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Isherwood (Christopher) Papers
mssCI
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Christopher Isherwood papers
Identifier/Call Number: mssCI
Physical Description:
140.6 Linear Feet
(159 boxes, 2 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1864-2004
Date (bulk): 1925-1986
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of
British-American writer Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), chiefly dating from the 1920s to
the 1980s. Consisting of scripts, literary manuscripts, correspondence, diaries,
photographs, ephemera, audiovisual material, and Isherwood's library, the archive is an
exceptionally rich resource for research on Isherwood, as well as W.H. Auden, Stephen
Spender and others.
Language of Material: English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
- RESTRICTED: The series of Isherwood's daily diaries, which are closed until January 1, 2030. Expurgated texts of these diaries have been edited and published by Katherine Bucknell. (Please see Selected Bibliography in this finding aid for citations.) Other diaries are available for research and are itemized in the Container List, below.
- RESTRICTED: Scholars' essays and letters (CI 3101-3108) addressed to Christopher Isherwood or to Don Bachardy after 1975 are closed for 30 years after their dates. This material is listed, along with opening dates, in Box 138.
Letters and manuscripts by W. H. Auden may be seen but may not be photocopied without
written permission from the Auden literary executor, Edward Mendelson. In no case will
permission be granted to copy all of the letters or manuscripts. His permission must also be
obtained in order to quote from or publish any of the Auden items.
The literary rights for Isherwood are owned by Don Bachardy, 145 Adelaide Drive, Santa
Monica, California 90402.
The literary rights for others in the collection are owned by the appropriate parties,
e.g., the rights for Auden are owned by Edward Mendelson, those for Spender are owned by
Lady Spender, etc. Please contact the Huntington's Curator of Literary Manuscripts with any
questions.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Christopher Isherwood papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
The majority of the collection was acquired as a combination gift and purchase from Don
Bachardy in April, 1999 (Accession nos. 1965 and 1966), July, 2000 (Accession no. 2641),
June, 2012 (Accession no. 2943), May 2020 (Accession no. CSmH_2020_143).
Additional material has been acquired from the following sources:
A Talk with Christopher Isherwood: transcription of an interview, 1977. Gift of Robin
French, August 26, 1999, (Accession no. 1995), FAC 1354.
Letters between Christopher Isherwood and Stanley P. Friedman, 1951. Purchased from
Stanley P. Friedman, September 10, 1999, (Accession no. 1999), CI 879-880, 1306.
Contact prints of photographs of Christopher Isherwood, taken during the last weeks of his
life by Wayne Shimabukuro. Gift of Mr. Shimabukuro, 1999, CI 3889-3892.
Photographs of Christopher Isherwood, by Florence Homolka. Purchased from Roland Jaeger,
May, 2000 (Accession no. 2050) and June, 2002 (Accession no. 2160), CI 3300-3301,
3355-3357.
The World in the Evening: final draft, with corrections, plus drafts of Christopher and
His Kind and portions of Down There on a Visit, all from the estate of Dodie Smith,
purchased by the Library Collectors' Council and the Parsons Foundation, March 2003,
(Accession no. 2207), CI 3095-3098, FAC 1397.
Photograph of Don Bachardy, taken by Marilyn Sanders, 1991. Gift of Romaine Ahlstrom,
April 24, 2003, (Accession no. 2218), CI 3893.
Photograph of W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood by Carl Van Vechten, February 6, 1939.
Purchased from James Cummins Bookseller, Catalog 86, lot 3, December, 2003, (Accession no.
2640), CI 4079.
Five letters from Christopher Isherwood to Ingmar Bjorksten, 1957-1964. Purchased from
Michael Silverman Autographs, London, December, 2003, (Accession no. 2639), CI
4080-4084.
The source and date of acquisition for all the above additions to the collection are noted
on the individual folders.
Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was born on August 26, 1904, in Cheshire, England, the
son of Frank and Kathleen Bradshaw-Isherwood. He attended Repton School, 1919-1922, and
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1924-1925. He went to Berlin in 1929 to visit W. H. Auden
and remained, intermittently, for the next four years. In 1939 he immigrated to the United
States, settling in Santa Monica, California. From 1954 until his death on January 4, 1986,
Isherwood lived with his companion Don Bachardy.
During his years in California, Isherwood wrote for MGM studios, he was a guest lecturer
at California State University, Los Angeles, at University of California, Santa Barbara, and
other colleges, and he was active in the Vedanta Society.
The author of plays, screenplays, novels and nonfiction, Isherwood created works that
transcend classification in their combination of autobiographical and imaginative elements.
His novels include
The Berlin Stories, based on the years he lived in Berlin
and adapted as the play
I Am a Camera and as the musical
Cabaret,
Prater Violet
(1945),
The World in the Evening (1954),
Down
There On a Visit
(1962),
A Single Man (1964), and
A Meeting
by the River
(1967). Among his autobiographical and nonfiction works are
Lions and Shadows: An Education in the Twenties (1938),
Journey to
War
(with W. H. Auden, 1939),
Kathleen and Frank (1971), and
My Guru and His Disciple (1980).
Isherwood's autobiographical work,
Christopher and His Kind (1976),
provided new information about his life, particularly his sexual preference. He became known
as an outspoken advocate of gay rights, speaking and writing widely on the subject.
- Berg, James J. and Chris Freeman, eds. Conversations with Christopher Isherwood (Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 2001).
- Berg, James J. and Chris Freeman, eds. The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000).
- Colletta, Lisa, ed. Kathleen and Christopher: Christopher Isherwood's Letters to His Mother (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005).
- Contemporary Authors (New Revision Series) vol. 35: 238-242.
- Isherwood, Christopher. Diaries: Volume I, 1939-1960, edited by Katherine Bucknell (New York: HarperFlamingo, Michael DiCapua Books, 1997).
- Isherwood, Christopher. Lost Years: A Memoir, 1945-1951, edited by Katherine Bucknell (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
- Isherwood, Christopher. The Sixties : Diaries : Volume II, 1960-1969, edited by Katherine Bucknell (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).
- Isherwood, Christopher. Liberation : Diaries : Volume III, 1970-1983, edited by Katherine Bucknell (London: Chatto and Windus, 2012).
- Isherwood, Christopher and Don Bachardy. The Animals : Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, edited by Katherine Bucknell (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).
- Kulkarni, H.B. Stephen Spender Works and Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976).
- Lago, Mary. Calendar of the Letters of E.M. Forster (London and New York: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1985).
- Lago, Mary and P.N. Furbank, eds. Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983-1985).
- Page, Norman. Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998).
- Parker, Peter. Isherwood : A Life, (London: Picador, 2004).
- Spender, Stephen. Letters to Christopher: Stephen Spender's Letters to Christopher Isherwood, 1929-1939, ed. Lee Bartlett (Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1980).
- White, James and William H. White. Christopher Isherwood: A Bibliography of his Personal Papers (Montrose, AL: Texas Center for Writers Press, 1987).
This collection contains the papers of British-American writer Christopher Isherwood,
chiefly dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. This part of the collection consists of scripts,
literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, audio-visual material, and
Isherwood's library, the archive is an exceptionally rich resource for research on
Isherwood, as well as W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender and others. Subjects documented in the
collection include homosexuality and gay rights, pacifism, and Vedanta.
The Christopher Isherwood Papers were cataloged over a span of 10 years and multiple
acquisitions, resulting in a collection organized by accretion, with each new acquisition
added on in sequence at the end of the collection, rather than interspersed with similar or
related materials. Therefore, each separate acquisition must be searched in order to locate
all of the relevant manuscripts or correspondence by a particular author. Similarly, the
collection was cataloged by multiple catalogers, so styles, levels of detail and format vary
throughout the collection and finding aid.
Scripts (Boxes 1-9)
The majority of scripts are by Isherwood, and there are quite a few collaborative efforts,
e.g.,
Below the Equator and
Jacob's Hands with Aldous Huxley;
and
Frankenstein, A Meeting By the River and other titles with Don
Bachardy.
There are also drafts of the early Auden-Isherwood collaborations
The Dog Beneath
the Skin
and
The Enemies of a Bishop.
Literary Manuscripts (Boxes 10-84)
The archive includes manuscripts for most of Isherwood's works. The largest exception is
the manuscripts for
The Berlin Stories, which are not present. High points
include multiple drafts for
A Single Man,
The World in the Evening,
Down There On a Visit,
Christopher and His Kind,
A Meeting By the River,
The Memorial, and
My Guru and His Disciple.
Isherwood's "Writing Notebook" (CI 1158) is very rich, containing long series of notes on
the writing of
The World in the Evening and
Down There On a
Visit.
For example, he spent seven years working and re- working
The World
in the Evening,
a process that included many conversations about the novel with
his friends Dodie Smith and Alec Beesley. The "Writing Notebook" includes accounts of those
conversations, in addition to notes reflecting his own thoughts about writing the novel.
An extensive series of notes for lecture that Isherwood presented at universities in
southern California contains highly important information on Isherwood's views on
literature, Vedanta, and his own place in 20th-century letters.
Isherwood and W.H. Auden enjoyed a deep, life-long friendship and, beginning in their
youth, they exchanged thoughts about literature and their reactions to one another's
writings. Isherwood exerted a profound effect on Auden's poems, suggesting alterations on
many occasions. Because of Isherwood and Auden's close literary interaction, Auden gave many
poems to Isherwood. These verses, some unpublished, are in the Isherwood Papers, along with
an extraordinary notebook containing drafts of early Auden poetry (some unpublished).
Of special note is the journal that Isherwood and Auden kept jointly on their trip to Asia
in 1938, later published as
Diary of a Trip to Asia.
Correspondence (Boxes 10-84)
The collection is rich in letters to Isherwood, most notably from W.H. Auden and Stephen
Spender. The Auden letters are superb and, together with poetry manuscripts, form a body of
original material that is equaled only by the manuscripts held in the Berg Collection at the
New York Public Library.
The letters from Stephen Spender are excellent and form a long body of communication about
literary and editorial matters, both his own and Isherwood's. Spender sold Isherwood's
letters to the Bancroft Library, so the two halves of the correspondence are housed in
northern and southern California.
A superb series of letters from E.M. Forster bespeaks the closeness of his friendship with
Isherwood, as well as his position as mentor to the younger writer, who greatly admired the
older writer. In addition to literary and social matters, Forster's letters include
descriptions of the effects of bombing on England during World War Two. Most notably,
several letters address Forster's request that Isherwood oversee publication of
Maurice after Forster's death.
Correspondence from other major literary figures includes letters by Truman Capote,
Somerset Maugham, J.D. Salinger, Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams.
An extensive series of letters from dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein fully and wittily
document his time in the military, stationed in Germany during World War Two.
The longest set of letters by Isherwood is the series to his mother Kathleen
Bradshaw-Isherwood, which are long and filled with important information about his
activities and his thoughts. These letters have been published: Colletta, Lisa, ed.,
Kathleen and Christopher: Christopher Isherwood's Letters to His Mother
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005). Apart from this series, Part I of the
collection contains relatively few letters by Isherwood.
Diaries (Box 85)
This box of five volumes includes trips to Greece (1933) and South America (1947-1948), a
volume of ideas for stories, and daily diaries (1935-1938 and 1979). Please note: this box
of diaries does not have any restrictions of access or use.
Addenda (Boxes 86-90)
The Addenda material came to the Library in 2000 and was cataloged over the next several
years. It consists, mainly, of literary correspondence, interviews and manuscripts by W.H.
Auden, Don Bachardy, Ray Bradbury, Christopher Isherwood, Ken Maley, Stephen Spender, and
Edward Upward. The Isherwood manuscripts include drafts of
Christopher and His
Kind
,
Down There on a Visit and
The World in the
Evening
.
Photographs (Boxes 91-114)
There are about 1,800 photographs in Part I of the collection, chiefly depicting
Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy. The majority of the photographs are the work of
professional photographers and therefore under copyright, so researchers wishing to publish
or make use of them must seek the appropriate permission.
Ephemera (Boxes 115-122)
Among the ephemera are flyers and publicity for the Auden-Isherwood collaborations, for
productions of
Cabaret, and for stagings of adaptations of Isherwood's
novels. There are also Isherwood's datebooks and address books, published interviews,
clippings by and about Isherwood, about his writings, and about others, and miscellaneous
printed material. There is also important material that documents homosexuality and the gay
rights movement.
Audiovisual Material (Boxes 123-135)
The audiovisual material contains 3, 5 and 7" magnetic tapes, audiocassettes, VHS and
Betamax tapes and three films.
The magnetic tapes include Christopher Isherwood conferences, interviews, lectures and
speeches; also included, among others, are Don Bachardy, Swami Prabhavananda, Dylan Thomas,
and Edward Upward. Many of the tapes also have CD preservation copies and these are noted in
the finding aid
The audiocassettes include dramatizations of Christopher Isherwood's works, interviews and
lectures, as well as a few other authors, including Edward Upward. A limited number of
audiocassettes have CD preservation copies and these are noted in the finding aid.
The VHS, Betamax tapes and films include interviews with Christopher Isherwood and Don
Bachardy on the BBC and Dick Cavett television show, as well as an interview by Ariana
Huffington; the tapes have DVD preservation copies and these are noted in the finding aid.
The three films are still in process and are not available.
Sealed Diaries and Scholar's Papers (Boxes 136-138)
The eight daily diary volumes (1939-1970) are sealed until Jan. 1, 2030.
The scholar's material includes essays, correspondence and photocopies; the material is
sealed until 30 years after the date of each item.
This part of the collection was acquired from Don Bachardy in 2012 and consists of diaries,
manuscripts, commonplace books, correspondence, photographs, negatives and ephemera.
Sealed Diaries (Box 139)
The eight daily diaries (1960-1983) include one volume but the remainder are typewritten
pages; due to pain in his hands, Christopher Isherwood began to keep a typewritten diary
rather than an autograph bound volume diary. The diaries are sealed until Jan. 1, 2030.
Manuscripts (Boxes 140-142)
This group of manuscripts includes Christopher Isherwood's book reviews, commonplace
books, essays, interviews, lectures, works on Vedanta, as well as projects he wrote with Don
Bachardy, including the scripts of "Dr. Frankenstein" and "The Beautiful and Damned."
Correspondence (Boxes 143-147)
The correspondence includes a small number of letters by, among others, Alan Clodd, Jim
Gates, David Hockney, John Lehmann, Stathis Orphanos, and Tony Richardson.
The largest part of the correspondence is made up of letters between Christopher Isherwood
and Don Bachardy; which, according to Katherine Bucknell, contain "all of the letters
between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy that are known to survive." The letters span
decades and are deeply personal; all the letters have been edited and published by Bucknell
in
The Animals....
Photographs and Negatives (Boxes 148-155)
This material includes over 1300 photographs and over 2000 negatives (1948-2004); there
are original B&W and color photographs, prints, polaroids, and slides. Many of the
photographs were taken by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy but there are also photos
by David Hockney and professional photographers. The negatives were either removed from the
photographs or were part of a separate group of negatives arranged by subject by Isherwood
and Bachardy.
The subjects include family, friends, traveling, parties, celebrations, the building of
Don Bachardy's studio at 145 Adelaide Drive, and Bachardy's artwork and art exhibitions.
Please note: Don Bachardy went through all of the photographs and provided dates and other
caption information, sometimes on the back of the photos and sometimes on envelopes (these
envelopes have been retained and are cataloged in Ephemera); the information provided by
Bachardy was used to catalog this material.
Ephemera and Addenda (Boxes 156-159)
The ephemera includes Isherwood's address book, awards, printed material, annotated
manuscript and photograph envelopes, two watches and four pieces of Isherwood's bridgework.
Of special note is a folder of personal material removed Isherwood's wallet after his death;
included in this material is a copy of his birth certificate, naturalization certificate,
passport, membership cards and photographs. The addenda includes autograph manuscripts,
photographs, printed material, and ephemera.
Cataloger's Note
Many letters and manuscripts include annotations (usually in pencil) of dates or other
information added by Isherwood late in his life.
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssCI 1-4758, FAC 1346-1397.
- Christopher Isherwood letters to Lincoln Kirstein (mssHM 81664-81741)
- Isherwood's library, consisting of editions of his own works and of his reference collection, resides in the Rare Books Department and may be consulted via the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
An index of the important subjects and added entries, e.g., joint authors, important
addressees, and the like, for Part I of this collection is available in PDF form:
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Authors, English -- 20th century
Authors, American -- 20th century
British Americans.
Erotic literature, American -- 20th century
Gay authors -- Great Britain
Gay authors -- United States
Hinduism -- United States
Hinduism in literature
Male homosexuality
Male homosexuality in literature
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, British
Germany -- History -- 1918-1933 -- Sources
Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 20th century --
Sources
United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century --
Sources
Audiotapes
Diaries -- 20th century
Ephemera
Letters -- (correspondence) -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- 20th century
Personal papers -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs
Videotapes
Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973
Heard, Gerald, 1889-1971
Heard, Gerald, 1889-1971