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Isherwood
Born into the English landed gentry, the heir to a substantial country estate, Christopher Isherwood ended up in California, an American citizen and the disciple of a Hindu swami. En route, he became a leading writer of the 1930's generation, an unmatched chronicler of pre-Hitler Berlin, an experimental dramatist, a war reporter, a travel writer, a pacifist, a Hollywood screenwriter, a monk, and a grand old man of the emerging gay liberation movement. In this biography, the first to be written since Isherwood's death, and the only one with access to all Isherwood's papers, Peter Parker traces the long journey of a man who never felt at home wherever he lived.
Isherwood's travels were a means of escape: from his family, his class, his country, and the dead weight of the past. Parker reveals the truth about Isherwood's relationship with his war-hero father, his strong-willed mother, and his disturbed younger brother, Richard, who was also homosexual. He also draws upon a vast number of letters to describe Isherwood's complicated relationships with such lifelong friends as W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Edward Upward and John Lehmann. The result is a frank portrait of contradictions, a man searching for meaning in life, and one of the twentieth century's most significant writers.
Isherwood's travels were a means of escape: from his family, his class, his country, and the dead weight of the past. Parker reveals the truth about Isherwood's relationship with his war-hero father, his strong-willed mother, and his disturbed younger brother, Richard, who was also homosexual. He also draws upon a vast number of letters to describe Isherwood's complicated relationships with such lifelong friends as W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Edward Upward and John Lehmann. The result is a frank portrait of contradictions, a man searching for meaning in life, and one of the twentieth century's most significant writers.
356 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2004
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About the author
Peter Parker
10 books14 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Peter Parker (1954-) was born in Herefordshire and educated in the Malverns, Dorset and London. He is the author of The Old Lie: The Great War and Public-School Ethos and biographies of J.R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood. He edited the Reader’s Companion to the Twentieth-Century Novel and The Reader’s Companion to Twentieth Century Writers, and was an associate editor of The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He writes about books and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines and lives in London’s East End.
Peter Parker (1954-) was born in Herefordshire and educated in the Malverns, Dorset and London. He is the author of The Old Lie: The Great War and Public-School Ethos and biographies of J.R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood. He edited the Reader’s Companion to the Twentieth-Century Novel and The Reader’s Companion to Twentieth Century Writers, and was an associate editor of The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He writes about books and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines and lives in London’s East End.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 13, 2025
Parker does an incredible job, I appreciated how he didn't hold back from being critical of Isherwood at times, and used the huge breadth of material at his disposal to show a broad perspective. It felt like Parker was as objective as he could possibly be, the times he sided with Isherwood's mother made me laugh out loud. I hero-worshipped Isherwood in my teen years, but never before had I gotten past the character of 'Christopher Isherwood'/'Herr Issyvoo' and met Chris.
August 15, 2022
Exhaustive but exhausting. There is no denying this IS the definitive biography of a complex, fascinating author and pioneer in LGBTQ life. But I wish the book had been given to an editor with an iron hand -- one could cut a large chunk of writing in this book, yet maintain the quality presentation of Isherwood in all his warts-and-all glory, while the 20th century unfolds around him. It's the sheer quality of the scholarship that rises above the obsessively biblical length.
January 30, 2023
A very absorbing and thoroughly researched book. I learned quite a bit about Isherwood, who wrote one of my favorite books, Berlin Stories, and some of the differences between what he claimed happened in Christopher and His Kind, and what Parker shows was maybe a more likely version of true events. Sometimes the level of detail was daunting, but this is an essential resource for anyone who wants to learn about Isherwood's life.
May 15, 2018
He knows how to write a biography. Spellbounding and hats off to 12 years of work!
April 24, 2013
Reasonably well written biography that struggled to make interesting a subject that I eventually (and disappointedly) found to be somewhat dull. I was drawn to the biography by my admiration for the Berlin novels but would suggest that this would be insufficient to retain the interest of readers that are not fans of Isherwood's later work.
Want to read
April 18, 2008By the by, it cracks me up that they decided to print this in Times Roman.
March 12, 2009
This book is so long I will never finish it
December 13, 2009
This is a wonderful book -- am re-reading it before seeing A SINGLE MAN. Isherwood is my favorite writer -- almost every book of his still affects me as it did when I first discovered him.
August 2, 2011
Could have used a good editor, at 750 pages its about 25% too long. Isherwood was extremely self analyzing and the author uses that to good effect, but too much of it.
May 24, 2014
Amazingly exhaustive biography of the writer, but nothing drags.You will be amazed how fast this reads. Good illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews