India, in fact—Calcutta, not to put to fine a point upon it—there to take pal-zeik-03 4/14/08 2:57 PM Page 163
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part in the birthday celebrations of Swami Vivekananda; his centenary.
Why? You may well ask. Because I have been invited, of course. In that symbolic land, purely symbolic speeches by impurely symbolic figures are considered worth the price of a round-the-world airplane ticket, and the fact that there isn’t one single thing I can tell them about Vivekananda which they don’t know already is, of course, utterly irrelevant. I wish you were coming with us. Us includes Prabhavananda; and I suppose I am really going just because he asked me to. He dreads all this just as much as I do.
And the mere sight of his native land usually throws him into a fever. Last time he went there, he was sick every single day.
I wish I could return via England, but alas there isn’t enough time for that. So I shall just go hurtling on around like a sputnik.
Aldous died quietly, without any pain at the end. He was absolutely clear, mentally. The day before he died, he finished dictating an article about Shakespeare. He wasn’t told of Kennedy’s shooting, which happened just a few hours earlier.
Personally, I was very strongly pro-Kennedy; but I was still amazed at how much I minded. And, in this quite largely anti-Kennedy town, which has so little to unite it, it was amazing how much everybody minded.
People just sat listening to the radio in their cars and sobbing. We were all in love with him, without knowing it.
Don is well and sends his love to you. He paints quite a lot, now, instead of just drawing; but it is always portraits, he has no enthusiasm for landscape, still life or abstractions. We will meet in New York where he is going to spend Christmas.
I have finished two books: a little novel called A Single Man, which is all about this place; and the long weary biography of Ramakrishna which I have been working on all these ages.
I would love to hear some news of your doings.
All my love to you, dearest Morgan—and to Bob and May, too. I think of you and talk about you so often. So please send me a loving thought—
Christopher
* * *
[postmark of air letter: Coventry, Warwickshire]
5th Jan. 1966
Dearest Christopher,40
What a delight to get your letter. Yes, I have not been well but am now spending a most happy Christmas & New Year at Bob’s. It is indeed actually pal-zeik-03 4/14/08 2:57 PM Page 164
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May who is writing this letter. They encourage me in idleness & I gladly co-operate.
Bob takes me back to Cambridge at the end of the week.
I haven’t much news. I am comfortable and happy but that is not supposed to be news. My love to Don. I am very glad to hear about his work.
Much love to you, naturally & to your work though I am sorry it is not bringing you to England.
I will stop now, having suggested to May that she should add something and she has accepted the suggestion.
Morgan’s love.
* * *
Morgan has had 3 strokes, the last in September but he has almost completely recovered. Each one has affected his sight[;] reading & writing are difficult and you know what that must mean to him. Joe goes to Cambridge each week for a night or two to deal with his post. He is now as active as ever, walking well and his mind as bright and clear as a new penny but he does forget things, who does not.
We plan to go to Aldeburgh for the festival in June. We took him there last October when he came out of hospital and was in very poor shape and had such a nice hotel and so many good friends in the area we feel that we couldn’t do better[;] whatever should happen there would be plenty of help.
Our children were also here for a week and I did wonder[ed] if they would tire him too much in such a small house but I don’t think they did at all.
I was just remembering the day you came here to see Morgan, three years ago. Don was with you and we sat in the garden.
Robert is out calling on his naughty boys or would join me in sending our love and very best wises to you both affectionately,
May
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Biographical Glossary
All entries are British unless otherwise noted.
Ackerley, Joseph Randolph (1896–1967). Literary editor, author, and close friend of Forster’s. He was the literary editor of The Listener from 1935 to 1959. He is also the author of My Dog Tulip (1956) and We Think the World of You (1960).
Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907–73). Poet and intimate friend of Isherwood’s.
Major works of poetry include The Orators (1932), The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947), The Shield of Achilles (1955), and City Walls and Other Poems (1969). He collaborated with Isherwood on three plays: The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1939).
Bachardy, Don (1934– ). American painter and Isherwood’s companion from 1953 until Isherwood’s death in 1986. His drawings have been published in several books: October (1983), Last Drawings of Christopher Isherwood (1990), and Stars in My Eyes (2000). His paintings and drawings are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and other major art institutions.
Barger, Harold (1907–89). Professor of Economics at Columbia University form 1937 to 1975. He graduated from King’s College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.
Baxter, Walter (1915– ). Author of a novel, Look Down in Mercy (1951), which was considered controversial. He had previously owned a restaurant in London.
Beerbohm, Henry Maximilian (Max) (1872–1956). Humorist and essayist. Author of Zuleika Dobson (1911). His A Christmas Garland (1912) contains parodies of contemporary literary writers, such as Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and H. G. Wells.
Bowen, Elizabeth (1899–1973). Novelist and short-story writer. Her collections of stories include Encounters (1923), The Cat Jumps (1934), and pal-zeik-04bio 4/21/08 10:36 AM Page 166
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BIOGRAPHICAL GLOSSARY
The Demon Lover (1945). Her novels include The Hotel (1927), The Death of the Heart (1938), and A World of Love (1955).
Britten, Benjamin (1913–76). Composer. His operas include Peter Bunyan (1941), Billy Budd (1951), and Death in Venice (1973). A major choral and orchestral work is War Requiem (1961). He also composed the music for two Auden-Isherwood plays, The Ascent of F6 and On the Frontier.
Burgess, Guy (1910–63). British diplomat who also spied for the Soviet Union. He eventually defected to the Soviet Union in 1956. He introduced Isherwood to Jacky Hewitt (Burgess’s former lover) in 1938.
Burra, Peter (1909–37). Literary and music critic. His essay on Forster’s A Passage to India was included in the Everyman’s Library 1942 edition.
Cadmus, Paul (1904–99). American artist who drew both Forster and Isherwood. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of male nudes.