The Isherwood Century
Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood
Edited with an Introduction by James J. Berg
and Chris Freeman
With a foreword by Armistead Maupin
Finalist for the 2001 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Studies
"The starting point for any consideration of Isherwood, his work, and his contribution to gay and lesbian arts and letters."—James Mandrell, Brandeis University
Best known for The Berlin Stories—the inspiration for the "Tony and Academy Award-winning" musical Cabaret —Christopher Isherwood has always been considered both a literary and a gay pioneer. Through twenty-four essays and interviews, The Isherwood Century offers a fresh, in-depth view of the author, his literary legacy, and his continuing influence.
In The Isherwood Century, editors James J. Berg and Chris Freeman have gathered twenty-four essays and interviews on Christopher Isherwood's life and work. The volume, the first of its kind on Isherwood, offers a fresh, in-depth view of the author, his literary legacy, and his continuing influence. Mixing critiques with personal reminiscences, The Isherwood Century includes an essay and drawings by artist Don Bachardy, Isherwood's longtime partner; recollections from celebrated authors Armistead Maupin and Edmund White; and moving memoirs by preeminent scholar Carolyn Heilbrun and noted poet Michael S. Harper. Two interviews are also published here for the first time: an interview with Isherwood conducted by Carola M. Kaplan in 1973 and Niladri Chatterjee's 1997 conversation with Don Bachardy.
“While we have known Christopher Isherwood, the character, for many years through the books in which he appears, The Isherwood Century gives us new insights about Christopher Isherwood, the man. These insights reveal his generosity and record the openness and acceptance which made such a significant impact upon those he met.”—Lisa M. Schwerdt, author of Isherwood's Fiction: The Self and Technique
"The Isherwood Century allows us to see [Isherwood’s] long and colorful life as an expression of the freedom to reinvent oneself."—Los Angeles Times
James J. Berg is the program director of the Center for Teaching and Learning for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Chris Freeman is assistant professor of English at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
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Spring 2000
312 pp., 7 b/w photos, 8 illus.
Cloth edition is out of print, but the paperback is still available.
“Isherwood was the best English prose writer of this century.”
—Gore Vidal
“A superb anthology, varied and informative. Here at last is a collection that matches my own enthusiasm for Isherwood's fiction and my own sense of his importance as an English writer. In fact, it is hard to read this book without pulling Isherwood volumes off my shelves. It is the book's triumph.”
—Lev Raphael, author of Dancing on Tisha B'av
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