Lost Years

by Christopher Isherwood

  Dunphy, Jack (1914–1992). American dancer and novelist; born and raised in Philadelphia. Dunphy danced for George Balanchine and was a cowboy in the original production of Oklahoma! For a time he was married to the Broadway musical-comedy star Joan McCracken. From 1948 he was Truman Capote’s companion, although in Capote’s later years they were often apart. He published John Fury and The Nightmovers.

  Durant, Tim. American tennis player and actor. Durant was a tennis star during the 1930s and afterwards worked as an agent for United Artists. He played the part of the general in The Red Badge of Courage (1951). He was good-looking and wealthy, and he married and became a father. His athletic prowess never deserted him; he rode race horses well past middle age, and finished the gruelling Grand National when he was in his early seventies.

  Edens, Roger (1905–1970). American film producer, born in Texas. During the 1950s, Eden supervised musicals at MGM, sometimes working with Arthur Freed. He won numerous Academy Awards—including for Annie Get Your Gun (1950)—and later produced Funny Face (1956), Hello Dolly (1969), and others.

  Erdmann, Charles (b. 1909). Longtime companion of William Plomer. Erdmann was born in London of a German father and Polish mother. At the outbreak of World War I, the family went to Germany where Erdmann was raised from about age five. He returned to England as a refugee in 1939, and worked as a waiter and a pastry-cook (for which he was trained in Germany) and at other things. He met Plomer in 1944 while working as a cloakroom attendant in a Soho restaurant and lived with him for the next twenty-nine years, until Plomer’s death.

  Evans, Rex (1903–1969). British actor working in Hollywood from 1930 onwards. He also ran an art gallery.

  Falk, Eric (1905–1984). English barrister. Falk, who was Jewish, met Isherwood at Repton, where they were in the same house together, The Hall, and in the History Sixth. He helped Isherwood to edit The Reptonian during Isherwood’s last term. Falk grew up in London, and often went to films with Isherwood during school holidays. He introduced Isherwood to the Mangeots, whom he had met on holiday in Brittany. He appears in Lions and Shadows and in D1.

  Falkenburg, Eugenia (Jinx) (b. 1919). Spanish-born actress, raised in Chile. She began her U.S. career working as a model and then made comedies and musicals in Hollywood in the late 1930s and early 1940s before becoming a radio personality and hosting her own radio show.

  Firbank, Ronald (1886–1926). English novelist; educated for a time at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His grandfather’s railroad contracting fortune enabled Firbank to travel and pay for the publication of his own novels and stories. He was a Roman Catholic and a dandy and his writings are witty, fantastic, and somewhat artificial. Among his best-known novels are Vainglory (1915), The Flower Beneath the Foot (1923), and Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (1926).

  Fontan, Jack (b. 1927). American actor and painter; educated at New York University. After his appearance in the original New York production of South Pacific, he settled in Laguna Beach where he made collages with his longtime companion Ray Unger. The pair worked as professional astrologers during the 1970s and afterwards owned and managed a gym. In 1994 their house was destroyed by the widespread fire which devastated the area, and they resettled in Palm Springs.

  Forster, E. M. (Morgan) (1878–1970). English novelist, essayist, and biographer; best known for Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). His homosexual novel, Maurice, was published posthumously in 1971 under Isherwood’s supervision. Forster had been an undergraduate at King’s College, Cambridge, and one of the Cambridge Apostles; afterwards he became associated with the Bloomsbury group and later returned to King’s as a Fellow until the end of his life. He was a literary hero for Isherwood, Edward Upward, and W. H. Auden from the 1920s onward. He remained supportive when Isherwood was publicly criticized for remaining in America after the outbreak of war in 1939. He is mentioned often in D1.

  Fouts, Denham (Denny). Son of a Florida baker, Fouts left home as a teenager and travelled as companion to a series of wealthy people of both sexes. Among his conquests was Peter Watson, who financed Horizon magazine. Fouts helped Watson solicit some of the earliest contributions to Horizon, and Watson gave Fouts a large Picasso painting, Girl Reading (1934). The painting was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art under Watson’s name for the exhibition Picasso—Forty Years of His Art, November 1939–January 7, 1940, and Fouts later sold the painting in New York (evidently to the Florence May Schoenborn and Samuel Marx Collection, whence it became a gift to MOMA).

  During the war, Watson sent Fouts to the USA for safety. Isherwood met Fouts in Hollywood in August 1940 and, although Swami Prabhavananda would not accept Fouts as a disciple, Fouts moved in with Isherwood in the early summer of 1941 in order to lead a life of meditation. Isherwood describes this domestic experiment in Down There on a Visit, where Fouts appears as “Paul,” and there are numerous passages about Fouts in D1.

  Fouts, a conscientious objector, was drafted into Civilian Public Service Camp part way through the war; after he was released, he got his high school diploma and then studied medicine at UCLA before settling in Europe.

  Fowler, Norman. American boyfriend of Peter Watson from 1949 onward, and heir to most of Watson’s estate. He had been in the navy and possibly was an epileptic (he was subject to unexplained fits or seizures from which he sometimes had to be roused); he was evidently psychologically disturbed. When Watson drowned in his bath in 1956, Fowler was in the flat; the police dismissed foul play, but the death remained suspicious. After Watson’s death, Fowler bought a hotel, called The Bath Hotel, on Nevis, in the British Virgin Islands, and lived there until he himself drowned in the bath in 1971, within weeks of the fifteenth anniversary of Watson’s death.

  Fox. See Twentieth Century-Fox.

  French, Jared (d. 1988). American painter, from Princeton, New Jersey. He met Paul Cadmus at the Art Students League in New York, became his lover, and travelled with him to Europe in 1931. They lived and painted together in Greenwich Village until French married the painter Margaret Hoening in 1937; afterwards the three continued as close friends and artistic associates, styling themselves the PAJAMA group, for PAul, JAred, MArgaret. French died in Rome.

  Freud, Lucian (b. 1922). German-born British painter; grandson of Sigmund Freud. He emigrated to London with his parents at the start of the 1930s, studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham, and became a British citizen in 1939. During the war, he was invalided out of the merchant navy and turned to art full time, establishing a reputation by the early 1950s. His work is figurative and strikingly realistic; he specializes in nudes and portraits.

  From, Eddie and Sam. Twin brothers at the center of The Benton Way Group. Eddie’s real name was Isadore, and some of his friends called him Isad. The Benton Way Group began when Ruby Bell, a librarian from the Midwest, inherited some money and encouraged a group of her friends, mostly homosexuals and including the Froms and Charles Aufderheide, to move with her to Los Angeles. There she used her inheritance to acquire the house in Benton Way where they settled together. The house was called The Palazzo because it looked like an Italian villa, and the name later accompanied the household to other settings. Some of the group were able to find work in the film industry, and Eddie From worked for Technicolor before taking up psychotherapy. According to Alvin Novak, Eddie was once picked up by the police for an offense related to his homosexuality, and Isherwood made a lasting impression by coming to his aid. There are more passages about the Froms in D1.

  Furtmueller, Carl. Viennese school inspector. Isherwood met Furtmueller and his wife in October 1941 at the Quaker refugee hostel in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and describes them in D1. The couple had been interned in a Spanish prison on their flight from Vienna, and Mrs. Furtmueller was mortally ill with lung cancer by the time she arrived in the U.S. She died in late November 1941. The following June, Furtmueller married Leah Cadbury, a Haverford spinster in he
r fifties who worked in an office during the daytime and volunteered as an English teacher at the hostel during the evenings.

  Gage, Margaret. A rich and elderly patroness of Gerald Heard. She loaned Heard her garden house on Spoleto Road to live in from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.

  Garrett, Eileen (1893–1970). Irish-born medium. During World War I, Eileen Garrett ran a tearoom in Hampstead which was frequented by D. H. Lawrence and other intellectuals; later she ran a labor hostel in Euston Square, and then a children’s soup kitchen in the south of France. In 1941, with the fall of France, she went to New York, founded a publishing firm, Creative Age Press, and launched Tomorrow, a monthly review of literature, art, and public affairs. Assisted by Bill Kennedy, she was able to commission work from the likes of Robert Graves, Klaus Mann, Aldous Huxley, Lord Dunsany, and Isherwood, among others; she knew many of the emigré intelligentsia, and Isherwood met her in the late 1940s or early 1950s through the Huxleys.

  Geller, Jim. American film agent. Geller was a story editor at Warner Brothers during the 1940s and expressed interest in Isherwood’s work, especially the film treatment written with Aldous Huxley, Jacob’s Hands. Later Geller abandoned his studio career, and by the early 1950s he had become Isherwood’s agent. Isherwood moved on to Hugh French about a decade later. Both relationships are traced in D1.

  Ghosh, Asit. Bengali nephew of Swami Prabhavananda. Ghosh was a student at the University of Southern California and hoped to become a film director. He was a devout Hindu, and lived at the Hollywood Vedanta Center during the early 1940s, but he was not preparing to become a monk. Isherwood tells about this in D1. In September 1944 Ghosh found himself inducted into the army even though he was not a U.S. citizen. He was released the following January as a conscientious objector, and soon afterwards he returned to India.

  Gielgud, John (b. 1904). British actor and director. Gielgud achieved fame in the 1920s acting Shakespeare’s tragedies; he also performed Wilde and Chekhov before Chekhov was well known to English audiences. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked with contemporary British playwrights, but throughout his stage and film career he returned to and extended his Shakespearian repertoire. He was late to adapt his career to film, but became a ubiquitous success. Isherwood also tells about their friendship in D1.

  Goldsmith, Joel (1892–1964). American spiritual teacher and healer. Goldsmith came from a Jewish background in New York, turned to Christianity as a teenager, and was drawn to Christian Science when his father miraculously recovered from a grave illness. He was a Freemason for most of his life, and during the 1930s he took up meditation and studied eastern religions. As a marine during World War II, he had a vision calling him to pray for the enemy. He never saw combat. After the war, the family business collapsed and Goldsmith fell ill with tuberculosis, but like his father he made a miraculous recovery—through Christian Science. After failing as a travelling salesman, he became a Christian Science spiritual reader, advisor and healer, sometimes seeing as many as 135 patients a day. He taught Bible classes in California and gathered students and devotees around him, including John van Druten and Walter Starcke. Van Druten wrote the introduction to The Infinite Way (1952), the first of Goldsmith’s twenty or so books. In the early 1950s Goldsmith resigned from the Christian Science Church, asserting that healers become so by their own authority. His movement, known as the Infinite Way, was funded partly by the donations of wealthy followers; he also circulated a monthly newsletter to paying subscribers. He urged believers to live by grace alone; his own experience taught him that material success would naturally flow toward those who were spiritually “centered” or “on the path.” He was married three times.

  Goodwin, John. American novelist. A wealthy friend of Denny Fouts; Isherwood met him probably during the first half of 1943 and often mentions him in D1. As well as his ranch near Escondido, Goodwin owned a house in New York. He published The Idols and the Prey (1953) and A View of Fuji (1963).

  Gottfried. See Reinhardt, Gottfried.

  Goyen, William (1915–1983). American novelist, playwright, teacher, and editor; born in Texas, where much of his work is set. His novels include The House of Breath (1950), for which Isherwood wrote a blurb, and In a Farther Country (1955); he also wrote many short stories.

  Grant, Alexander (b. 1925). New Zealand-born ballet dancer and director. He spent his whole dancing career with the Sadler’s Wells, later the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.

  Green, Henry (1905–1973). Pen name of Henry Yorke, the novelist. Yorke came from a privileged background, was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, worked for a time in a factory belonging to his family and then made his way up through the firm to become managing director. His novels draw on his experience of both working-class and upper-class life, and also on his time in the National Fire Service during World War II; best known among them are Living, Party Going, and Loving. Isherwood also mentions Yorke’s wife, who was known as Dig.

  Greene, Felix. A half-German cousin of Isherwood, on Kathleen Isherwood’s side. Greene worked for the BBC in New York, then with Peggy Kiskadden’s second husband, Henwar Rodakiewicz, in Rodakiewicz’s documentary film unit, and, during the war, for the Quaker Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia. He had a genius for administration and practical arrangements and made himself indispensable to Gerald Heard in founding Trabuco. Greene decided to move to California in the summer of 1941 to be Heard’s disciple, and by the following summer he had already completed the building of the monastery, large enough for fifty. Isherwood tells about this in D1. Towards the end of the war Greene upset Heard by deciding to marry.

  Halliburton, Richard (1900–1939). American explorer and adventurer; educated at Lawrenceville Academy and Princeton. During the 1920s he climbed the Matterhorn and swam various famous bodies of water (the Nile at Luxor, the Hellespont, most of the Sea of Galilee, the Panama Canal). He also flew from Paris to Manila in his airplane, The Flying Carpet, in 1931. In 1934 he attempted but failed to cross the Alps on an elephant. He wrote a number of bestselling books about his adventures and lectured widely. After selling the movie rights to his first book, The Royal Road to Romance (1925), he settled in Hollywood where he narrated and co-directed a travel film about India, India Speaks (1933). Halliburton was homosexual and had relationships with the film stars Rod la Rocque and Ramon Novarro. He was lost at sea in the Pacific.

  Hamilton, Gerald (1890–1970). Isherwood’s Berlin friend who was the original for “Mr. Norris” in Mr. Norris Changes Trains. Hamilton’s mother died almost immediately after his birth in Shanghai, and he was raised by relatives in England and educated at Rugby (though he did not finish his schooling). His father sent him back to China to work in business, and while there Hamilton took to wearing Chinese dress and converted to Roman Catholicism, for which his father, an Irish Protestant, never forgave him. He was cut off with a small allowance and eventually, because of his unsettled life, with nothing at all. So began the persistent need for money that apparently motivated some of his dubious behavior. Hamilton was obsessed with his family’s aristocratic connections and with social etiquette, and lovingly recorded in his memoirs all his meetings with royalty, as well as those with crooks and with theatrical and literary celebrities. He was imprisoned from 1915 to 1918 for sympathizing with Germany and associating with the enemy during World War I, and he was imprisoned in France and Italy for a jewelry swindle in the 1920s. Afterwards he took a job selling the London Times in Germany and became interested there in penal reform. Throughout his life he travelled on diverse private and public errands in China, Russia, Europe, and North Africa. He returned to London during World War II, where he was again imprisoned, as Isherwood records, for attempting to promote peace on terms favorable to the enemy. After the war, Hamilton posed for the body of Churchill’s Guildhall statue and later became a regular contributor to The Spectator.

  Harford, Betty. Irish-born actress; she acted for John Houseman in numerous stage productions and made a
few movies, including Inside Daisy Clover. Harford was a close friend of Iris Tree. Her son with Oliver Andrews—Christopher, born in the 1950s—was named after Isherwood.

  Harkness, Alan. Australian-born actor; director of The High Valley Theatre in the Ojai Valley, where he specialized in teaching and directing the plays of Chekhov. A few members of the group first met in the late 1930s at the theater school at Dartington founded by Michael Chekhov (nephew of the playwright) and followed Chekhov to Connecticut. When Chekhov’s school broke up during the war, they went on to southern California, continuing to study and act together while also doing obligatory war work (they were mostly pacifists). Eventually the group was able to purchase a schoolhouse in the Upper Ojai Valley and converted it themselves into a theater. The High Valley Theatre aimed to be a school as well as an acting company. Harkness continued to follow Michael Chekhov’s approach to acting, which was derived from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and the methods of the Moscow Art Theater. He emphasized creating a character from the imagination and from observation and giving autonomous life to this character on stage rather than impersonating. The group frequently worked by improvisation. Harkness was killed in Carpinteria when his car was hit by a train at a railroad crossing.

  Harrington, Curtis (b. 1928). American director; he made underground films and then moved on to features and television. At a party in 1954, Isherwood punched Harrington in the face after a friend of Harrington also at the party made advances to Don Bachardy; Harrington sued Isherwood and they eventually settled out of court.

  Harris, Bill (d. 1992). American artist. Isherwood met him in the summer of 1943, and they began a love affair the following spring. The relationship lasted only as a casual friendship. Harris later moved to New York where he became successful as a commercial art retoucher. Isherwood refers to Harris as “X.” in his 1939–1945 diaries (see D1), and he calls him “Alfred” in My Guru and His Disciple.