I'm making my way through the 900 pages of Christopher Isherwood's Diaries - and that's just the first of three volumes. Isherwood arrived in New York City in 1939 with his friend W.H.Auden, but then made a beeline to Hollywood - which he took to like a duck to water. Isherwood was something of a social butterfly, and knew virtually all of the great Hollywood actors, screenwriters, directors and producers. Isherwood possessed an effortless power of description and could capture the essence of an individual by recounting a gesture or a snippet of conversation. His diary contains so many vivid portraits of famous people in the Hollywood of the 1940s, and wonderful stories of drinking with Charlie Chaplin, flirting with Greta Garbo, and so many other encounters.
My real interest in the Diaries was to read about Isherwood's interaction with the German exile community in southern California. Isherwood was a close friend of the Austrian writer Bertold Viertel and the two collaborated on several projects. Viertel's wife - Salka Viertel - organized a Salon for European artists and intellectuals in and around Hollywood, and Isherwood quickly became a fixture there (see my review of Salka Viertel's memoir The Kindness of Strangers). Of course, Thomas Mann and his family were often present at Salka Viertel's brunches and dinner parties, and Isherwood became friends with Klaus and Erika Mann. Here is his description of Thomas Mann from July 1940:
"At lunch were Thomas and Frau Mann. [...]He looks wonderfully young for his age - perhaps because, as a boy, he was elderly and staid. With careful, deliberate gestures, he chooses a cigar, examines a cognac bottle, opens a furniture catalogue - giving each object his full, serious attention. Yet he isn't in the least pompous. He has great natural dignity. He is a true scholar a gentlemanly householder, a gracefully ironic pillar of society - solid right through. He would be magnificent at his own trial. Indeed, he has been making the speech for the defence ever since he left Germany."
Shortly after this, Mann would begin his very vocal defense of western liberal democracy in his Deutsche Hörer! ("Listen, Germany!") radio broadcasts to Nazi Germany.
Later, Isherwood had some unpleasant interactions with Brecht, who tried to hound him into translating his play Der kaukasische Kreidekreis: ("He (Brecht) is utterly ruthless, opportunistic and selfish. I don't believe he'd waste five moments on anyone who wasn't in a position to do him a favor.") Once again, in two sentences, Isherwood captures the essence.
Going through a bad patch in my life, it is so nice to come across this post. Isherwood in Hollywood is one of my favorite things to think about! Thanks!
Posted by: Hattie | September 23, 2017 at 07:15 PM