Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951

by Christopher Isherwood

  Provincetown, Massachusetts, 127

  Quakers see Friends, Society of

  Queen Elizabeth (ship), 89, 116, 149

  Radebaugh, Roy (Richard Cromwell), 170–1

  Rainey, Ford, 207–8, 229

  Rains, Claude, 31n

  Ramakrishna: C.I.’s biography of, xxii, xxvii; birthday celebrations, 23, 179; C.I. follows, 186

  Ramakrishna and His Disciples (C.I.), xxii

  Random House (publishers), 119, 188, 196, 276

  Rapper, Irving, 31n, 208

  Rassine, Alexis, 84n, 96, 115, 143, 148, 271

  Rattigan, (Sir) Terence: The Winslow Boy, 102

  Ravagli, Angelo, 253, 254n

  Rawlings, Margaret, 113n

  Razor’s Edge, The (film), 37, 38n

  Red Badge of Courage, The (film), 268–70

  Reed, John, 255n

  Reinhardt, Gottfried: and C.I.’s meeting Wolfgang, 28; C.I. works with on films, 146, 150–3, 168, 177; C.I. attends party, 221

  Reinhardt, Wolfgang: C.I. dines with, 28; C.I. works with, 34–5, 36n

  Reis, Irving, 91[n]

  Reis, Meta, 91 & [n]

  Renaldo, Tito: friendship with C.I., 153 & n, 217; meets Swami, 188; leaves Trabuco, 217

  Repton Letters, The (C.I.; ed. George Ramsden), xxxi n

  Richardson, (Sir) Ralph, 91

  Richardson, Tony, 150, 175n

  Rickles, Don, 235[n]

  Rimbaud, Arthur: A Season in Hell, 182

  Rinser, Luise: Die Stärkeren, 192

  Rio de Janeiro, 141 & n

  Robertson, David, 212

  Robeson, Paul, 17

  Robinsons department store, 15

  Robson-Scott, William, 83n, 98

  Rod see Owens, Rodney

  Rodd, Marcel, 8

  Roder, Hellmut, 126 & n

  Roditi, Edouard, xix

  Rodman, Selden, 125

  Roerick, Bill, 121

  Rolfe, Frederick William (Baron Corvo), xx

  Roosevelt, Franklin Delano: death, 30–1

  Rose Garden Apartments, Hollywood, 38

  Ross, Alan, 83n

  Ross, Jean, 108, 110

  Ross, Lillian, 270–1

  Roth, Sanford (Sandy), 74

  Rueda, Victor, 212n

  Rügen Island (Germany), 138

  Russell, John, 38n

  Russia see Soviet Russia

  Sachs, David, xix, n197

  Sachs, Maurice: Le Sabbat, 175n

  Sadler’s Wells Ballet, 271

  St. Edmund’s school, Hindhead, Surrey, 57 & n

  Salka see Viertel, Salka

  Sally Bowles (proposed stage adaptation by Lamkin and Field), 265–6, 273, 277, 284–5

  Samuels, Lesser: C.I. works with, 81, 91, 167, 195, 198, 206–7, 229–30; friendship with C.I., 153

  Sansom, William, 83n

  Santa Barbara, California, 10, 13, 197

  Santa Monica, California, 6, 9, 13–14, 198

  Santa Paula (ship), 139

  Sarada (Folling), 209

  Saroyan, William, 267

  Sartre, Jean-Paul, xvi, 66; No Exit, 175–6n

  Saurin, Brad (pseud.): affair with Jay de Laval, 172, 177; described, 172; serves in Korean War, 241; relations with C.I., 258–9; attachment to Jim Charlton, 259

  Savage, Very Revd H.E., Dean of Lichfield, 30n

  Scheuer, Philip K., 49

  Schindler, Mr. and Mrs. (Haverford refugees), 121

  Schlee, George, 130–1

  Schoenberg, Arnold: Pierrot lunaire, 264

  School of Tragedy, The (C.I.) see World in the Evening, The

  Scobie, W.I., xi n

  Scott-Kilvert, Derek, 103n

  Scott-Kilvert, Elizabeth, 106

  Scott-Kilvert, Ian, 103–7 & n, 113

  Scott Moncrieff, C.K., 66[n]

  Search, The (film), 149, 174

  Searle, Ronald, 97n

  Sequoia National Park, California, 185n, 243

  Shakespeare, William: Othello, 17

  Shankara: The Crest–Jewel of Discrimination, 72n

  Shaw, George Bernard: Androcles and the Lion, 18

  Shearer, Moira, 271

  Shepherd, Amos, 212n

  Shivananda, Swami, 207

  “Shore, The” (C.I.; earlier “California Story”), 74

  Sinatra, Frank, 66

  Single Man, A (C.I.), xii, xxv–xxvi, 44n, 167n, 217

  Sintra (Portugal), 114n

  Siodmak, Robert, 168, 187n

  Sister Lalita (Carrie Mead Wykoff; “Sister”), 9, 197, 209

  Sleeping Beauty, The (ballet), 272

  Sloane, Everett, 205

  Smedley, Agnes, 209

  Smith, Dodie see Beesley, Dodie Smith

  Snow, Edgar, 195

  Sorel, Paul (born Paul Dibble), 273, 277

  Sorokine, Natasha see Moffat, Natasha

  South America: C.I. and Caskey travel in, xxxiv, 119, 123, 133, 139

  South Pacific (stage musical), 224–6

  Soviet Russia: and Los Angeles conference on world peace, 189–90

  Speaight, Robert, 144

  Spender, Humphrey, 138

  Spender, Natasha (Lady; née Litvin), 91

  Spender, (Sir) Stephen: meets Caskey, xvii; C.I. stays with in London, 91–2; and Tony Hyndman, 113, 114–15n; marriage (first) to Inez Pearn, 114n; affair with Helmuth Roder, 126n; in USA, 134, 138–9, 168, 194, 195; bisexual posture, 169–70; depicted in A Meeting by the River, 170; asks C.I. for obituary article on Dylan Thomas, 233; “The Burning Cactus”, 126n; World Within World, 275n, 277

  Stafford, Jean, 135, 137

  Stagg, Bob, 65, 122n, 123

  Starcke, Walter, 81, 123n, 197n, 284

  Starkey, Walter see Starcke, Walter

  Steffens, Lincoln: Autobiography, 175n

  Steffens, Pete, 175n

  Stern, James, 117–18, 122–3, 137, 176 & n

  Stern, Josef Luitpold, 121

  Stern, Tania Kurella, 117–18, 122–3, 137, 176

  Steuermann, Eduard, 264

  Steve (studio messenger boy) see Cooley, Steve

  Stevens, George, 66

  Stevenson, Robert Louis, 61, 276; Weir of Hermiston, 89n

  Stieglitz, Alfred, 251 & n

  Stockport, Cheshire (England): C.I. visits (1947), 86–7, 89, 111; Caskey photographs viaduct at, 144

  Stokowski, Leopold, 254n

  Stonewall riot (New York, 1962), xii

  Strang, Les (pseud.), 166

  Strasberg, Lee, 167

  Strasberg, Paula, 167, 183–4, 272

  Stravinsky, Igor: in C.I.’s circle, xvii; likes Caskey, 42; on C.I.’s capacity for friendships, 94; C.I. lunches and sups with, 198, 200–1, 222, 230; C.I.’s attitude to, 201–3; avariciousness, 202; visits Sequoia with C.I., 243 & n; The Flood, 264[n]; The Rake’s Progress, 202, 243

  Stravinsky, Vera: in C.I.’s circle, xvii, 198, 200–2, 222, 230; visits Sequoia with C.I., 243

  Streetcar Named Desire, A (film), 267

  Streeter, Mitchell (pseud.), 258–9

  Sudhira (Helen Kennedy): enlists in navy, 9; C.I. entertains, 50; attends C.I. in hospital, 62–3

  Sumac, Yma, 242

  Sutherland, Graham, 148

  Swami see Prabhavananda, Swami

  Swanson, Gloria, 216

  Sykes, Gerald: The Nice American, 275n

  Symonds (Isherwood family lawyer), 111

  Szczesny, Berthold, 133–5 & n, 136–9

  Tallchief, Maria, 50n

  Tamara (van Druten’s housekeeper), 21

  Taos, New Mexico, 253, 255n

  Tauch, Ed, 123–4, 139

  Taxman, Barry, 258, 260–3

  Taylor, Frank: C.I. meets, 134, 136; described, 169; film-making, 169–70; depicted in The World in the Evening, 170; entertains, 195; friendship with C.I., 208, 263–4, 281; on Dylan Thomas’s visit to Chaplin, 233; visits Hartfords with C.I., 246; accompanies C.I. to John Huston film set, 268

  Taylor, Harold, 135, 137

  Taylor, N
an, 134, 136, 169, 195, 208, 263

  Tepoztlán, Mexico, 78

  Than, Joseph, 31n

  Theatre Arts (magazine), 74

  Thomas, Dylan: C.I. entertains in Los Angeles, 232–3; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, 175–6n

  Time magazine, 9, 22–3; reviews Prater Violet, 48–9

  Titian: “The Man with the Glove,” 198

  Todd, Thelma, 28–9

  Tomorrow (magazine), 241, 247, 258, 276–7

  Tompkins, Willy (pseud.), 35, 48, 280

  Toni (Brian Howard’s lover), 95–6

  Tooker, George, 127–8

  Totheroh, Dan: Moor Born (play), 32, 33n

  Trabuco: Franklin Knight at, 7; proposed Vedanta monastery at, 28; official opening, 188, 207; C.I. visits, 191, 246; van Druten gives money for organ, 247

  Tree, Iris: C.I. sups with, 28; Caskey meets, 45–6; as mother of Ivan Moffat, 66; runs High Valley Theatre, 74; friendship with C.I., 81, 208; reports C.I.’s misbehavior at Chaplins’, 199n; drives back from Trabuco with C.I., 207; and C.I.’s sense of guilt, 227; adapts and plays in Ethan Frome, 229; attends Yma Sumac performance at Salka Viertel’s, 242; attends Sadler’s Wells Ballet with C.I., 271; and C.I.’s Anglia car, 276

  Trilling, Diana, 48

  Trotti, Lamarr, 38n

  Trottiscliffe, Kent (England)), 148

  Truman, Harry S., 172, 240

  Turville-Petre, Francis, 134n

  Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 191

  Tyrrell, G.N.M.: Science and Psychical Phenomena, 51n

  United States of America: C.I. emigrates to, xi, 72; relaxes censorship laws, xii; C.I.’s increasing commitment to, xxx–xxxi, 19n; C.I. acquires citizenship, 77–8, 209; C.I.’s homesickness for in England, 84

  Up at the Villa (unfinished film), 34–6 & n, 46

  Upward, Christopher, 100–2

  Upward, Edward: and C.I.’s historical training, xii; literary theories, xii–xiv; Marxism, xiii–xiv, xxvii; influence on C.I.’s prose, xxvii; moral effect on C.I., xxix–xxx; C.I. meets in England, 100–1, 107; marriage, 101; and C.I.’s World in the Evening, 190; In the Thirties, 101; Journey to the Border, xxvii; “Sketch for a Marxist Interpretation of Literature”, xiii n

  Upward, Hilda, 100–1, 107

  Upward, Kathy, 100–1

  Vacant Room, The (screenplay), 229–30

  Vallentin, Antonina: H. G. Wells – Prophet of Our Day, 258, 275n

  van Druten, John: and C.I.’s life at Vedanta Center, 7; at Beesleys, 11; hears of C.I.’s lovemaking with Bill Harris, 12n; lectures, 18; at AJC Ranch, 21, 214, 241, 220, 271; friendship with C.I., 31, 39, 50, 81, 153, 208; on Roosevelt, 31; C.I. entertains, 50; C.I. sees in New York, 123; absent from AJC ranch, 196; and Dick Foote, 196n; and Starcke, 197n; Britten and Pears meet, 214; at Trabuco, 246; beliefs, 247; suffers from “senile polio”, 272; decides to adapt C.I.’s Goodbye to Berlin as play, 282, 284; I Am a Camera, xxxi–xxxii, 78, 123n, 282; The Mermaids Singing, 123n

  van Leyden, Ernst and Karen, 81, 207, 272

  Van Meegeren, Han, 170, 254n

  van Petten, Bill, 156n

  Van Trees, Don, 170

  Van Vechten, Carl, 253

  Vaughan, Keith, 83n, 96, 102, 143

  & n; Journal and Drawings, 143n

  Vedanta: C.I.’s involvement with, ix, xxvii, xxix, 72

  Vedanta Center (Ivar Avenue, Hollywood): C.I. attempts celibacy at, xvii; C.I. leaves, 4, 6–7, 13, 15, 27, 39, 45–6; and Marcel Rodd, 8; ceremonies at, 9, 14, 59n, 81, 179; bathroom facilities, 12; Time magazine article on, 22; Maugham visits, 40; C.I. first moves to, 72; Swami’s birthday lunch at, 173; C.I. resumes visits to, 181, 277; C.I. gives reading at, 239–40

  Vedanta for Modern Man (anthology),

  Vedanta Society: acquires Trabuco, 188, 207

  Vedanta and the West (magazine), 18

  Vedanta and the Western World (C.I.), 8

  Verlaine, Paul, 182

  Vidal, Gore: meets Caskey, xv, xvii; C.I. meets in Paris, 142–3; in England, 145–6; quarrels with Caskey, 146; The City and the Pillar, xv, I40n, 145; Palimpsest: A Memoir, 146[n]; The Season of Comfort, 225n; Williwaw, 140n, 225n

  Viertel family: in C.I.’s circle, xvii

  Viertel, Berthold: and C.I.’s fading interest in Germans, xxx; and Peter’s account of meeting C.I. in London, 83n; in New York, 119, 123; C.I. meets in London, 148; character, 148; marries Elisabeth Neumann, 148; successful career and later death, 149

  Viertel, Elisabeth see Neumann, Elisabeth

  Viertel, Peter: on The Friendship bar, 44n; C.I. entertains, 50; “den” in home, 74; in London, 83 & n; The Canyon, 44n

  Viertel, Salka: Steve Cooley not introduced to, 41; C.I. entertains, 50; C.I. and Caskey occupy garage apartment, 70–1, 73–4; entertaining and “salon,” 71, 174, 221; and C.I.’s departure for England (1947), 81–2; entertains Garbo, 131; C.I.’s friendship with. 153, 208; and Vernon Old’s wedding, 171[n]; and C.I.’s attempted reconciliation with Chaplin, 199n; meets Mailer with C.I., 228; Yma Sumac performs at home, 242; The Kindness of Strangers, 71n

  Viertel, Tommy, 50

  Viertel, Virginia (formerly Schulberg; Peter’s first wife; “Jigee”), 83 & n

  Vivekananda, Swami: puja, 9, 81

  Vividishananda, Swami: A Man of God, 207

  Waldeck, Countess (G.R. Waldeck), 135, 137; Athene Palace Bucharest, 137 & [n]

  Waley, Arthur, 143

  Walker, Alan, 173

  Wallace, Roger (pseud.), 208–9

  Walter, Bruno, 155

  Warner Brothers (film corporation): C.I. works for, 23–5, 28, 34–5; strike, 26–7; C.I. leaves, 27, 46; and film of The Glass Menagerie, 208

  Warner, Jack, 24, 27

  Warren, Robert Penn, 195

  Watson, Peter, 179

  Watson-Gandy, Anthony Blethwyn (Tony), 173 & n, 222n

  Watts, Alan, 277–8

  Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited, 51n; The Loved One, 175n

  We Were Strangers (film), 154n

  Webb, Jack, 205

  Webster, David, 146–7

  Webster, John: The White Devil, 113

  Wescott, Glenway, 187

  West, Nathanael: Miss Lonelyhearts, 275n

  West, Rebecca: The Thinking Reed, 140n

  Whales, James, 211–12

  White, J. Alan, 101

  Whitman, Walt: influence on C.I., xxiii; and travel, 13; homosexual wrestling, 57n, 59, 60n; and idea of The American Boy, 159, 161, 164, 248

  Widmark, Richard, 207n

  Wilde, Oscar: Lady Windermere’s Fan, 243 & [n]

  Wilder, Thornton: The Ides of March, 223–4n

  Wiley, Grace, 152n

  Williams, Dr., 46, 61

  Williams, Emlyn, 102, 233

  Williams, Molly, 233

  Williams, Sophia, 238–9

  Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier Williams): meets Caskey, xvii; in England, 145–6 & [n]; in Los Angeles, 208, 267; relations with Frank Merlo, 208, 267; The Glass Menagerie, 208; The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, 275n; A Streetcar Named Desire, 267

  Willingham, Calder: End as a Man, xv & n, 176n; Geraldine Bradshaw, 275n

  Wilson, Edmund: The Wound and the Bow, 51n

  Windham, Donald, 127; The Dog Star, 275n

  Winter, Ella, 175n, 242

  Winter, Keith, 31n, 39

  Wolfe, Thomas: Of Time and the River, 160n

  Woman in White, The (film), 23–4, 28–9, 34

  Wood, Christopher (Chris): and Denny Fouts party, 13; C.I. visits, 47, 258; C.I. entertains, 50; friendship with C.I., 81, 153, 163–4, 208; in New York, 133; visits Fire Island, 138–9; sees C.I. and Caskey off to South America, 139; Britten and Pears visit, 214

  Woolf, Virginia, 68

  Woolley, Monty, 58[n]

  World in the Evening, The (earlier The School of Tragedy; C.I.): on emigration and pacifism, xiii; homosexuality in, xiv–xv; Jim Charlton depicted in, xv, 122n, 159, 174; writing and synopsis, xxv, 121–2 & n, 190, 195, 227, 236–8, 244–5n, 2
78, 280–1; Lamkin advises C.I. on, xxix, 281, 283–4; German refugees removed from, xxx–xxxi, 284; kite incident in, 11; Hellmut Roder in, 126n; psychic experience described in, 164–5; Frank Taylor depicted in, 170; bar-room ducking scene in, 174; guilt in, 182; C.I.’s depiction of self in, 200; names in, 212n; narration problem, 217, 226; Brookses’ house portrayed in, 231; Caroline Norment character in, 239; Dodie Smith advises C.I. on, 244–5 & n; sent to publishers, 284

  Worsley, Cuthbert, 115n, 146

  Wright, Frank Lloyd, 157, 160–1n, 165

  Wright, Teresa, 205, 228

  Wyberslegh Hall, Cheshire (England): C.I. visits (1947), 87–8, 90n, 111–12; C.I. revisits (1948), 143–4, 147, 185n

  Yeats, William Butler: “Parnell’s Funeral”, 84 & [n]; “Solomon and the Witch”, 106 & [n]

  Yogi (Walter Brown), 33

  Yogini (Mrs. Walter Brown), 33

  Yorke, Adelaide (“Dig”), 143

  Yorke, Henry (“Henry Green”), 83n, 143; Back, 140n; Doting, 275n; Living, 275n; Loving, 275n; Nothing, 275n

  Zeiler, Dr., 35–6

  Zeininger, Russ, 208, 212n, 220, 229, 230, 258

  Zinnemann, Fred, 174, 205, 219, 223n, 228, 230

  Zinnemann, Renée, 219, 230

  Acknowledgements

  I could not have prepared this book without the constant support and collaboration of Don Bachardy. Isherwood’s luck in finding such a partner continues to grow more evident, and I feel privileged to share some of that luck.

  Many friends of Isherwood have taken a great deal of trouble to answer questions for Don Bachardy and for me, and we are extremely grateful for their tenacity and their forthrightness: George Bemberg, Walter Berns, Stefan Brecht, the late Paul Cadmus, the late Jim Charlton, Robert Craft, Jack Fontan, John Gruber, Michael Hall, Betty Harford, the late Evelyn Hooker, Richard Keate, Robert Kittredge, Gavin Lambert, Jack Larson, the late José Martinez, the late Ben Masselink, Carlos McClendon, the late Roddy McDowall, Ivan Moffat, Alvin Novak, Fern Maher O’Brien, “Vernon Old,” Bernard Perlin, Rupert Pole, Ned Rorem, Paul Sorel, Walter Starcke, Barry Taxman, Curtice Taylor, the late Frank Taylor, Edward Upward, Gore Vidal, Swami Vidyatmananda, Tom Wright, Russ Zeininger.

  A number of other people have helped with challenging and sometimes eccentric queries as well as practical matters, and I thank them all: Terry Adamson, Robert Adjemian, Peter Alexander, Alan Ansen, John Appleton, Roger Berthoud, Michael Bessie, Vernon Brooks, Sally Brown (Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library), Peter Burton, Sheilah Cherney, Patricia Clark (The British Council), Gerald Clarke, Michael De Lisio, John D’Emilio, Renée Doolley, Philippa Foote, Christopher Gibb, Joyce Howard, Don Howarth, Nicholas Jenkins, Brian Keelan, Jim Kelly, Judy Kopec (Johns Hopkins University), Fredric Kroll, Tanya Kutchinsky, the late Lyle Leverich, Glenn Lewis, Lloyd Lewis, John Loughery, Jeffrey Meyers, Jean Morin (Directorate of History and Heritage, Ottawa, Canada), Karl Müller, Ed Parone, Susan Peck, Stuart Proffitt, Andreas Reyneke, Dean Rocco, Jennifer Ruggiero, David Salmo, Suzelle Smith, Willie Walker, Robert Weil, George Wilson (Johns Hopkins University).