Page 20 HIGH GEAR

Isherwood's life detailed

By George Brown Christopher Isherwood until recently has been something of a man of mystery. Although in his fiction he continually wrote about "Christopher," about his various Christopher personae, he withheld much of himself, and this included his muted early autobiography, "Lions and Shadows." Not until "Kathleen and Frank" in 1971, the biography of his parents in which he also stars, did he begin to reveal himself fully. Then he made a large-scale attempt at full revelation in his candid autobiography, "Christopher and His Kind, in 1977, which

covered his life from 1929 to 1939. Now Jonathan Fryer, a young British writer living in Belgium, has written a full biography of the somewhat

esoteric writer.

"Isherwood" is a very readable book, and Fryer makes an attempt at objectivity, while in the introduction clearly stating his admiration for the AngloAmerican writer and at the end

amiable Isherwood, how objective would he always be, even though he also interviewed friends and others involved in Isherwood's life? But then biographers are often, and justly, kindly disposed toward their subject.

What emerges from this biography is an affable, a softspoken, well-bred individual with a strong ego and a strong instinct for survival, who throughout much of his life was a quiet but avid sex hunter. Early a rebel, Christopher rejected his family religion and a university degree, leaving Cambridge voluntarily but artfully manipulating himself

into what was in essence an expulsion. He turned from his family and his native land to become a foreigner in Europe and then in the United States, admitting that he enjoyed being a foreigner because being a foreigner is being different. This seems to have been Christopher's keynote: be different. He has even wryly commented that if homosexuals were in the majority and heterosexuals in the minority, then he would be a heterosexual.

stating that he began by writing as an admirer and finished by writing about a friend. This, of course, has both a plus and a. The biograpy up to 1939 minus. By having Isherwood's cooperation he had access to firsthand information; but also. by becoming friends with the

parallels much of what Christopher has already written. Christopher was born to landed gentry, lost his father in World

War I, went away to boarding school, refused to endure the Establishment, and published his first novel at the age of twentythree.

Having been sexually initiated at Cambridge, in 1929 Christopher set out for Berlin, where he established alliances with various boys (Christopher was to maintain his interest in boys, that is teenagers, usually late teenagers) at least until he was in his late forties. He found a German lover of long standing. but this alliance was involuntary broken when after a long trail through Europe seeking a refuge from the Nazis for Heinz, Heinz was arrested by the Gestapo. The two lovers didn't see each other again for fifteen years, when Christopher returned to visit Berlin. By now Heinz was married and had a son named Christopher. The First American lover to succeed Heinz also eventually married and sired a son named Christopher.

in 1938 Christopher and his friend and sometime sexual partner, poet W.H. Auden, set off onalist's tour of China.

the

war with Japan. An example of Fryer's crisp prose is a characater capsule of Christopher and Auden on their departure from London: "Several press photographers were at the station to see them on to the Dover

train. Christopher sported a tartan woolly scarf and his familiar cheeky grin. Wystan was more pointedly casual, his spotted bow-tie askew, a camera slung over one shoulder, while his face had the cool, steely glare of an ace reporter."

Fryer gives a fleeting but marvelous portrait of the brilliant Auden as he rushes to and fro on his various projects: arriving full of gusto with Christopher for a holiday on the Isle of Wight; arriving with verve to visit Christopher in Belgium, in Portugal, in Denmark; hurrying to the Spanish Civil War and pausing in Paris for a meeting with Christopher. Auden seemed to arrive and to depart with the force of a benign hurricane; and in New York City he stood lecturing with his long shoelaces untied. Fryer seems to have excellent perception of the mercurial Auden. Perhaps he will now write a biography of him.

There was something pathetically comic about the two former schoolmates as they ventured through China, on the edge of battle but mainly meeting persons of distinction--hardly ace reporters who could get to the heart of the matter. From this visit, however, came one of their mutual collaborations, "Journey to a War." They returned to England with frazzled nerves--

frayed not by the war but by each other.

On the eve of World War II the two friends came to the United States and soon went their separate ways, with Auden settling on the East Coast and Christopher soon settling in California, where he became, off and on, a screenwriter of sorts. Although he was well paid for this work, few of the screenplays on which he worked throughout the years were filmed.

In pre-war Europe Christopher had been a fellow traveler with the Lefists, but now he became a pacifist, embraced the Vedanta religion, and became associated with the Quakers. It is typical of him that he was able to make his own rules and to come to terms with his spiritual and carnal sides within these two religions. While working with the Quakers in Pennsylvania for some months during the war, he had a sexual partner living with him, who with his campy ways must have puzzled the conservative religious group.

But Christopher didn't tarry long with the Quakers. Back in Los Angeles he resumed his sophisticated life, mainly in the Santa Monica area. He wrote. published. swam, drank. went to (con't on page 21)

Fred Schenk, President of Greater Cleveland Gay Coalition, wishes to thank the following patrons and friends for their efforts for the picnic. Without them, it could not be possible. Remember that Stroh's, Lite, and Heineken's are our beers.

THE VAULTS

EXEDRA'S

620

NANTUCKET

TRAXX

NEW DIMENSIONS

MIST-A'-HENRY'S

PARADISE BAR

NIGHT LIFE LOUNGE

St. Clair Baths

GODMOTHER'S II

THE LEATHER STALLION

JJ'S DISCO

CROWN CAFE

MICHAEL'S

4th STREET BOOK EXCHANGE

DOWNTOWN BOOKS & NEWS

95th STREET NEWS

CLUB CLEVELAND-W. 32nd STREET