Synopses & Reviews
Stars in My Eyes is a revealing and entertaining collection of celebrity portraits, rendered both in acute drawings and in finely observed prose. In the 1970s and 1980s, internationally known artist Don Bachardy made portraits from life, depicting the actors, writers, artists, composers, directors, and Hollywood elite that he and his partner Christopher Isherwood knew. He then made detailed notes about these portrait sittings in the journal he has kept for more than forty years. The result is a unique document: we enter the mind of the artist as he records the images and behavior of his celebrity subjectsandmdash;from Ruby Keeler and Barbara Stanwyck to Jack Nicholson and Linda Ronstadtandmdash;during their often intense collaboration with him.
Finalist, Lambda Literary Foundation Book Award
and#160;
Review
andldquo;A treasure trove and ideal for movie people who think theyandrsquo;ve seen it all.andrdquo;andmdash;David Thomson, Los Angeles Times
Review
andldquo;Bachardy is both a great conversationalist-in-print and a fine, fine artist. The combination is unbeatable.andrdquo;andmdash;Peter Plagens, art critic, Newsweek
Review
“This varied collection of interviews, memoirs, and essays constitutes a much deserved tribute to one of the twentieth century's most insightful observers of the human condition.
The Isherwood Century provides eloquent testimony to Isherwood's continuing significance as artist, moralist, and courage-teacher.”—Claude J. Summers, author of
Christopher IsherwoodReview
“The starting point for any consideration of Isherwood, his work, and his contribution to gay and lesbian arts and letters.”—James Mandrell, Brandeis University
Review
“A superb anthology, varied and informative. Here at last is a collection that matches my own enthusiasm for Isherwood's fiction and my own sense of his importance as an English writer. In fact, it is hard to read this book without pulling Isherwood volumes off my shelves. It is the book's triumph.”—Lev Raphael, author of
Dancing on Tisha B'avReview
“Certainly no other figure in my life made me feel more connected to a past I had never known and a future I had yet to realize.”—Armistead Maupin, author of
Tales of the City, from the foreword
Review
“Isherwood's life and work have often been ignored by critics; even some of Isherwood's own kind—queer theorists, for example—have overlooked him. But the neglect is reversed by James J. Berg and Chris Freeman. Their volume's intelligent and warm-hearted collection of memoirs and essays begins a new era of rightful attention to Isherwood's greatness.”—Robert L. Caserio, author of
The Novel in England, 1900–1950Review
“While we have known Christopher Isherwood, the character, for many years through the books in which he appears,
The Isherwood Century gives us new insights about Christopher Isherwood, the man. These insights reveal his generosity and record the openness and acceptance which made such a significant impact upon those he met.”—Lisa M. Schwerdt, author of
Isherwood's Fiction: The Self and TechniqueReview
"
The Isherwood Century allows us to see [Isherwood’s] long and colorful life as an expression of the freedom to reinvent oneself."—
Los Angeles TimesSynopsis
Called "the best English prose writer of this century" by Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood is best known for Goodbye to Berlin--the inspiration for the musical Cabaret--but is also the author of plays, novels, and diaries. The Isherwood Century gathers twenty-four essays and interviews offering a fresh, in-depth view of Isherwood, his literary legacy, and his continuing influence as both a literary and a gay pioneer.
Synopsis
Called “the best English prose writer of this century” by Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood is best known for Goodbye to Berlin—the inspiration for the musical Cabaret—but is also the author of plays, novels, and diaries. The Isherwood Century gathers twenty-four essays and interviews offering a fresh, in-depth view of Isherwood, his literary legacy, and his continuing influence as both a literary and a gay pioneer.
About the Author
Don Bachardy lives in Santa Monica, California. His drawings and paintings are in the collections of many major art museums, including the Metropolitan in New York, the de Young in San Francisco, the Fogg in Cambridge, the Smithsonian in Washington, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has published six other books of his drawings, including Christopher Isherwood: Last Drawings and Drawings of the Male Nude, and he is coeditor of Where Joy Resides: A Christopher Isherwood Reader.
Table of Contents
'
Illustrations
Introduction
Bette Davis
Myrna Loy
Paulette Goddard
Alice Faye
Ruby Keeler
Ginger Rogers
Aaron Copland
Joan Blondell
Ingrid Bergman
Alec Guiness
Peter Pears
Charlotte Rampling
Joan Fontaine
Maggie Smith
Louise Brooks
James Merrill
Barbara Stanwyck
Olivia de Havilland
Mia Farrow
Linda Ronstadt
Irwin Shaw
Iris Murdoch
Henry Fonda
William Wyler
Vincente Minnelli
Laurence Olivier
Julian Schnabel
Ellsworth Kelly
Jill St. John
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Nicholson
Helmut Newton
Jerry Brown\n
'