Bridges, James (Jimmy) (1936–1993). American actor, screenwriter and director. Bridges was stage manager for the UCLA Professional Theater Group in the early 1960s when John Houseman recommended him as a writer for a Hitchcock suspense series on TV. He came to prominence in the 1970s when he directed The Paper Chase (1973), The China Syndrome (1979), Urban Cowboy (1980), and others. He lived with the actor Jack Larson from the mid-1950s onward, and through Larson became close friends with Isherwood and Bachardy. Bridges directed the first production of Isherwood and Bachardy’s play A Meeting by the River.
Britten, Benjamin (1913–1976). British composer. W. H. Auden worked with Britten from September 1935 at the GPO Film Unit in Soho Square and introduced him to the Group Theatre; Britten composed the music for The Ascent of F6, and Isherwood perhaps first met him at rehearsals in February 1937. By March 1937, the two were friendly enough to spend the night together at the Jermyn Street Turkish Baths, though they never had a sexual relationship. Britten wrote the music for the next Auden-Isherwood play, On the Frontier. Britten and his eventual lifelong companion, Peter Pears, went to America not long after Auden and Isherwood, reaching New York in the summer of 1939, and Auden and Britten wrote Paul Bunyan (1941), Britten’s first opera, during this period. Britten and Pears returned to England in March 1942. Both were pacifists and registered as conscientious objectors during the war. A major figure, Britten composed songs, song cycles, orchestral music, works for chorus and orchestra such as his War Requiem (1961), and nine operas including Peter Grimes (1945), Albert Herring (1948), Billy Budd (1951), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960), and Death in Venice (1973).
Brooke, Tim. British novelist; a contemporary of Isherwood at Cambridge, he later spent time in Los Angeles. His novels, published under the name Hugh Brooke, include The Mad Shepherdess (1930), Man Made Angry (1932), Miss Mitchell (1934), and Saturday Island (1935). He was a close friend of the dancer Nicky Nadeau.
Brown, David. American film producer. Brown was a journalist before coming to Hollywood. At Twentieth Century-Fox, he became story editor and afterwards formed a production company with Richard Zanuck, called Zanuck-Brown. Isherwood met Brown through Jim Geller in 1956, but never worked on any of the Fox projects mooted between them.
Brown, Harry (1917–1986). American screenwriter and novelist. Brown was educated at Harvard, and also wrote poetry and plays; for the movies, he wrote on a variety of subjects, including a number of war films. He won an Oscar as co-writer for A Place in the Sun (1951). In the early 1950s, he worked at Twentieth Century-Fox and MGM, and he was married for a few years to Marguerite Lamkin. Later he married June de Baum.
Brown, H. Runham (1879–1949). Brown went to prison for refusing to serve in World War I and was later a founder and Secretary of War Resisters International; an ardent socialist, he believed that in the class struggle, war resisters ranged themselves on the side of the oppressed. He was a friend and associate of George Lansbury.
Buckingham, Bob. British policeman; the longtime friend of E. M. Forster. His wife was called May Buckingham.
Buddha Chaitanya (Buddha). A disciple of Swami Prabhavananda, originally called Philip Griggs. He lived as a monk both at the Hollywood Center and at Trabuco during the 1950s and took brahmacharya with John Yale in August 1955, becoming Buddha Chaitanya. In 1959 he left Vedanta for a time, but he later returned, took sannyas and became Swami Yogeshananda. Later he led a Vedanta group in Georgia.
bundist. Member of a pro-Nazi German-American organization.
Burgess, Guy (1910–1963). British diplomat and double agent. Burgess became a communist while at Cambridge, and he was secretly recruited by the Soviets during the 1930s. He worked for the BBC until joining the Foreign Office in the mid-1940s, and he was meanwhile also employed by MI5. In May 1951, having been recalled from his post in Washington under Kim Philby, Burgess was warned by Anthony Blunt that he was suspected of espionage. He disappeared with Donald Maclean, also a double agent, and it eventually became clear the pair had defected to Moscow (their presence there was announced in 1956). Isherwood knew Burgess in London during the 1930s, where Burgess was also friendly with W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender, and it was Burgess who introduced Isherwood to Jacky Hewit in 1938. Hewit had been Burgess’s lover until Burgess met Peter Pollock in Cannes that year. After roughly a decade with Pollock, Burgess lived with Hewit again intermittently during the three years leading up to his defection.
the Burns brothers. The comedian George Burns and his youngest brother Willy (their real name was Birnbaum) had a production company, McCadden Productions (named after Willy’s street, McCadden Place). In 1957, Isherwood and Gavin Lambert tried to sell them an idea for a TV series starring Hermione Gingold. Willy was also a personal manager for George and for George’s wife and comedy partner, Gracie Allen, and he occasionally wrote material for their radio and, later, television shows. Gracie Allen retired in June 1958. Ronnie Burns, only son of George and Gracie, sometimes acted in “The Burns and Allen Show” on TV, but later left show business. George Burns died in 1996, aged 100.
Burns, Phil. American designer. A young man with whom Isherwood had a friendly sexual relationship before he met Don Bachardy and occasionally afterwards. Burns was probably in his thirties at the time.
Bynner, Witter (1881–1968). American poet. In 1916, Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke successfully launched a spoof literary movement “Spectrism,” intended to parody Pound’s Imagism and similar movements; Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments achieved wide recognition, and Bynner went on to write more seriously under the identity he adopted for the hoax, Emmanuel Morgan. Afterwards he translated Tang poetry from the Chinese with the scholar Kiang Kang-hu. Isherwood may have met Bynner towards the end of the 1940s; Bynner lived in Santa Fe with his friend Bob Hunt, and also had a house in Mexico, at Lake Chapala. He knew D. H. Lawrence and Frieda, and Isherwood evidently read in manuscript Bynner’s book on Lawrence, Journey With Genius (1951).
Cadmus, Paul. American painter of Basque and Dutch background; his sister, Fidelma, was married to Lincoln Kirstein. Cadmus drew Isherwood in February 1942 in New York, where Cadmus lived, and the two became friends.
Calder-Marshall, Arthur (1908–1992). English writer and editor; a contemporary of Stephen Spender at Oxford (where Calder-Marshall composed poetry and edited The Oxford Outlook) and a friend afterwards. He went on to write fiction, biography, and essays, and is best-known for his public school novel Dead Centre (1935). Auden and Isherwood included him in their 1939 contribution to Vogue, “Young British Writers—On the Way Up,” but Isherwood was disappointed by Calder-Marshall’s novel Occasion of Glory (1955), which he was asked to script in 1960.
Caldwell, Evelyn. See Hooker, Evelyn.
Capote, Truman (1924–1984). American novelist, born in New Orleans. Isherwood was introduced to Capote at the Random House offices on May 1, 1947, shortly before the publication of Capote’s first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. They quickly became friends. Capote wrote for The New Yorker, where he worked for a time, and for other magazines; his books include The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958), and the chilling non-fiction novel In Cold Blood (1966). Capote’s companion for many years was Newton Arvin, a college professor, and afterwards Jack Dunphy, a dancer and, later, a novelist (The Nightmovers). They travelled extensively—around the Mediterranean, in the West Indies, through Russia and the Orient—and sometimes lived abroad. Drink and drugs probably accelerated the end of Capote’s career.
Carlson, Evans (1896–1947). American soldier; Carlson moved from the U.S. Army to the Marine Corps in 1922 and retired as a result of his wounds in 1946, by then a heavily decorated Brigadier General. Isherwood and Auden met him in China where, in 1937–1938, he was observing the Chinese armies and had penetrated behind Japanese lines with the communist guerrillas. Carlson resigned from the marines in 1939 and produced a scholarly analysis The Chinese Army (1941), which examined the success of the Chinese in repelling foreign invad
ers despite their lack of modern weaponry; then in 1941, he reenlisted. At his recommendation, the Marine Corps adopted some of the commando tactics Carlson had learned from the Chinese guerrillas, forming its first Raider Battalions in 1942. Carlson led the 2nd Raider Battalion and took the motto for his unit from the Chinese communists: “gung-ho” (work together), the first use of the phrase in English.
Caroline. See Freud, Caroline.
Caskey, William (Bill) (1921–1981). American photographer, born and raised in Kentucky, a lapsed Catholic of Irish background, part Cherokee Indian. Isherwood met Caskey in the first half of 1945 when Caskey arrived in Santa Monica Canyon with a friend, Hayden Lewis, and joined the circle surrounding Denny Fouts and Jay de Laval; they became lovers in June that year and by August had begun a serious affair. Caskey had been briefly in the navy, though he was once in legal trouble for avoiding the draft (his wealthy, elderly lover of the time, Len Hanna, rescued him with an expensive lawyer), and he was discharged neither honorably nor dishonorably (a “blue discharge”) following a homosexual scandal in which Hayden Lewis was also implicated. Caskey had worked in photo-finish at a Kentucky racecourse and in about 1945 he took up photography seriously, proving talented. He took the photographs for The Condor and The Cows and did portraits of some of his and Isherwood’s friends. Caskey’s father bred horses, and Caskey had ridden since childhood; they had their love of horses in common but otherwise father and son fought a great deal. Caskey’s parents lived apart, and he remained in touch with his mother, Catherine Caskey, a pretty woman with a southern accent who talked ceaselessly and unthinkingly. She accepted Caskey’s relationship with Isherwood with whom she got on well, and The Condor and the Cows is dedicated to her. Caskey also had two sisters, but was on bad terms with them. Caskey and Isherwood split for good in 1951 after intermittent separations and domestic troubles. Later Caskey lived in Athens and travelled frequently to Egypt. As well as taking photographs, he made art objects out of junk, and for a time had a business beading sweaters.
Cerf, Bennett (1898–1971). American publisher. Cerf was the founder of Random House, W. H. Auden’s and Isherwood’s first American publisher. He had persuaded Faber and Faber jointly to commission Journey to a War, and in early March 1939 he gave Isherwood a $500 advance on his next (unwritten) novel. Cerf’s long and distinguished literary career began in the 1920s; among other achievements, he founded the Modern Library and held senior posts at Random House until his death. He is popularly known for his books of jokes and humor. Towards the end of the 1950s, Isherwood left Random House for Simon and Schuster.
Chapman, Kent. A student acquaintance of Isherwood’s with whom he corresponded and occasionally met. Isherwood first mentions Chapman in his diary in July 1957, but evidently knew him before this; Chapman was interested in Vedanta. He was an aspiring fiction writer and followed artistic developments among the California poets and painters in West Venice, where he lived during the late 1950s. At the time, he had a girlfriend called Nancy Dvorak whom Isherwood also met. In 1958 Chapman was drafted into the army and sent abroad. Isherwood’s friendship with Chapman lies behind the relationship between “George” and “Kenny” in A Single Man, though Chapman is not the main model for Kenny.
Chandler, Raymond (1888–1959). American writer; raised and educated in England from the age of seven. Chandler created the private-eye Philip Marlowe, an attractive and incorruptible cynic, who featured in The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell, My Lovely (1940), and The Long Goodbye (1954), among others. Many of his novels were filmed, and they also were admired as literature, especially by W. H. Auden.
Charles. See Laughton, Charles.
Charlton, Jim (b. 1919). American architect, from Reading, Pennsylvania. Charlton had been a student with Ben Masselink at Taliesin West in Arizona, and had also been trained at Frank Lloyd Wright’s other center, Taliesin, in Wisconsin. He joined the air force during the war, and flew twenty-six missions over Germany, including a July 1943 daylight raid on Hamburg. Isherwood was introduced to him by the Masselinks in August 1948, and they established a friendly-romantic attachment that lasted intermittently through a number of years during which each had various other lovers. Towards the end of the 1950s Charlton married a wealthy Swiss woman called Hilde, a mother of three, and had a son with her in September 1958. The marriage ended in divorce. Afterwards he lived in Hawaii until the late 1980s, and he wrote an autobiographical novel called St. Mick. Charlton was a model for Bob Wood in The World in the Evening.
Chisholm, Hugh (1913–1972). American poet and translator. Isherwood met Hugh Chisholm in London in 1937 when Chisholm was an undergraduate at Cambridge and asked to join Isherwood and W. H. Auden on their trip to China. Chisholm later arrived in Hollywood with his wife Bridget in 1940 to organize war relief at the Goldwyn Studios with Sam Goldwyn. The Chisholms also became involved in Isherwood’s Quaker relief work, and later Hugh Chisholm worked in New York on a Quaker scheme for an alternative to compulsory service for C.O.s. Bridget Chisholm had a baby son while in Hollywood. By 1955 when Isherwood and Don Bachardy visited Chisholm in Rome, he had left his wife and was living with Brad Fuller; the pair visited Hollywood a few years later.
Chris. See Wood, Chris.
C.O. Conscientious objector; see also Selective Service.
Collier, John (1901–1980). British novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for His Monkey Wife (1930) and also wrote other fantastic and satirical tales. Isherwood admired his short stories. Collier was poetry editor of Time and Tide in the 1920s and early 1930s and came to Hollywood in 1935. Isherwood met him in the 1940s, perhaps at Salka Viertel’s, and they became close friends while working at the same time at Warner Brothers during 1945. In 1951 Collier moved to Mexico, though he continued to write films, including the script for the film version of I Am a Camera, which Isherwood deplored.
Connolly, Cyril (1903–1974). British journalist and critic, educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Connolly was a regular contributor to English newspapers and magazines. He wrote one novel, The Rock Pool (1936), followed by collections that combined criticism, autobiography, and aphorism—Enemies of Promise (1938) and The Unquiet Grave (1944). Further collections appeared after the war, displaying his gift for parody. In 1939, Connolly founded the magazine Horizon with Stephen Spender and edited it throughout its publication until 1950. He was perhaps the nearest “friend” of Isherwood and W. H. Auden who criticized publicly and from a position of relative authority their decision to remain in America despite the outbreak of war. He blamed them for abandoning a literary-political movement which he was convinced they had begun and were responsible for. Connolly was married three times: first to Jean Bakewell, who divorced him in 1945, then to Barbara Skelton from 1950 to 1956, and finally, in 1959, to Dierdre Craig with whom he had a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Cressida. From 1940 to 1950 he lived with Lys Lubbock, who worked with him at Horizon; they never married, but she changed her name to Connolly by deed poll.
Connolly, Jean (1910–1949). Frances Jean Bakewell, a wealthy American from Pittsburgh and Baltimore; first wife of Cyril Connolly. They met in Paris where she was an art student, and Isherwood was introduced to her there in 1936. Both of the Connollys had other relationships, and they were often apart. She accompanied Denny Fouts to America during the war. In 1943 she fell in love with the surrealist poet and short story writer Lawrence Vail, twenty years her senior, and filed for divorce in 1945 in order to marry Vail the following year. She was a heavy drinker, which perhaps contributed to her early death from a stroke in Paris. Isherwood’s character “Ruthie” in Down There on a Visit is modelled on her.
Conway, Steve (an assumed name). A messenger boy at Warner Brothers and an aspiring actor. Isherwood met him at the studio in May 1945, and they began an affair that lasted until about August. Conway had previously worked in a casino in Las Vegas, and on a ranch, and he had also been briefly in the navy.
Coombs, Don. American professor of English at UCLA. Isherwood
met him at a party at Jay de Laval’s in late 1949, and they had a casual sexual relationship.
Corbin, Ella. See Amiya.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Isherwood’s undergraduate college.
Costidy, Sam (not his real name). Isherwood met Costidy in New York, evidently on March 9, 1952, with another friend, Gerrit Lansing. The three spent much of the next ten days together and, on March 19, Isherwood took Costidy to Bermuda. Costidy was then about twenty-four. After the Bermuda holiday, Costidy went to California where he had a brief relationship with Tom Wright. He quarrelled with Isherwood and left with Wright to see Wright’s parents in Louisiana. Afterwards Costidy visited his own parents, and never returned to California. Later he married and fell out of touch with his homosexual friends.
Costigan, James. American actor and television writer. Isherwood met him in 1956 through Julie Harris, a mutual close friend.
Cotten, Joseph (1905–1994) and Lenore. American actor and his first wife. Cotten was a drama critic and a Broadway stage star before coming to Hollywood to act in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941). Afterwards, he was in many other films. Lenore, wealthy in her own right, was a friend to Isherwood and Bachardy until her death in 1960. In the same year, Cotten married Patricia Medina, a British film actress.
CPS camp. Civilian Public Service camp, for instance San Dimas; roughly 12,000 conscientious objectors were drafted to CPS camps during the war. See also Selective Service.
Craft, Robert (Bob). American musician, conductor, critic, and author. Colleague and adopted son to Stravinsky during the last twenty-three years of Stravinsky’s life. Isherwood first met Craft with the Stravinskys in August 1949 when Craft was about twenty-five years old and had been associated with the Stravinskys for about eighteen months. Craft was part of the Stravinsky household, and travelled everywhere with them except when his professional commitments forced him to do otherwise. Increasingly he conducted for Stravinsky in rehearsals and supervised his recording sessions, substituting entirely for the elder man as Stravinsky’s health declined. In 1972, a year after Stravinsky’s death, Craft married Stravinsky’s Danish nurse, Alva, who had remained with Stravinsky until the end. The same year, Craft published excerpts from his diaries as Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship 1948–1971; he expanded the book and republished it in 1994.
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