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Christopher Isherwood

One of the first "out" gay writers, Christopher Isherwood was the leading author of the first wave of serious gay literature with, most notably Berlin Stories, A Single Man, and Christopher and His Kind. Born to a soldier, his father was killed in WWI and his mother settled in London to raise Christopher alone. He attended prep school and then Cambridge, where he left without finishing his degree. At prep school he had met the poet W.H. Auden and then they became re–acquainted as young (gay) men. Auden introduced Isherwood to Stephen Spender, and their social circle was born. In 1929, Isherwood rejected his middle–class background and moved to Berlin, where he could express his sexuality and artistic longings freely. His time there became the basis for Berlin Stories, which were adapted for a stage play, I Am a Camera which was in turn adapted for a Broadway musical Cabaret and then the subsequent Hollywood film of the same name. As Hitler came to power Isherwood and his compatriots fled Germany for safer ground, but not back to Britain. Isherwood decided to settle in Los Angeles where he explored Swami Prabhavananda (chronicled in My Guru and His Disciple) and Vedanta, which became, with Don Bachardy and writing, the passions of his life. He met Don on the beach on Valentines Day, 1953. With a 30–year age difference, many thought their relationship wouldn't last, Chris & Don: A Love Story tells the wonderful story. Christopher Isherwood is an essential stop on any gay man's reading list.