WRITER

Christopher Isherwood

1904 - 1986

Photo of Christopher Isherwood

Icon of person Christopher Isherwood

Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Christopher Isherwood has received more than 1,670,750 page views. His biography is available in 40 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 38 in 2019). Christopher Isherwood is the 2,010th most popular writer (down from 1,809th in 2019), the 1,533rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 1,421st in 2019) and the 163rd most popular British Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.7M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 56.16

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 40

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.39

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.59

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Lions and Shadows
20th century, Authors, English, Biography
In this largely autobiographical book Isherwood gives a fascinating account of the making of a writer. His story begins with the intellectual hothouse atmosphere of Cambridge in the early twenties: but it is his wickedly funny depiction of the Bohemian life of London, with thinly disguised portraits of many brilliant men - Auden and Stephen Spender among them - that is most intriguing. With his witty, appealing and sometimes outrageous pen Isherwood illuminates the society that created writers and thinkers who have shaped much of the twentieth century
The Berlin Stories
Social life and customs, Gay men, British
Prater Violet
Fiction, Jewish families, Jews
Down There on a Visit
Gay men, Fiction in English, British
Christopher Isherwood originally intended *Down There on a Visit* to be part of *The Lost*, the unfinished epic novel that would also incorporate his famous *Berlin Stories*. Tracing many of the same themes as that earlier work, this novel is a bemused, sometimes acid portrait of people caught in private sexual hells of their own making. Its four episodes are connected by four narrators. All are called "Christopher Isherwood, " but each is a different character inhabiting a new setting: Berlin in 1928, the Greek Isles in 1933, London in 1938, and California in 1940. *Down There on a Visit* is a major work that shows Isherwood at the height of his literary powers.
Mr. Norris Changes Trains
English fiction, Fiction, Fiction in English
Goodbye to Berlin
Fiction in English, Fiction, Homosexuality
The sequel to Mr. Norris Changes Trains, this is another semi-autobiographical account of Isherwood’s experiences in pre-war Berlin. The author leads the reader on a thoroughly entertaining tour through the seedier side of a particularly decadent time in that city’s history.

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Christopher Isherwood ranks 2,010 out of 7,302Before him are Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis, Horacio Quiroga, Saki, Caterina Albert, Izabela Czartoryska, and S. Ansky. After him are Yuan Zhen, Rudolf Rocker, Telesilla, Julien Gracq, Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus, and Matthieu Ricard.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1904, Christopher Isherwood ranks 98Before him are Emilio Fernández, José Antonio Aguirre, Deng Yingchao, Arshile Gorky, Joseph M. Juran, and Mihai Antonescu. After him are Christian-Jaque, Tadao Takayama, Karl Ernst, Achille Varzi, Delmer Daves, and Nikolai Berzarin. Among people deceased in 1986, Christopher Isherwood ranks 83Before him are Aleksandr Akimov, Hermann Gmeiner, John Bagot Glubb, Elsa Lanchester, Thierry Sabine, and Ellison Onizuka. After him are Yaroslav Stetsko, Gia Carangi, Henri Toivonen, Gabdulkhay Akhatov, Mart Stam, and Phil Lynott.

Others Born in 1904

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Others Deceased in 1986

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Christopher Isherwood ranks 1,533 out of 8,785Before him are Jack Phillips (1887), Algernon Blackwood (1869), Kay Parker (1944), Louise d'Orléans (1869), Frederick Delius (1862), and Beorhtric of Wessex (800). After him are John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury (1834), Robert Maynard (1684), Greg Lake (1947), Fraser Stoddart (1942), Olaf Stapledon (1886), and Ian Kershaw (1943).

Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Christopher Isherwood ranks 163Before him are Joseph Addison (1672), Christopher Robin Milne (1920), Thomas Wyatt (1503), Edward Young (1683), Anthony Trollope (1815), and Robert Southey (1774). After him are Karen Armstrong (1944), Philip Kerr (1956), Clive Barker (1952), George MacDonald (1824), James Hilton (1900), and Patrick O'Brian (1914).