Personal life: reasons for emigration in 1939 xxiv, xxx–xxxi, 398, 408; plans for trip to England (March-April 1970) 4; dislike of flying 5, 8, 39, 77–8; flies to New York en route to England 5, 7; NBC interview on sexuality 17; dreams 23, 40, 114, 206, 212, 213, 237, 275, 352, 416, 419, 472, 480, 522, 543, 573–4, 586, 589, 625, 671, 672; dislike of dogs 42, 95, 182, 481, 580–81; smoking pot 52, 410; returns to California from England 77–8; attends lecture by Shirley Blum 80; contemplates moving house 81; and proposed Writers Guild strike 85, 86; holiday in San Francisco with Don Bachardy (June 1970) 88–9, 90; speech for BBC television film on Forster 89; inherits rights to Forster’s Maurice 92n, 199; asked to speak at National Students Gay Liberation Conference 97; visits Ray Unger and Jack Fontan in Laguna Beach with Don 101, 102, 354, 506–7; angered by oil company representatives 102, 250; sixty-sixth birthday 103; visits convalescing Dorothy Miller 103, 284; supper with Rita Hayworth 108, 375–6; attends Society of David meetings 111–12, 161; traffic tickets for passing red lights 111, 606; goes to motorcycle races 112; buys new typewriter 113; visits John Lehmann in San Diego 115; repair and redecoration of house 116, 118, 121, 122–3, 124, 125, 126, 127–8, 131, 133, 137, 604, 605, 608; visits Bill Brown and Paul Wonner in Montecito 117, 211, 270, 271; contemplates writing memoirs of Swami and Forster 119–20; locks keys in car 121; dolphin clock repaired 125; Evelyn Hooker proposes collaboration on popular book on homosexuality 126, 128, 144–5, 149, 152; tempted to adopt cat 131; Daily Telegraph article reveals homosexuality in print 132; New Year’s resolution to read Chekhov 133; chooses personal Academy Award nominations with Don 139; sees Emlyn Williams’s Dickens recital 143; drives away uninvited group of painters 145; attends Paul Wonner’s show at Landau Gallery 154; visits New York with Don following Stravinsky’s death (May 1971) 159, 161, 162, 163, 166, 168–74; witnesses handyman’s assistant’s heart attack 160, 161; gift for Don’s thirty-seventh birthday 168; sees Warhol retrospective at Whitney Museum of American Art 168; sees New York City Ballet production of Jewels 169; interviewed for Antaeus magazine 170; visits Truman Capote in United Nations Plaza apartment 173; flies back to Los Angeles on Boeing 747 174; interviewed for The National Observer 178; house sprayed for termites 179, 372–3; given Gerald Heard’s writing board following his death 189–90, 462, 538; dislike of long hair and beards 190, 197, 215, 242, 280, 434; trip to Trabuco with Michael Barrie 190–92; interviewed by Oxford University student 196; sixty-seventh birthday 197; installs cable television 203; considers leaving Curtis Brown 205, 387, 391, 405–6; sees Charles Demuth show in Santa Barbara 211; appoints Gavin Lambert as literary executor 217; Christmas present for Don (1971) 218; promotional trip to New York for Kathleen and Frank 218, 220, 221; sees Barbara Poe show at Rex Evans Gallery 221; interviewed by David Geherin 226; auditions and rehearsals for Los Angeles production of A Meeting by the River 227, 228–30, 231–2, 235; performances and reviews of the play 231–3, 234, 238, 243; lifetime achievement award from Hollywood Authors’ Club 234; photographed by Rob Matteson 236–7, 261, 264; hears Lee Roy Reams sing 238; and formation and naming of Whitman-Radclyffe Foundation 240, 241, 242; at Billy Al Bengston’s studio show 243–4; taped interview with Don on his working methods 245, 249; buys Ken Anderson painting 249; angered by women at gym 250; photographed by Pat McCallum York 254–5; attends Tom Hayden’s lectures on war in Indochina 261–2, 266, 270, 275, 277; minor collision with Japanese-American driver 268, 270; interviewed by Michael McDonagh and Jeff Bailey 273; sixty-eighth birthday 275–6, 277, 278; visits Peter and Clytie Alexander at Las Tunas Canyon 282–3, 357, 371, 656; bitten by dog 283; interviews Prabhavananda about his childhood 287; reminisces with Jo Lathwood about 1954 trip to Mexico 287; sees film version of Cabaret 289; votes in presidential election (1972) 289; asked to speak at Filmex festival 290, 297; trip to New York for performance of A Meeting by the River 293, 295, 296, 297–8, 300–301, 302–4, 304–5, 305–9; proposed interview for Esquire magazine 295, 297; writes to autograph hunter 299; goes to adult movie theater 303–4; sees green flashes in the sky 313, 444; Francophobia 335, 339, 534, 596; picketing for Writers Guild strike 346, 347, 348, 349–50, 351, 353, 355, 361; sees preview of Jim Bridges’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire 348; visits Truman Capote in Palm Springs 348, 349, 410; sees hustler who resembles Wayne Sleep 355; visits Yosemite and San Francisco with John Schlesinger and Michael Childers 366–8; at American Booksellers’ Association convention for promotion of Kathleen and Frank 368; visits Charles Hill’s and Guy Dill’s studios 370–71; interviewed for Gay Sunshine newspaper 372, 583; visits Mary Herbold in nursing home 374; sixty-ninth birthday 384, 385; on death of Auden 393, 394, 395, 641; tears up unanswered letters 401, 581, 611; looks through Auden’s papers 402; meets Don at airport on return from New York 403; sees two Open Theater Company productions 406–7; attends opening of Bruce Nauman’s Nicholas Wilder Gallery show 407–408; BBC filming for “Arena: Cinema” segment on Hollywood 409, 410–411; phone call from drunken fan 409; visits John Schlesinger in Palm Springs 411–13; and Don’s relationship with Bill Franklin (“The Downer”) 412n, 579–80, 608, 609–610, 612, 624, 648, 729; attends preview of John Boorman’s Zardoz 415; sees Kohoutek comet 418; trip to New York for Don’s Cultural Center show 419, 421–2, 423, 425–6; questioned by Don’s car-insurance agent 421; photographed with Liza Minnelli 422; at opening of Joseph Goode’s Nicholas Wilder Gallery show 427; trip to New Orleans for readings at Loyola University 432–3; at filming of Merchant-Ivory’s The Wild Party 437–9; visits Sarada Convent at Montecito 442, 547; inscribes books for Don 443–4; George Cukor asks to write biography 449; seventieth birthday 449, 450, 451, 452; transcribes Prabhavananda’s taped reminiscences 452, 456; overhanging trees pruned 459; at Dorothy Miller’s funeral 461; sees raccoons mating 461–2; Thanksgiving lunch at Trabuco 462; visits Chicago with Don 463; in New York for MLA convention 465, 466, 467; news of Chester Kallman’s death 465–6; interview request for Community College Social Science Quarterly 467; awarded Brandeis Medal 471, 474; transcribes Larry Holt’s narrative of Maupiti love affair 472– 3; at Bengston’s Academy Awards party 476; interviews and articles for The Advocate magazine 476, 477n, 485, 489; receives gay fan letters 477, 570; receives note of complaint from neighborhood child 481; seventy-first birthday 483; at Peter Pears concert at Schoenberg Hall 487; sees Wayland Flowers show 495; at David Bowie concerts 496, 567; sees production of Pinter’s The Homecoming 496; photographed by Mary Ellen Mark 497; enlargement of Don’s studio 498, 499, 500, 502, 503, 506, 507, 518, 521, 522, 524–5, 526, 528, 534n, 537; trip to Catalina 500; collects Woman of the Year Award for Anaïs Nin 501; filming for Platypus Films’s Christopher Isherwood: Over There on a Visit 504, 505, 514, 537; at opening of Hockney’s Nicholas Wilder Gallery show 507; interviewed by Carolyn Heilbrun 508, 510; in New York en route to and from Europe (May/July 1976) 508–510, 518; house burgled while in England 516, 519n, 521; learns of Prabhavananda’s death while in Morocco 517, 525; at memorial services for Prabhavananda 518, 537; sells Hilldale Avenue property 522, 540, 543, 544–5, 567; seventy-second birthday 522; disturbed by woman chanting in neighboring house 524, 526, 529; power outage following thunderstorm 524; publicity trips to New York and San Francisco for Christopher and His Kind 529– 530; interviewed by Paul Bailey for BBC 531; flat tire on car 535; publicity trip to Rochester, Toronto, Chicago and Minneapolis 536, 538, 539; sees Penny Kiskadden at theater 539–40; wills body to UCLA Department of Anatomy 539, 617; cactus stolen 541; proposed book of Don’s drawings with commentary 542, 544, 545, 551, 556, 557, 565, 566, 568–9, 571, 618, 621; adoption of Don 543–4, 569; renewal of driver’s license 546, 679; attends “Star-Spangled Night for Human Rights” at Hollywood Bowl 548–9; car hit by loose wheel on freeway 549; interviewed for NBC’s “The Tomorrow Show” 552; receives anonymous abusive phone call 563; seventy-fourth birthday 569–70; interviewed by Keith Berwick for NBC 570–71; receives abusive letter 570–71; sees Vincent Price’s Diversions and Delights show at USC 582; interviewed
for The Gay Liberation Book 583, 590; meets Princess Margaret 588, 589, 590; loses ring given by Don 602; in New York for Broadway production of A Meeting by the River 607, 608; death of brother 610; interviewed by Herbert Mitgang 612; seventy-fifth birthday 617; argument in movie theater 620; hits car backing out of driveway 623; meets Governor Jerry Brown 623; at Merle Oberon’s memorial service 624; hose repeatedly left running in garden 627–8, 633, 639–40; trip to San Francisco for promotion of My Guru and His Disciple 634, 643; death of William Caskey 636–7, 642–3, 647; speaks at Kenneth Tynan’s memorial service 640–41; resolves to stop “face making” 645–6, 661, 664; seventy-sixth birthday 645; trip to New York for Don’s Robert Miller Gallery show 646, 647, 648–53; tied up and assaulted during break-in 653–654, 661, 672; given Fred Flintstone watch by Hockney 658–9; visits Muktananda’s ashram 660–61; in St. John’s Hospital for hernia operation 676; seventy-seventh birthday 678; encounter with Iranian visitors from Manchester 683; congratulates Stephen Spender on knighthood 688; final illness and death 688
Professional activities: television script work (see also “The Beautiful and Damned”; “Frankenstein: The True Story”; “The Mummy”) vii, xvi–xix, 89, 265, 434, 439, 471, 553, 556, 560, 568, 583; film script writing (see also A Meeting by the River (draft screenplay); Monkey; “Paul”; The Vacant Room) xvi–xvii, 2–3, 79, 260, 265, 281, 283, 395, 545–6, 613; stage adaptations xvi, 3; teaching at U.C. Riverside 80; introduces John Lehmann lecture on Woolfs 153; talks at Claremont College 212, 213, 355; promotional appearances for Kathleen and Frank 218, 220, 221, 353; talk for John Rechy’s class at Occidental College 234; speaks at Max Reinhardt memorial concert at Hollywood Bowl 366, 370, 379–80, 382–4, 385–7; recording of Seven Upanishads readings 373; talks to class at USC 402; speaks at Loyola University, New Orleans 432; speaks at California State University Honors Convocation 433; reads at Auden tribute event at USC 434–5; introduces Evelyn Hooker at Institute for the Study of Human Resources event 439; speaks at writers’ conference at Cate School 442–3; speaks at Modern Language Association Forum on Homosexuality and Literature in New York 466; question-and-answer session at Cal. State, Long Beach 485, 489; recording of readings for Pelican Records 491, 496, 519, 521, 528; speaks at UCLA Gay Awareness Week event 498; talks to gay students at Cal. State Fullerton 498–9; speaks at USC Gay Week 505; speaks at National Portrait Gallery, London 515–16; promotional appearances for Christopher and His Kind 529–30; attends Gay Academic Union meeting in Toronto 538; recording of Bhagavad Gita selections 541–2, 598, 602, 607; speaks at ACLU garden party 554–5; fundraising events in San Francisco for Gay Rights Advocates 618–19, 620–21, 631, 666–7; lecture at College of Marin 630, 631; appearance at National Gay Archives event 634; promotional appearances for My Guru and His Disciple 634–5, 643, 645, 656; lecturing at U.C. Berkeley 645; speaks at Pomona College 670
Relationships: with Don Bachardy see separate entry under Bachardy, Don; with Heinz Neddermeyer 54; with William Caskey 121, 202, 544, 615, 619, 636–7, 712; with “Vernon Old” 544, 609, 612, 614, 779–80; with Denny Fouts 614, 615, 728
Spiritual ideas and practices: meditation xv, 94, 101, 103, 105–6, 107, 112–13, 125, 127, 141, 269, 282, 284, 286, 287, 294, 297, 356, 369, 401, 414, 423, 455, 458, 463, 484, 485, 486, 489, 522, 532, 558, 565; observations on conscious and unconscious mind xv–xvi, 65; and sexuality and relationships xxv, xxvii, 90, 97, 119, 162, 269, 282, 483, 489, 623; devotion to Swami Prabhavananda xxvi–xxvii, xl, 101, 167, 224, 282, 407; fear of derision in England xxxii–xxxiv, 554; speech at Vivekananda centenary celebrations xxxiii; religion and camp xxxv–xxxvi, xxxvii– xxxviii, 50; Vivekananda puja 4, 147, 217, 218–19, 419; prayers 32, 75, 81, 452, 463, 466, 591, 664, 679, 681; views on happiness and unhappiness 64, 110, 463; Swami’s counsel to 82, 101, 103, 105–6, 107, 129– 30, 284, 286–7, 413–14, 482–3; Father’s Day at Vedanta Society 88, 236, 361, 368, 373–4, 440; views on leaving monastery 110; takes the dust of Swami’s feet 114, 116, 175, 221; Brahmananda puja 133, 134, 151, 494, 561; Ramakrishna puja 151, 221– 2, 346, 422, 499; making japam 181–2, 353, 442, 480, 484, 558, 559, 563, 564, 570, 571, 608, 611, 646; making pranams 269; acts of recollection 278; bead telling 278, 281, 570; Holy Mother puja 305; receives spiritual vibration from Swami 355–6; thoughts of Swami after his death 522, 535, 537, 543, 555, 558, 560, 563, 622, 630, 641, 643, 664, 668, 675, 678, 679, 681, 682, 686; Swami’s bead added to rosary 537; at Golden Anniversary celebrations at Vedanta Center 643; description of karma 661–2
Travels: visits England (March-April 1970) xvi, 7–30, 38–77; trip to South Pacific and Australia with Don Bachardy (1969) 3, 49, 120, 258, 310; trip to South of France with David Hockney and Peter Schlesinger (March 1970) 26, 27, 28, 30–38, 43, 56; to England for “Frankenstein” filming (January-February 1973) 309, 312, 314–36; trip to Switzerland and Italy before returning to California 326, 336–41; in China (1938) 328; visits England and Scotland (June-July 1976) 510–516; trip to Morocco 516–17; returns to California via Madrid and New York 517–18; visits England (March-April 1977) 540, 542–3; to England and Holland for promotion of My Guru and His Disciple (1980) 635, 643, 645
Writings: diary keeping xiv–xv, xl, 7n, 37, 64–5, 78, 79, 93, 150, 196, 197, 217, 249, 452, 486, 490, 545, 558, 609, 611, 618, 621, 626, 635, 680, 682; draft foreword to book of Hockney’s drawings 3; translation of Shankara’s Crest Jewel of Discrimination with Prabhavananda 47, 60; Bhaghavad Gita translation with Prabhavananda 64; notebook on relationship with Don Bachardy 156, 157, 166; translation of Seven Upanishads with Prabhavananda 373; prefaces to Chetanananda’s anthologies 445, 446, 675; preface to omnibus edition of Berlin novels 465; proposed article for The Advocate 476–7; translation of Avadhuta Gita with Chetanananda 534; foreword to Vividishananda’s A Man of God 570, 573; blurb for Warhol’s POPism 624; see also “Afterwards”; An Approach to Vedanta; California; Christopher and His Kind; Down There on a Visit; Essentials of Vedanta; Exhumations; “Gems of Belgian Architecture”; Goodbye to Berlin; “Hypothesis and Belief”; Journey to a War; Kathleen and Frank; Lions and Shadows; Lost Years; A Meeting by the River; The Memorial; The Monsters; Mr. Norris Changes Trains; My Guru and His Disciple; October; Prater Violet; Ramakrishna and His Disciples; Sally Bowles; A Single Man; Vedanta for the Western World; “A Visit to Anselm Oakes”; The World in the Evening
Isherwood, Christopher (“Chris Connery”; disc jockey) 48
Isherwood, Elisabeth Luce Bradshaw (C.I.’s grandmother) 130
Isherwood, Frank Bradshaw (C.I.’s father): correspondence 49; courtship of Kathleen 72n; vertigo 72; military identity disk and uniform 95, 116, 542; death 96, 682; watercolors 264–5, 327, 333; anniversary of death 543n; 746
Isherwood, John Bradshaw (C.I.’s grandfather) 543n
Isherwood, John (Jack) Bradshaw (C.I.’s uncle) 206
Isherwood, Kathleen Bradshaw (C.I.’s mother): death 14; diaries 14, 54–5, 95, 96, 152, 398, 446; family history book 14, 18; dislike of C.I.’s friends 54; C.I.’s relations with 55, 398; courtship with Frank 72; and death of Frank 96; watercolors 265; and development at Wyberslegh 334, 342; religion 369; C.I. dreams about 625; 746–7
Isherwood, Muriel Bradshaw (C.I.’s aunt) 543n
Isherwood, Richard (C.I.’s brother): appearance and character x, 13, 14; C.I. visits in Cheshire, England x, 13–15, 43, 51, 52–53, 55, 330–334, 341–342, 513, 542; drinking x, 14, 55, 331, 332, 333; death xi, 610; and C.I.’s research for Kathleen and Frank 14, 96, 97, 101, 108; and C.I.’s attempts to acquire Mexican passport for Heinz Neddermeyer 54; sends birthday greetings to C.I. 276, 385; and C.I.’s research for Christopher and His Kind 398, 446; miniature of as child 524; his will and estate 610, 616, 670; 747
Isherwood, Thomas (C.I.’s cousin) 14, 333–4, 610, 616, 747
Isle of Wight, England 515
Israel see Arab-Israeli conflicts
Italy: earthquake (1971) 138; C.I. and Don Bachardy visit 326, 339–41
Ivory, James 419, 422, 423, 424, 4
25, 429–30, 431, 433–4, 748; The Wild Party 437–9, 441, 455, 470
Jackley, Jolyon 29
Jackson, Glenda 542
Jagadananda, Swami 250n
Jagannath Temple, India 260
Jagger, Mick 29, 271, 552
Jaglom, Henry 575
Jam Generation 1, 2
Jamaica Inn (film) 264
James Dean (television film) 497
James, Edward (Eddie) 248, 748
James, Henry 25, 325; letters 134; The Aspern Papers 360; “The Turn of the Screw” 225n, 388, 390
Jancar-Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles 637
Jarre, Maurice 356–7, 607, 748–9
Jasmine, Paul 551, 552
Jay, Karla, The Gay Report 592
Jean-Christophe (C.I.; screenplay) 265
Jeanmaire, Renée “Zizi” 534
Jebb, Julian 409, 410–411, 515, 749
Jewels (ballet) 169
Jews for Christ (organization) 251
Jim, the World’s Greatest (film) 497
John, Elton 253, 256, 259, 496; Honky Château 255–6
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