''Christopher and His Kind'' is a 1976 memoir by Anglo-American writer

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

, first printed in a 130-copy edition by

Sylvester & Orphanos Sylvester & Orphanos was a publishing house originally founded in Los Angeles by Ralph Sylvester, Stathis Orphanos and George Fisher in 1972. When Fisher moved to New York City, ''Sylvester & Orphanos'' specialized in limited-signed press books. Or ...

, then in general publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the text, Isherwood candidly expounds upon events in his life from 1929 to 1939, including his sojourn in Berlin which was the inspiration for his popular 1939 novel '' Goodbye to Berlin.''

Background

Isherwood decided late in his life that he had a moral obligation to renounce the

self-censorship Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or insti ...

that marked his early novels, specifically the excision of any hint of his homosexuality. Accordingly, in ''Christopher and His Kind'', he recounts his experiences as a young gay expatriate enticed by the liberated atmosphere of Weimar Berlin into a quest for sexual and intellectual emancipation. To earn a living Christopher offers English lessons. One of his students is Wilfrid Landauer (based on the true person of Wilfrid Israel), the wealthy Jewish owner of a department store. He entreats Christopher to take a political stand against Nazism but Christopher, as an artist, initially demurs. Herr Landauer's home is ransacked by the Nazis and they lead a boycott against his and other Jewish-owned businesses. As portrayed in the adaptation

Christopher and His Kind (film) ''Christopher and His Kind'' is a 2011 BBC television film. It tells the story of Christopher Isherwood's exploits in Berlin in the early 1930s. The film, adapted by Kevin Elyot from Isherwood's autobiography '' Christopher and His Kind'', was ...

Christopher last sees Wilfrid when their eyes sorrowfully meet over a bonfire of books the Nazis are burning. Isherwood posits that his homosexuality, far from a marginal private shame to be suppressed, was a central element in his human and creative development, an identity he cherished and shared with many others ("my tribe", "my kind") with whom he felt a special kinship. This candid autobiography was, in Isherwood's view, the way to discharge the obligation he felt due to "his kind", and thus make his own contribution to the cause of gay liberation.

Reception

In his review of Isherwood's memoir, critic Peter Stansky noted that ''Christopher and His Kind'' unmasks Isherwood as "a good deal less dedicated to political passion than the legend has had it." Stansky asserted the memoir revealed Isherwood to be a politically indifferent hedonist whose outlook on life closely resembled his fictional character of Sally Bowles. In particular, Isherwood's "remark that the 'original' of Sally Bowles 'wasn't a victim, wasn't proletarian, was a mere self-indulgent upper middle class foreign tourist who could escape from Berlin when she chose,' comes perilously close to describing his own situation."

Adaptation

A television film, '' Christopher and His Kind'', directed by Geoffrey Sax, and starring Matt Smith as Isherwood and Imogen Poots as Jean Ross, debuted in 2011.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

* 1976 non-fiction books British autobiographies Gay non-fiction books Literary autobiographies Works by Christopher Isherwood LGBT autobiographies Farrar, Straus and Giroux books LGBT literature in the United Kingdom {{LGBT-book-stub