Welcome to Litsy!

Allow me to bitch my way towards praising Isherwood's memoir: it grated that he told it in the third person with a few retrospective first person observations; too much of it was an undisciplined diary dump, too much again a dull exposé of who, and, tediously, to what degree, his characters were based on real people. That said, there are too many wonderful stories here of 1930s gay and literary life for this not to be an enthusiastic pick.

Christopher Isherwood and WH Auden in Canada, circa 1938! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

James Stern warrants his own Wikipedia page, and when he died in 1993 he got an obit in the New York Times. But would you believe the Internet doesn't have one photo of him, nor even a decent photo of the book of his short stories? I'm intrigued…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stern

This is but one colorful episode in Gerald Hamilton's long and extremely colorful life: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Hamilton

This is how Isherwood got his lucky break as a Hollywood screenwriter. And this is what all those people meant when they called me "genial".... :-)

As a two-pack-a-day smoker for nearly 30 years, until 2 1/2 years ago, I call B.S. on this story. Still, it's a great anecdote. :-)

A chill went through me as I read this paragraph, just saying...

Just so everyone understands, I am posting this DESPITE not being able to relate to it at all. High-tension, extreme-danger relationship history? Me? Nuh-uh. 😂❤😂❤

Didn't know Thomas Mann had a writer son - and what a handsome devil!

Fun fact: I'd never heard of Upward before, but Wikipedia tells me that until his death in 2009 at the age of 105 he was thought to be the UK's oldest living author.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Upward

Excited to finally start reading this today. One of my bestest gay friends told me I must read it; he said the movie poignantly reminded him of me and of our friendship so I'm definitely intrigued.