1952 February 10, Isherwood returns to Berlin after eighteen years and sees Heinz Neddermayer for the first time since Heinz’s arrest by the Gestapo in 1937; February 27, Isherwood sails from England for New York; by April 8, he returns to California with Sam Costidy; May 4, Isherwood settles at Trabuco where he completes Patanjali translation and part one of his novel, still called The School of Tragedy; May 21, he moves alone to the Mermira apartments in Santa Monica; also during May, Isherwood resigns from the board of the Huntington Hartford Foundation and the first chapter of his unfinished novel is published in New Writing; June, Isherwood begins fixing up Evelyn Hooker’s garden house at 400 South Saltair Avenue in Brentwood and moves there in late summer; during 1952, Vedanta for Modern Man, edited by Isherwood, is published in U.S. and U.K.; Isherwood completes “California Story” (later reprinted as “The Shore” in Exhumations) to accompany Sanford Roth’s photographs in Harper’s Bazaar.
1953 January 6, Caskey leaves for San Francisco and ships out again; February 14, Isherwood begins relationship with Don Bachardy; February 20–26, Bachardy’s brother Ted has a nervous breakdown and is committed; April 25, Bachardy moves out of his mother’s apartment and into his own furnished room in Hollywood; May 16, Bachardy moves into Marguerite and Harry Brown’s apartment in West Hollywood; August 5, Isherwood completes The World in the Evening; September, Isherwood moves out of Evelyn Hooker’s garden house, at her request, and stays at the Browns’ apartment with Bachardy; September 19, Isherwood and Bachardy move together into their own apartment; during October, Isherwood’s article on Ernst Toller appears in Encounter; also in 1953, How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, translated with Swami Prabhavananda, is published.
1954 January, Isherwood begins editing an anthology, Great English Short Stories, and plans a biography of Ramakrishna as well as various new pieces of autobiographical fiction; January 25, he begins work for Eddie Knopf at MGM
on Diane; June, The World in the Evening is published in the U.S. and the U.K.; August 25, Isherwood completes script for Diane; August 26, Isherwood turns fifty; during the spring and summer, John Collier writes a screenplay based on John van Druten’s play, I Am a Camera, and Julie Harris accepts the lead; November, Isherwood and Bachardy visit Tennessee Williams in Key West to watch filming of The Rose Tattoo in which Isherwood plays a bit part; Chronology
295
December, they travel to Mexico with Jo and Ben Masselink and Isherwood has an idea for a new novel which will eventually be called Down There on a Visit.
1955 Isherwood gets more work at MGM on Diane and writing The Wayfarer, a script about Buddha; February 10, Bachardy starts his junior year at UCLA; February 12, Maria Huxley dies; March 18, Ted Bachardy has another breakdown and is hospitalized again; May 2, Diane starts filming; May 18, Bachardy’s twenty-first birthday party; May 28, Isherwood begins writing his new novel first conceived in Mexico; June 8, he meets Thom Gunn; June 22, Isherwood sees preview of film, I Am a Camera; October 12, Isherwood leaves with Bachardy for New York City and on October 20, they sail from New York for Tangier; October 30, they sail for Italy and in mid-December continue on to Somerset Maugham’s house in France; by Christmas, they are in Munich; December 28, they arrive in Paris.
1956 January, Isherwood and Bachardy arrive in London; January 30–February 6, Isherwood stays with his mother and brother at Wyberslegh and sees Marple Hall for the last time (it will be demolished in 1959); March 6, Isherwood begins writing his new novel, calling it, for the moment, The Lost; March 11, Isherwood and Bachardy leave England for New York and California; during April, they buy 434 Sycamore Road; July 2, Bachardy enrolls at Chouinard Art School; September 24, Isherwood begins work on Jean-Christophe for Jerry Wald at Fox.
1957 February 12, Isherwood discovers a lump on the side of his belly; February 15, the tumor is successfully removed and proves benign, but ill health and depression persist; April, Isherwood prepares an introduction for a new edition of All the Conspirators, to be published in U.K.; early July, Isherwood and Gavin Lambert begin television project for Hermione Gingold, Emily Ermingarde; August 15, Jean-Christophe is shelved by Fox; October 8, Isherwood and Bachardy begin around-the-world trip, via Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, Bangkok, and Angkor; November 30, they fly to Calcutta and in December continue on to London.
1958 January 30, Isherwood and Bachardy reach Los Angeles (via New York); February 2, Bachardy returns to Chouinard Art School; February 11, Isherwood renews work on his novel and on the Ramakrishna biography; February 25, Bachardy begins taking painting classes from Vernon Old; mid-March, Isherwood begins work on Mary Magdalene for David Selznick, until late June; July 5, Isherwood completes a new foreword for U.S. edition of All the Conspirators; October, Isherwood and Bachardy begin writing a play, The Monsters; during the autumn, Isherwood and Lambert begin revising the film script of The Vacant Room.
1959 Mid-January, Isherwood and Bachardy complete The Monsters; March 7–April 13, Isherwood writes “Mr. Lancaster,” the first part of the final draft of his novel; March 20, he signs on to teach at Los Angeles State College; April, the first installment of Ramakrishna and His Disciples appears in the March/April issue of the Vedanta Society magazine; May 1, Bachardy takes his first job as a professional artist; Isherwood begins writing “Ambrose,” the second part of his 296
Chronology
novel; mid-June, Isherwood and Bachardy undertake to buy 145 Adelaide Drive; July 31, Isherwood finishes writing “Afterwards,” a homosexual short story; August 18, Isherwood and Bachardy travel to New York and then England where Isherwood visits Wyberslegh and sees his mother for the last time; September, they visit France and return to New York and Santa Monica; September 22, Isherwood begins teaching at L.A. State College; September 30, Isherwood and Bachardy move to 145 Adelaide Drive; October, “Mr.
Lancaster” appears in The London Magazine.
1960 L.A. State mounts exhibition on Isherwood; during the spring, Isherwood begins working with Charles Laughton on a play about Socrates; April 18, begins writing part three of his novel; May 25, he accepts a job at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) for the following autumn; June 10, begins writing “Paul,” the final part of his novel; June 15, Kathleen Isherwood dies; August 26, Isherwood completes his last handwritten diary; September 22, he begins teaching at UCSB; also in 1960, Great English Short Stories is published by Dell.
1961 January 23, Bachardy leaves for London to study art at the Slade; April 6, Isherwood joins Bachardy in London; he works with Auden on Berlin musical, but they abandon it when Auden leaves London in mid-June; October 2, Bachardy’s first show opens at the Redfern Gallery; October 15, Isherwood returns to Los Angeles alone; December 11–12, he travels to New York to meet Bachardy.
1962 January 2, Bachardy’s first New York show opens at the Sagittarius Gallery; January 25, Isherwood returns alone to Santa Monica and on January 28 begins teaching again at L.A. State; he plans a new novel called, at first, The English Woman; February 17, Bachardy returns; early March, Down There on a Visit is published by Methuen in the U.K. and by Isherwood’s new publisher, Simon and Schuster, in the U.S.; Isherwood’s UCSB lectures are broadcast on radio; Isherwood and Bachardy begin remodelling their garage as a studio for Bachardy; Isherwood’s novel, The English Woman, begins to evolve into A Single Man.