Christopher Isherwood: A Personal Memoir

In 1931, John Lehmann joined Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press as trainee manager and shortly thereafter became the publisher of Christopher Isherwood’s work, including The Berlin Stories, on whixlch the highly successful musical Cabaret was based some years later. A strong friendship developed between the two men and lasted until the end of Isherwood’s life. This stylish and affectionate memoir is based on Lehmann’s own diaries and on the letters Isherwood wrote to him from the ’30s on as he roamed Europe, then came to America with W. H. Auden, and finally settled in California.

In addition to its insider’s view of major literary figures of the ’30s, the book is replete with Isherwood’s astute observations of Europe and America preparing for war. As well as an entertaining and candid personal portrait, it will undoubtedly be an important sourcebook for the future.