Christopher Isherwood Brief Biography
English-American Novelist Famous for Goodbye to Berlin
Aug 13, 2009
Christopher Isherwood was and English-born novelist who is known for his gentle humorous stories often based on his own experiences. His best known books include Goodbye to Berlin, A Single Man and Christopher and His Kind.
Early years of Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood was born on August 26, 1904 in Disley, Cheshire in northern England. His father was an army captain who was killed during the First World War. He went to school at Christi College, Cambridge, with the poet W.H. Auden, his friend since childhood and with whom he had a lifelong friendship.
He left Cambridge University without a degree, studied medicine for a time, and then went to visit Auden in the German capital, Berlin.
Isherwood in Berlin
He lived and worked in Berlin for four years. In his early mid-30s he wrote about his experiences of this culturally-mixed city of Berlin in The Last of Mr. Norris (also known as Mr. Norris Changes Train,) a comedy about a charming conman, and in Goodbye to Berlin.
These stories were adapted into the 1972 musical, Cabaret, which was made into a famous film starring Liza Minelli, Michael York and Joel Grey.
Isherwood Migrates to the United States
He was a pacifist throughout the war. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Isherwood returned to England and then settled in California, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1946.
In America, he continued to write about incidents from his own life. Many of his famous literary friends appear in his books under different names, including W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Virginia Woolf.
Insights into Isherwood's Beliefs and Sexuality
Christopher Isherwood was an outspoken campaigner for an end to discrimination against homosexuals. He discussed his own homosexuality in his book Christopher and His Kind and wrote A single Man, a moving novel about a gay man whose partner dies.
He also became interested in Hindu teachings and collaborated with Swami Prabhavananda on a version of the Bhagavad-Gita. Hindu spirituality reflects most of his later works. He died in Los Angeles, California on January 4, 1986, aged 81.
"I am a camera, with the shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," said Christopher Isherwood in Goodbye to Berlin.
Works by Christopher Isherwood
- All the Conspirators, 1928
- The Memorial, 1932
- The Last of Mr. Norris, 1935
- Lions and Shadows, 1938
- Goodbye to Berlin, 1939
- The World in the Evening, 1954
- Down There on a Visit, 1962
- A Single Man, 1964
- A Meeting by the River, 1967
- Kathleen and Frank, 1971
- Christopher and His Kind, 1976
Sources:
- McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002.
- Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
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