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Editor: James J. Berg: Forward by Claude J. Summers

ISBN: 13-978-0-8166-4693-7:   10-0-8166-4693-7

Christopher Isherwood is considered a major Anglo-American novelist. He was a pioneer in the gay liberation movement and the founding father of modern gay writing. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Isherwood presented a series of lectures at various California universities on the theme “A Writer and His World.” In this series of lectures Isherwood for the first time commented openly about his craft-on writing for films, theatre, novels and spirituality.  James J. Berg, dean of social sciences and arts at the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, California has now assembled in Isherwood on Writing these lectures. Dean Berg has also included a forward by Professor Emeritus Claude J. Summers of English at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

According to Summers, reading these lectures after fifty years of their delivery “is to observe an accomplished and versatile artist in the process of evolving. It is also to feel-acutely-through their reticences and euphemisms-the constraints he felt then at speaking openly about homosexuality even at liberal universities before congenial audiences.” What is noteworthy about these lectures is that they offer to the reader an invaluable peek into a caring writer’s literary approach and theories at a critical era of his life, a time when he was rethinking his career.

Beginning with this very interesting Foreword, Berg presents a comprehensive introduction where he introduces us to Isherwood with an overview of his intentions and methods for the lectures. It is also pointed out that the book collects for the first time transcripts, edited and annotated, from the three lecture series that were given at Berkley in 1963 as well as previous lectures in 1960 at the University of California, Santa Barbara and subsequently at the University of California, Los Angeles. Berg also informs his readers that the introduction explores the various issues he encountered while putting together the book.

Among some of the issues explored deal with the fact that although the American period of Isherwood’s life is well documented in his diaries, there still exists many misconceptions about his work and experiences in the United States. We are also apprised of the fact that when Isherwood began lecturing publicly he was not shy about proclaiming his personal views such as loyalty oaths in Santa Barbara in 1960, although his employment the previous year was predicated on his signing a loyalty oath for L.A. State College. In another section we read about Reading the American Isherwood where it is shown that his literary reputation is far from settled.

After this wide-ranging introduction, Berg then goes onto divide the book into three parts that deal with a writer and his world, 1960, an autobiography of Isherwood`s books, 1963-65, and Isherwood`s lecture with his notes pertaining to such subject matters as influences on writing, why write at all, what is the nerve of interest in the novel, writers and the theatre, writers and films, writers and religion, writers of the thirties, the novel as an experience, voices of novelists and dramatists in the modern era, what is a novel and the novel and the novelist.

A sampling of one of Isherwood`s challenging lectures finds him throwing out the question what does it mean to write and what is it all about? According to Isherwood, he wrote in order to find out what his life meant and who he was, as well as finding out if there’s meaning in the external world. And as he continues, if there isn’t any meaning, he imposes a meaning of his own. To quote Isherwood: “You have this material, this thing is passing by, what does it all mean? Who are these people? Why am I here? What is it all about? And so you grasp at this thing and try to understand it.”

In another lecture Isherwood examines the nerve of the interest in a novel. He asks what makes a novel vital alive good great? Throughout the lectures Isherwood describes his writing relationships with W.H. Auden, E.M Forster, Virginia Woolf, Stephen Spender, Aldous Huxley, and Somerset Maugham. He also refers to his experiences in the film industry in London and Hollywood.

Isherwood on Writing is a moving and memorable book that provides a wonderful resource for writers and readers as it powerfully covers the world of the writer and in particular a major figure in twentieth-century fiction and the gay rights movement. 

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The above review was contributed by: The Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com, Norm Goldman, B.A. LL.L, Retired Title Attorney: Norm is also a travel writer and together with his artist wife, Lily, the couple meld Norm's words with Lily's art. To check out their travel site click on Sketchandtravel.com   Click here to view Norm’s Reviews & Interviews.