Christopher Isherwood papers

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.