What do you think?
Rate this book
Isherwood: A Life Revealed
Here is the definitive biography of one of the most exciting, influential, and elusive authors of the twentieth century. Christopher Isherwood’s novels and short stories, including those that inspired the musical Cabaret, have always been assumed to be largely autobiographical.
Based in part on Isherwood’s private papers–unavailable until now–this fascinating book presents the real story of his life, a life that saw a relatively conventional boy become an acclaimed writer, mystic, and “grand old man” of the gay liberation movement. In the end, Isherwood: A Life portrays someone who misled as much as he revealed.
Born in 1904, the heir to a large country estate where his grandfather was squire, Isherwood had a youth filled with both privilege and loss. His father’s death in World War I devastated his mother and created a “hero-father” image that would haunt both Christopher and his unstable brother for the rest of their lives.
He began to acknowledge his homosexuality at his English boarding school and subsequently formed a definition of “self” based on subterfuge, performance, and escape. With his lifelong friends W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender he emerged as one of the leading literary figures of the 1930s.
From the bars, nightclubs, and slums of Weimar Germany–where Isherwood created The Berlin Stories and introduced the world to Sally Bowles–to homosexual communes in Greece and Portugal, to the film studios of London (the subject of his novel Prater Violet) and Hollywood, his destinations became arenas for his reinventions. Isherwood’s later years as an unofficial spiritual and sexual sage in Southern California only added to the abiding mystery of his life.
In addition to using Isherwood’s correspondence, unpublished diaries, and other previously unavailable sources in painting this clear and definitive portrait, Peter Parker has also unearthed the author’s telling early works, including parodies, school memoirs, and even part of a crucial lost novel.
Painstakingly researched and brilliantly written, Isherwood: A Life captures the fugitive reality of a man who has become a favorite artist and important symbol of an entire era in our life of letters. Published in the centennial of his birth, it will be read as long as Isherwood himself is.
Based in part on Isherwood’s private papers–unavailable until now–this fascinating book presents the real story of his life, a life that saw a relatively conventional boy become an acclaimed writer, mystic, and “grand old man” of the gay liberation movement. In the end, Isherwood: A Life portrays someone who misled as much as he revealed.
Born in 1904, the heir to a large country estate where his grandfather was squire, Isherwood had a youth filled with both privilege and loss. His father’s death in World War I devastated his mother and created a “hero-father” image that would haunt both Christopher and his unstable brother for the rest of their lives.
He began to acknowledge his homosexuality at his English boarding school and subsequently formed a definition of “self” based on subterfuge, performance, and escape. With his lifelong friends W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender he emerged as one of the leading literary figures of the 1930s.
From the bars, nightclubs, and slums of Weimar Germany–where Isherwood created The Berlin Stories and introduced the world to Sally Bowles–to homosexual communes in Greece and Portugal, to the film studios of London (the subject of his novel Prater Violet) and Hollywood, his destinations became arenas for his reinventions. Isherwood’s later years as an unofficial spiritual and sexual sage in Southern California only added to the abiding mystery of his life.
In addition to using Isherwood’s correspondence, unpublished diaries, and other previously unavailable sources in painting this clear and definitive portrait, Peter Parker has also unearthed the author’s telling early works, including parodies, school memoirs, and even part of a crucial lost novel.
Painstakingly researched and brilliantly written, Isherwood: A Life captures the fugitive reality of a man who has become a favorite artist and important symbol of an entire era in our life of letters. Published in the centennial of his birth, it will be read as long as Isherwood himself is.
815 pages, Hardcover
First published December 7, 2004
5 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Peter Parker
10 books14 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Peter Parker (1954-) was born in Herefordshire and educated in the Malverns, Dorset and London. He is the author of The Old Lie: The Great War and Public-School Ethos and biographies of J.R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood. He edited the Reader’s Companion to the Twentieth-Century Novel and The Reader’s Companion to Twentieth Century Writers, and was an associate editor of The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He writes about books and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines and lives in London’s East End.
Peter Parker (1954-) was born in Herefordshire and educated in the Malverns, Dorset and London. He is the author of The Old Lie: The Great War and Public-School Ethos and biographies of J.R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood. He edited the Reader’s Companion to the Twentieth-Century Novel and The Reader’s Companion to Twentieth Century Writers, and was an associate editor of The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He writes about books and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines and lives in London’s East End.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 13, 2025
Parker does an incredible job, I appreciated how he didn't hold back from being critical of Isherwood at times, and used the huge breadth of material at his disposal to show a broad perspective. It felt like Parker was as objective as he could possibly be, the times he sided with Isherwood's mother made me laugh out loud. I hero-worshipped Isherwood in my teen years, but never before had I gotten past the character of 'Christopher Isherwood'/'Herr Issyvoo' and met Chris.
August 15, 2022
Exhaustive but exhausting. There is no denying this IS the definitive biography of a complex, fascinating author and pioneer in LGBTQ life. But I wish the book had been given to an editor with an iron hand -- one could cut a large chunk of writing in this book, yet maintain the quality presentation of Isherwood in all his warts-and-all glory, while the 20th century unfolds around him. It's the sheer quality of the scholarship that rises above the obsessively biblical length.
January 30, 2023
A very absorbing and thoroughly researched book. I learned quite a bit about Isherwood, who wrote one of my favorite books, Berlin Stories, and some of the differences between what he claimed happened in Christopher and His Kind, and what Parker shows was maybe a more likely version of true events. Sometimes the level of detail was daunting, but this is an essential resource for anyone who wants to learn about Isherwood's life.
May 15, 2018
He knows how to write a biography. Spellbounding and hats off to 12 years of work!
April 24, 2013
Reasonably well written biography that struggled to make interesting a subject that I eventually (and disappointedly) found to be somewhat dull. I was drawn to the biography by my admiration for the Berlin novels but would suggest that this would be insufficient to retain the interest of readers that are not fans of Isherwood's later work.
Want to read
April 18, 2008By the by, it cracks me up that they decided to print this in Times Roman.
March 12, 2009
This book is so long I will never finish it
December 13, 2009
This is a wonderful book -- am re-reading it before seeing A SINGLE MAN. Isherwood is my favorite writer -- almost every book of his still affects me as it did when I first discovered him.
August 2, 2011
Could have used a good editor, at 750 pages its about 25% too long. Isherwood was extremely self analyzing and the author uses that to good effect, but too much of it.
May 24, 2014
Amazingly exhaustive biography of the writer, but nothing drags.You will be amazed how fast this reads. Good illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews