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The Last Word: An Autobiography
The Last Word is the third and final installment of Quentin Crisp's autobiography. The Last Word was written by Crisp with the help of his best friend, Phillip Ward, who tape-recorded and later transcribed Quentin’s words between 1997-1999. The Last Word was published on November 21, 2017, the eighteen-year anniversary of Crisp's passing.
- GenresAutobiographyMemoir
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 7, 2017
27 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Quentin Crisp
34 books120 followersQuentin Crisp, born Denis Charles Pratt, was an English writer, artist's model, actor and raconteur known for his memorable and insightful witticisms. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, brought to the attention of the general public his defiant exhibitionism and longstanding refusal to remain in the closet.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 3, 2023
Very emotional read on his final days and memories of childhood and coming to live in America there will never be anyone quite like him RIP and as Sting says “I’m a legal alien, I’m an Englishman in New York”
May 18, 2018
The Last Word is a rambling and deeply morbid series of monologues recorded a few months before Mr. Crisp died. Most readers will have heard the bon mots before, and in more polished form, but there are a few surprising revelations about his personal life.
July 14, 2020
Utterly delightfully, if a bit sad, but that is to be expected.
Quentin Crisp (along with Captain James Kirk and Bugs Bunny) is one of my absolute heroes. Throughout his life he was utterly and unashamedly HIMSELF which is not a thing I think that you can say about many people, much less a homosexual man born in England in 1908. Though in truth, he realized - at the age of ninety! - that he was not homosexual at all, but in fact trans.
Quentin famously never said no to practically anything his life, and his previous books were written at the request of others. Tellingly this the only book he ever wrote that he himself decided he wanted to write. It is the story of someone who had seen a great deal in life and wanted to have, indeed, his last word on it.
Honestly if you have any interest in reading this at all you should absolutely read The Naked Civil Servant first, and probably How To Become a Virgin as well, being that they tell first his life before becoming famous (or rather, infamous as he would have it) and subsequently his life afterwards. Also his one man show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp.
I don't know what else to say, except that there is a deep satisfaction in seeing someone get to say precisely what they wanted, right to the end.
"If I am rich," he has said "it is because I take my wages in people." Quentin loved people. And I would say he died a very rich man.
Quentin Crisp (along with Captain James Kirk and Bugs Bunny) is one of my absolute heroes. Throughout his life he was utterly and unashamedly HIMSELF which is not a thing I think that you can say about many people, much less a homosexual man born in England in 1908. Though in truth, he realized - at the age of ninety! - that he was not homosexual at all, but in fact trans.
Quentin famously never said no to practically anything his life, and his previous books were written at the request of others. Tellingly this the only book he ever wrote that he himself decided he wanted to write. It is the story of someone who had seen a great deal in life and wanted to have, indeed, his last word on it.
Honestly if you have any interest in reading this at all you should absolutely read The Naked Civil Servant first, and probably How To Become a Virgin as well, being that they tell first his life before becoming famous (or rather, infamous as he would have it) and subsequently his life afterwards. Also his one man show, An Evening With Quentin Crisp.
I don't know what else to say, except that there is a deep satisfaction in seeing someone get to say precisely what they wanted, right to the end.
"If I am rich," he has said "it is because I take my wages in people." Quentin loved people. And I would say he died a very rich man.
March 30, 2022
I love her... she makes me cry.... she makes me feel miserable... she makes me happy... shr makes me concerned... shes such a figure and so complicated i love you Quentin. Also its illegal that I finish this before i finish TNCS, no? I am doing the crispverse in the wrong order
January 2, 2018
This book claims to have been edited: I am far from convinced. It has some interesting bits, though.
April 5, 2018
I like to read the posts of Quentin Crisp quotes posted on Facebook by The Quentin Crisp Archives. I have a casual interest in Quentin Crisp. I first saw him on The Dick Cavett Show on TV in Ohio when I was just about to be a young man. At least that is when I assume this was but maybe it wasn’t as early as the late 1960s. At any rate he was instantly interesting. I am attracted to elegant talkers and Quentin had that down. In a way he fits into a category in my mind he wasn’t the only oddball that slipped through the TV into my Ohio working class kid consciousness. I can broadly lump him with Brother Theodore, Professor Irwin Corey, even Gore Vidal in his insider/outsider way. Crisp clearly was some sort of outsider and since I had not actually found an inside for myself, I too felt like sort of an outsider.
(Out commercial culture profits by making the masses feel they are special outsiders, but that is another bigger topic that I’m not going into right now.) Not a bit troubled by his “gay” thing either. That males had sexual activity with one another was not news to me or outside of my direct experience.
The people who post The Quentin Crisp Archives began posting quotes from this book and I got interested enough to buy a copy, which I had to do because it was not available in my local library system since I no longer live in New York City. I don’t like to buy books. I read them and don’t look at them again. After moving from New York I got rid of the books that I had collected. This did not particularly grieve me. But I do like the books I want to read to be available from the library rather than have to be purchased, from Amazon no less. In the past year there have been three book buys by me. That is plenty. There is another like this, an indie project created with love. I’m happy that they get my money. Another was a graphic book. I was interested in the subject, but graphic novels, or biographies, as in this case are high on pictures and low on information. I’m more interested in information than pictures so they feel like less than.(I have little doubt that there will soon be a Quentin Crisp graphic biography if there is not one already, he is perfect for that.) In the book Quentin talks about money and it is revealed that he behaved toward it like a Great Depression kid. They don’t spend it for fear it will not be replenished, but forever gone. I’m not a depression kid, I just don’t like to collect stuff and kind of stayed working class so I don’t have a lot of extra money.
The character who inhabits The Last Word is 90 years old and has had about enough of that. She is ready to let it go without looking back. And why should he. The Naked Civil Servant appeared in 1968 and the fame and all that went with that came to Quentin in his late 60s and early 70s. Prior to that life was more of a struggle and she really seemed to bloom in NYC. One of the best things about The Last Word is that it is the work of a 90 year old. We don’t hear that much out of the very elderly. Many celebrities vanish at a certain point, maybe around age 70, for men anyway, and go into a sort of twilight period until we read that they have finally died at 85 or whatever. So it is interesting to see what this odd old man had to say.
He talks about shutting down some, stopping sex at 30. Did he really say 30? Well, other than masturbation, which went on until around 60. Thanks for the info, Quentin, it is really rather interesting and I’m not a bit squeamish about that stuff.
I’m not one who sees sex or money as these big private things that must remain hidden. The thing is I get the feeling that these sexual things were very unsatisfactorily explored, he writes of quicky encounters in city street doorways. In Quentin it appears that the tunnel to love remained undiscovered and there was a turning in from the hostel outer world to the world of the mind rather than that of human sensuality. I don’t really know what kind of sex he would have appreciated, but the setup, looking for money because that's what the others did doesn’t seem promising from my out of context view. But I really don’t get the male/male action world of some of these writers from that generation. Same with Gore Vidal with his “trade”. I guess Quentin, much less the “boy” Gore was and from a lower class, fell into the category of “trade” or at least wannabe trade. I assume there is more on this in other writings which I haven’t gotten to yet. I can understand the wannabe trade thing. I can understand being adored with a nice bit of dough attached to that, the ones who pay these lower class boys I don’t quite get. I want to be wanted, not temporarily tolerated for a toll. (I just got The Naked Civil Servant from the local library yesterday and will read that shortly.) Her attitude toward nature is also indicative of the sensual withdrawal into the mind. But there could be a bit of English princess in there, not wishing to get dirty or whatever.
What we seem to be left with is an acute observing mind, alert, from decades of danger, now calm and safe in relatively new public acceptance which revealed to the observer the absurdity of the whole game.
Our delight is his lack of fear in telling us what he sees in glorious articulation.
Oh, by the way, it turns out that Crisp was not really “gay”, but something else. I think The Naked Civil Servant came out at basically the same time as The Stonewall Riots, which are a marker of the beginning of the gay liberation movement. Since then there has been much more thought into the endless variations in gender and sexual orientation. This caused elderly Crisp, along with many others to revision the long held views of themselves and their position in the scheme of things. You can read the book for more on this. I welcomed this part because I’m not gay but certainly not straight at all and I’m less boyish than many others. I welcome the death of this sexual dualism.
For many years I lived two blocks away from Quentin Crisp. I would see him almost daily sitting for lunch in his favorite diner on second avenue. Then that place closed and he moved across the street to another lunch place and eventually vanished. I went into the old place one day and bought Crisp his brunch. I didn’t bother to ask him to work for his lunch by giving me audience. He had paid already by being on the Dick Cavett Show decades earlier.
Crisp was socially promiscuous. He was allegedly willing to give anyone a go at lunch or street conversation. He would avoid second encounters.
He was a keen observer of people. This is something I assume one picks up as a protective mechanism being an odd one in a hostile world. There is a fear and distrust of others, and not without good reason. He did excellently with that and the promiscuity seemed to work out well for him. In the end. The community protected and honored the oddball.
He was a big winner.
I was interested in the art model angle because I am an art model. He mentions the peripheral benefits to this work. It can develop patience and alter one's view of time. I like the think that this work which involves really being an outsider in the scene with the painters and the art teachers, with the silent meditation being part of the bargain, as potentially spiritually uplifting or helping with some type of transcendence. One wants to be in on something special.
Reading The Last Word brings one up close to a very special old man.
(Out commercial culture profits by making the masses feel they are special outsiders, but that is another bigger topic that I’m not going into right now.) Not a bit troubled by his “gay” thing either. That males had sexual activity with one another was not news to me or outside of my direct experience.
The people who post The Quentin Crisp Archives began posting quotes from this book and I got interested enough to buy a copy, which I had to do because it was not available in my local library system since I no longer live in New York City. I don’t like to buy books. I read them and don’t look at them again. After moving from New York I got rid of the books that I had collected. This did not particularly grieve me. But I do like the books I want to read to be available from the library rather than have to be purchased, from Amazon no less. In the past year there have been three book buys by me. That is plenty. There is another like this, an indie project created with love. I’m happy that they get my money. Another was a graphic book. I was interested in the subject, but graphic novels, or biographies, as in this case are high on pictures and low on information. I’m more interested in information than pictures so they feel like less than.(I have little doubt that there will soon be a Quentin Crisp graphic biography if there is not one already, he is perfect for that.) In the book Quentin talks about money and it is revealed that he behaved toward it like a Great Depression kid. They don’t spend it for fear it will not be replenished, but forever gone. I’m not a depression kid, I just don’t like to collect stuff and kind of stayed working class so I don’t have a lot of extra money.
The character who inhabits The Last Word is 90 years old and has had about enough of that. She is ready to let it go without looking back. And why should he. The Naked Civil Servant appeared in 1968 and the fame and all that went with that came to Quentin in his late 60s and early 70s. Prior to that life was more of a struggle and she really seemed to bloom in NYC. One of the best things about The Last Word is that it is the work of a 90 year old. We don’t hear that much out of the very elderly. Many celebrities vanish at a certain point, maybe around age 70, for men anyway, and go into a sort of twilight period until we read that they have finally died at 85 or whatever. So it is interesting to see what this odd old man had to say.
He talks about shutting down some, stopping sex at 30. Did he really say 30? Well, other than masturbation, which went on until around 60. Thanks for the info, Quentin, it is really rather interesting and I’m not a bit squeamish about that stuff.
I’m not one who sees sex or money as these big private things that must remain hidden. The thing is I get the feeling that these sexual things were very unsatisfactorily explored, he writes of quicky encounters in city street doorways. In Quentin it appears that the tunnel to love remained undiscovered and there was a turning in from the hostel outer world to the world of the mind rather than that of human sensuality. I don’t really know what kind of sex he would have appreciated, but the setup, looking for money because that's what the others did doesn’t seem promising from my out of context view. But I really don’t get the male/male action world of some of these writers from that generation. Same with Gore Vidal with his “trade”. I guess Quentin, much less the “boy” Gore was and from a lower class, fell into the category of “trade” or at least wannabe trade. I assume there is more on this in other writings which I haven’t gotten to yet. I can understand the wannabe trade thing. I can understand being adored with a nice bit of dough attached to that, the ones who pay these lower class boys I don’t quite get. I want to be wanted, not temporarily tolerated for a toll. (I just got The Naked Civil Servant from the local library yesterday and will read that shortly.) Her attitude toward nature is also indicative of the sensual withdrawal into the mind. But there could be a bit of English princess in there, not wishing to get dirty or whatever.
What we seem to be left with is an acute observing mind, alert, from decades of danger, now calm and safe in relatively new public acceptance which revealed to the observer the absurdity of the whole game.
Our delight is his lack of fear in telling us what he sees in glorious articulation.
Oh, by the way, it turns out that Crisp was not really “gay”, but something else. I think The Naked Civil Servant came out at basically the same time as The Stonewall Riots, which are a marker of the beginning of the gay liberation movement. Since then there has been much more thought into the endless variations in gender and sexual orientation. This caused elderly Crisp, along with many others to revision the long held views of themselves and their position in the scheme of things. You can read the book for more on this. I welcomed this part because I’m not gay but certainly not straight at all and I’m less boyish than many others. I welcome the death of this sexual dualism.
For many years I lived two blocks away from Quentin Crisp. I would see him almost daily sitting for lunch in his favorite diner on second avenue. Then that place closed and he moved across the street to another lunch place and eventually vanished. I went into the old place one day and bought Crisp his brunch. I didn’t bother to ask him to work for his lunch by giving me audience. He had paid already by being on the Dick Cavett Show decades earlier.
Crisp was socially promiscuous. He was allegedly willing to give anyone a go at lunch or street conversation. He would avoid second encounters.
He was a keen observer of people. This is something I assume one picks up as a protective mechanism being an odd one in a hostile world. There is a fear and distrust of others, and not without good reason. He did excellently with that and the promiscuity seemed to work out well for him. In the end. The community protected and honored the oddball.
He was a big winner.
I was interested in the art model angle because I am an art model. He mentions the peripheral benefits to this work. It can develop patience and alter one's view of time. I like the think that this work which involves really being an outsider in the scene with the painters and the art teachers, with the silent meditation being part of the bargain, as potentially spiritually uplifting or helping with some type of transcendence. One wants to be in on something special.
Reading The Last Word brings one up close to a very special old man.
October 19, 2023
3,5. Leuk boek - geen meesterwerk, maar onderhoudende herinneringen van een negentigjarig icoon.
June 29, 2018
Here is a stream of consciousness telling of a life full of bon mot, written in the world weary style of a century ago. He gives us some excellent advice on how to along in the world. He tends to repeat what he has already said but I understand this book was narrated, not written by the author. I liked it, I recommend it.
May 6, 2019
.
Lovely to be reaquainted with Quentin Crisp after so long. Reading this feels like like he's never been away. Also, a very moving post script by Philip Ward.
Lovely to be reaquainted with Quentin Crisp after so long. Reading this feels like like he's never been away. Also, a very moving post script by Philip Ward.
September 28, 2023
Amusing and insightful as always, feels like chatting with an old friend.
I found it interesting that Quentin has accepted that he is transgender, or as he puts it with critical distance, that “it has finally been explained to me that I am not really homosexual, I’m transgender.”
So the former gay icon is now a trans icon. It makes sense of course, but also shows how arbitrary and historically dependent these categories are.
I found it interesting that Quentin has accepted that he is transgender, or as he puts it with critical distance, that “it has finally been explained to me that I am not really homosexual, I’m transgender.”
So the former gay icon is now a trans icon. It makes sense of course, but also shows how arbitrary and historically dependent these categories are.
June 21, 2018
It’s ok but does drag on
June 10, 2021
Quentin Crisp was a fascinating speaker and a true eccentric. All his books are interesting to read and this one written when he was 90 and dictating is no exception.
December 14, 2024
“I don’t believe I have a soul. I would say the soul is a human invention inspired by fear.”
I adored Quintin for as long as remember.
The naked civil servant was an illuminating experience that teen me needed to ensure their identity and existence were worthy of love and dignity.
So, it came like a huge surprise when I read in Tv tropes a little sentence that mentioned the following:
“On her last memoir, she confessed that realization of her trans-ness came late in her life.”
I truly believe she only wrote three memoirs, two works of fictions and style books; so, I went and bought the posthumous book.
Truth to be told, reading it felt like being in her presence again. A warm, tender, slightly melancholic, bratty at times, bitchy when you least expect it, but always there, waiting for your arrival to recite their old wisdom and stories.
There’s so much to cover in this little book, which is to be expected, Quinten lived a life so few could ever comprehend, let alone live it, and she takes her time narrating it in her own accord and leisurely so. She knows she has an audience and she’s there to entertain.
Overall, aside from being a personal icon, the last book revels more about her last days and thoughts of her past and eventual passing, musing about mortality and gender, and sexuality; one existence, and society demands that born and dies and still remain enforced in the minds of men.
She lived her life not as a rebel, but as her uncompromising authentic self. She had everything to lose and yet persist and lived long enough to immortalize it. And that I’m itself, is a form of immortality.
I adored Quintin for as long as remember.
The naked civil servant was an illuminating experience that teen me needed to ensure their identity and existence were worthy of love and dignity.
So, it came like a huge surprise when I read in Tv tropes a little sentence that mentioned the following:
“On her last memoir, she confessed that realization of her trans-ness came late in her life.”
I truly believe she only wrote three memoirs, two works of fictions and style books; so, I went and bought the posthumous book.
Truth to be told, reading it felt like being in her presence again. A warm, tender, slightly melancholic, bratty at times, bitchy when you least expect it, but always there, waiting for your arrival to recite their old wisdom and stories.
There’s so much to cover in this little book, which is to be expected, Quinten lived a life so few could ever comprehend, let alone live it, and she takes her time narrating it in her own accord and leisurely so. She knows she has an audience and she’s there to entertain.
Overall, aside from being a personal icon, the last book revels more about her last days and thoughts of her past and eventual passing, musing about mortality and gender, and sexuality; one existence, and society demands that born and dies and still remain enforced in the minds of men.
She lived her life not as a rebel, but as her uncompromising authentic self. She had everything to lose and yet persist and lived long enough to immortalize it. And that I’m itself, is a form of immortality.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews