Christopher & His Kind

A Biography

English language

Published June 1, 1987 by North Point Press.

ISBN:
978-0-374-52036-6
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OCLC Number:
35619374

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5 stars (1 review)

Christopher and His Kind is a 1976 memoir by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood, first printed in a 130-copy edition by Sylvester & Orphanos, then in general publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the text, Isherwood candidly expounds upon events in his life from 1929 to 1939, including his sojourn in Berlin which was the inspiration for his popular 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin.

12 editions

Review of 'Christopher and His Kind' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Isherwood’s memoir covering the period around his time in the gay scene of 1930s Berlin as the country was slowly overtaken by Nazis, ending in his leaving Germany and trying to get his boyfriend Heinz immigration to the UK to avoid him being conscripted by the Nazis. Part of it was fictionalised in his Berlin Novels (and adapted into the musical Cabaret).

It's this which really got me into the history of Weimar Berlin and the early gay rights movement there, but also writing that focuses on the calm day to day lives of unimportant but fascinating characters swept up in changes far above them.