nollendorfstr 17 (Schönb) Christopher Isherwood.JPG|right|thumb|250px|Plaque, {{lang|de|[[Nollendorfplatz|Nollendorfstraße 17]]}}. Isherwood lived here between March 1929 and January/February 1933.

(The dates on the plaque are incorrect: Apart from the date of death being the 4th, not the 5th, Isherwood moved to Nollendorfstraße in December 1930 and, according to his memoirs ''[[Christopher and His Kind]]'', left three days after witnessing the May 10th 1933 [[Nazi book burnings|Nazi book burning]] at Opernplatz<ref>{{Cite book |last=Isherwood |first=Christopher |title=Christopher and His Kind |publisher=Avon Books |year=1977 |isbn=0380017954 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=128–133 |language=en}}</ref>)]]
[[File:Christopher Isherwood Berlin residence.jpg|thumb| Isherwood's Nollendorfstraße residence]]
* The house in the {{lang|de|[[Schöneberg]]}} district of Berlin where Isherwood lived bears a [[memorial plaque]] to mark his stay there between 1929 and 1933.
* Isherwood is mentioned in [[Susan Sontag]]'s ''[[Notes on "Camp"]]'' (1964): "Apart from a lazy two-page sketch in Christopher Isherwood's novel ''[[The World in the Evening]]'' (1954), [camp] has hardly broken into print."<ref>Sontag, Susan. ''Notes on "Camp".'' Penguin Random House (2018). {{ISBN|978-0241339701}}.</ref>
* The 2008 film ''[[Chris & Don|Chris & Don: A Love Story]]'' chronicled Isherwood and Bachardy's lifelong relationship.
* ''[[A Single Man (novel)|A Single Man]]'' was adapted into a film, ''[[A Single Man]]'', in 2009.
* In 2010, Isherwood's autobiography, ''[[Christopher and His Kind]]'', was adapted into [[Christopher and His Kind (film)|a television film]] by the [[BBC]], starring [[Matt Smith]] as Isherwood and directed by [[Geoffrey Sax]].<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/05_may/19/christopher.shtml |title=New BBC Two drama, Christopher And His Kind |publisher=BBC |date=19 May 2010 |access-date=28 September 2019}}</ref> The closing credits list Don Bachardy as Consultant.<ref>Film viewed on DVD, 19 July 2024.</ref> It was broadcast in France and Germany on the [[Arte]] channel in February 2011, and in Britain on [[BBC 2]] the following month. 
* The annual [[Los Angeles Times – Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose|''Los Angeles Times'' – Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose]] was established in partnership with the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' in 2016.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Christopher Isherwood Prize | website=The Christopher Isherwood Foundation | url=http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/prizes.html | access-date=27 September 2021 | archive-date=26 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926112745/http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/prizes.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Works ==

=== Fiction ===

* ''All the Conspirators'' (1928; new edition 1957 with new foreword)
* ''[[The Memorial]]'' (1932)
* ''[[Mr Norris Changes Trains]]'' (1935; U.S. edition titled ''The Last of Mr Norris'')
* "[[Sally Bowles]]" (1937; novella later included in ''Goodbye to Berlin'')
* ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Prater Violet]]'' (1945)
* ''[[The Berlin Stories]]'' (1945; collects ''[[Mr Norris Changes Trains]]'' and ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'')
* ''[[The World in the Evening]]'' (1954)
* ''[[Down There on a Visit]]'' (1962)
* ''[[A Single Man (novel)|A Single Man]]'' (1964)
* ''A Meeting by the River'' (1967)

* ''[[Frankenstein: The True Story]]'' (1973, with Don Bachardy; based on their 1973 film script)
* ''The Mortmere Stories'' (with [[Edward Upward]]) (1994)
* "[[Jacob's Hands: A Fable]]" (1997), originally co-written with [[Aldous Huxley]]

=== Autobiography, diaries and letters ===

* ''Lions and Shadows'' (1938, autobiographical fiction). Reissued: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000
* ''Kathleen and Frank'' (1971, about Isherwood's parents)
* ''[[Christopher and His Kind]]'' (1976, autobiography), 130-copy edition printed by [[Sylvester & Orphanos]], regular publication by [[Farrar, Straus, & Giroux]]
* ''My Guru and His Disciple'' (1980)
* ''October'' (1980, with Don Bachardy)

* ''Diaries: 1939–1960'', [[Katherine Bucknell]], ed. (1996)
* ''Lost Years: A Memoir 1945–1951'', [[Katherine Bucknell]], ed. (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; lectures)
* ''The Sixties: Diaries:1960–1969'' [[Katherine Bucknell]], ed. 2010
* ''Liberation: Diaries:1970–1983'' [[Katherine Bucknell]], ed. 2012
* ''The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy'', Edited by Katherine Bucknell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014)

=== Biography ===

* ''Ramakrishna and His Disciples'' (1965)

=== Plays ===

* ''[[The Dog Beneath the Skin]]'' (1935, with [[W. H. Auden]])
* ''[[The Ascent of F6]]'' (1937, with W. H. Auden)
* ''[[On the Frontier]]'' (1938, with W. H. Auden)

=== Travel ===

* ''[[Journey to a War]]'' (1939, with W. H. Auden)
* ''The Condor and the Cows'' (1949, South-American [[Travel literature|travel diary]])

=== Collections ===

* ''Exhumations'' (1966; journalism and stories)
* ''Where Joy Resides: An Isherwood Reader'' (1989; Don Bachardy and James P. White, eds.)

=== Translations ===

* {{lang|fr|[[Charles Baudelaire]]}}, ''Intimate Journals'' (1930; revised edition 1947)
* [[Bhagavad Gita - Song of God|''Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God'']] (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)

=== Writing on Vedanta ===

==== Books and pamphlets ====

* ''Vedanta for the Western World'' (1945, Marcel Rodd Co.; published in England by George Allen & Unwin, 1948; ed. and introduction, plus several contributions)
* ''Vedanta for Modern Man'' (1951, Harper & Brothers; published in England by George Allen & Unwin, 1952; ed. and contributor)
* ''What Vedanta Means to Me'' (1951, pamphlet)
* ''An Approach to Vedanta'' (1963)
* ''Essentials of Vedanta'' (1969)

==== Articles in ''Vedanta and the West'' ====

''Vedanta and the West'' (originally titled ''Voice of India'' from 1938 to 1940) was the official publication of the [[Vedanta Society#Vedanta Society of Southern California|Vedanta Society of Southern California]]. It offered essays by many of the leading intellectuals of the time and had contributions from [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Gerald Heard]], [[Alan Watts]], [[J. Krishnamurti]], [[W. Somerset Maugham]], and many others.

Isherwood wrote the following articles that appeared in ''Vedanta and the West'':
{{col-begin}}{{col-break}}
* "[[Vivekananda]] and [[Sarah Bernhardt]]" – 1943
* "On Translating the Gita" – 1944
* "Hypothesis and Belief" – 1944
* "The Gita and War" – 1944
* "What is Vedanta?" – 1944
* "[[Ramakrishna]] and Vivekananda" – 1945
* "The Problem of the Religious Novel" – 1946
* "Religion Without Prayers" – 1946
* "Foreword to a Man of Boys" – 1950
* "An Introduction" – 1951
* "What Vedanta Means to Me" – 1951
* "Who Is Ramakrishna?" – 1957
* "Ramakrishna and the Future" – 1958
* "The Home of Ramakrishna" – 1958
* "Ramakrishna: A First Chapter" – 1959
* "The Birth of Ramakrishna" – 1959
* "The Boyhood of Ramakrishna" – 1959
* "How Ramakrishna Came to Dakshineswar" – 1959
* "Early Days at Dakshineswar" – 1959
* "The Vision of Kali" – 1960
{{col-break|gap=4em}}
* "The Marriage of Ramakrishna" – 1960
* "The Coming of the Bhariravi" – 1960
* "Some Visitors to Dakshineswar" – 1960
* "Tota Puri" – 1960
* "The Writer and Vedanta" – 1961
* "Mathur" – 1961
* "Sarada and Chandra" – 1962
* "Keshab Sen" – 1962
* "The Coming of the Disciples" – 1962
* "Introduction to Vivekananda" – 1962
* "Naren" – 1963
* "The Training of Naren" – 1963
* "An Approach to Vedanta" – 1963
* The Young Monks – 1963
* "Some Great Devotees" – 1963
* "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna" – 1963
* "The Last Year" – 1964
* "The Story Continues" – 1964
* "Letters of Swami Vivekananda" – 1968
* "Essentials of Vedanta" – 1969
{{col-end}}

In 1945, sixty-eight articles from ''Vedanta and the West'' were collected in book form as ''Vedanta for the Western World''. Isherwood edited the selection and provided an introduction and three articles ("Hypothesis and Belief", "[[Vivekananda]] and [[Sarah Bernhardt]]", "The Gita and War"). Other contributors included [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Gerald Heard]], [[Swami Prabhavananda]], [[Swami Vivekananda]], and [[John Van Druten]].

== Audio and video recordings ==
* ''Christopher Isherwood reads selections from the Bhagavad Gita'' – CD<ref name="ReferenceA">CD produced by mondayMEDIA, distributed on the GemsTone label.</ref>
* ''Christopher Isherwood reads selections from the Upanishads'' – CD<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
* Lecture on ''Girish Ghosh'' – CD<ref>Lecture given in the Santa Barbara Vedanta Temple.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/girish-ghosh-r1966511 |title=Review in |website=AllMusic |access-date=4 December 2013 }}</ref>
* ''Christopher Isherwood Reads Two Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita by [[Swami Vivekananda]]'' – DVD

== See also ==
* {{Portal-inline|LGBTQ}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
* [[Peter Parker (author)|Parker, Peter]] (2004), ''Isherwood: A Life,'' Picador. {{ISBN|1509859403|978-1509859405}}
* Fryer, Jonathan (1977), ''Isherwood: A Biography'', Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company. {{ISBN|0-385-12608-5}}.

== Further reading ==
* Berg, James J. and Freeman, Chris eds, ''Isherwood in Transit'' (2020), {{ISBN|978-1-5179-0910-9}}
* Berg, James J. and Freeman, Chris eds, ''Conversations with Christopher Isherwood'' (2001)
* Berg, James J. and Freeman, Chris eds. ''The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood'' (2000)
* Finney, Brian. ''Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography'' (1979)
* Marsh, Victor. ''Mr Isherwood Changes Trains: Christopher Isherwood and the search for the 'home self'' (2010), Clouds of Magellen {{ISBN|9780980712056}}
* Page, Norman. ''Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years'' (2000)
* Prosser, Lee. ''Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me'' (2001), {{ISBN|0-595-20284-5}}
* Prosser, Lee. ''Night Tigers'' (2002), {{ISBN|0-595-21739-7}}
* {{cite journal |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3971/the-art-of-fiction-no-49-christopher-isherwood |journal=[[The Paris Review]] |issue=57 |title=Christopher Isherwood, The Art of Fiction No. 49 |date=Spring 1974 |first=W.I. |last=Scobie |volume=Spring 1974 | ref=none}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/isherwood_c.html |title=Isherwood, Christopher (1904–1986) |first=Claude J. |last=Summers |publisher=[[glbtq.com]] |access-date=6 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104004742/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/isherwood_c.html |archive-date=4 January 2015 | ref=none}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.glbtq.com/sfeatures/asingleman.html |title=''A Single Man'': Ford's Film / Isherwood's Novel |first=Claude J. |last=Summers |publisher=glbtq.com |date=1 February 2010 |access-date=6 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206190142/http://www.glbtq.com/sfeatures/asingleman.html |archive-date=6 February 2015 | ref=none}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name}}
* {{IBDB name}}
* {{iobdb name|32207}}
*[http://isherwoodfoundation.org/index.php Christopher Isherwood Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517005807/http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/index.php |date=17 May 2015 }}
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00061 Christopher Isherwood Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* Materials related to Christopher Isherwood in the [https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead/mss0481.xml Robert A. Wilson collection] held by [https://library.udel.edu/special/ Special Collections, University of Delaware]
* {{cite web |last=Braubach |first=Mary Ann |url= http://huxleyonhuxley.com/about/synopsis/ |title= Huxley on Huxley. | year = 2010 |access-date= 5 August 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141108065138/http://huxleyonhuxley.com/about/synopsis/ |archive-date= 8 November 2014 | ref = none}}
* [http://www.huntington.org/Isherwoodexhibit/Isherwoodmainpage.htm Isherwood Exhibit at the Huntington] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070125084023/http://www.huntington.org/Isherwoodexhibit/Isherwoodmainpage.htm |date=25 January 2007 }}
*[http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/I/isherwood_where.html ''Where Joy Resides''] An Isherwood Reader {{closed access}}
*[http://www.cabaret-berlin.com "Cabaret Berlin"] Information on Christopher Isherwood and the entertainment of the [[Weimar era]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061006222757/http://www.litweb.net/biogs/isherwood_christopher.html LitWeb.net: Christopher Isherwood Biography]

{{Isherwood|state=collapsed}}
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