Christopher Isherwood Books In Order

Publication Order of Berlin Stories Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Christopher Isherwood was a published British author. He is known for The Berlin Stories, which are widely regarded as being the formative inspiration for the musical Cabaret, which won an Academy Award. He also was a diarist, autobiographer, screenwriter, playwright, homosexual and advocate of the gay rights movement as well as a major part of the literary and entertainment world.

He was born in Cheshire, England to the full name of Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood on August 26, 1904. He would grow up to realize he was homosexual and this would go on to be a frequently utilized theme and incorporated into his writing. Growing up in north England’s Manchester, the author would eventually go on to become a certified citizen of the United States in 1946. He would pass away at his own home on January 4, 1986 in Santa Monica, California.

The author was the heir to a country squire, his grandfather, and lived a childhood that could be described as privileged. He also showed an early interest in writing and composed three plays along with Wystan Auden, a friend from school. Together they wrote the 1932 play “The Dog Beneath the Skin”, the 1936 play “The Ascent of F6”, and the 1938 play “On the Frontier”. The story of these was included in Lions and Shadows, an initial autobiography composed by Isherwood.

The author would go on to attend Cambridge University but then was asked to leave in 1925 when he wrote joking answers on the exams he was sitting for his second year. Christopher would rebound and go to medical school for a brief amount of time and kept writing as well. The result would be the completion of the first two books under his name, 1928’s All the Conspirators and 1932’s The Memorial.

The author would move to Germany and relocate to Berlin for some time to teach English as well as explore communism and explore his own concept of his sexual identity. He had plenty of experiences and made many memories there and they actually provided a lot of the inspiration and the material for his Berlin Novels and the books Mr. Norris Changes Trains and his most famed novel, Goodbye to Berlin.

It would be 1932 when he started one of the most important relationships in his life in Berlin. It was with a young German man that went by the name of Heinz Neddermeyer. The two would run away together to get away from the Nazis in 1933. It would turn out that Heinz was not allowed to come in to England in 1934, and so the two of them were roaming about Europe without a destination. The couple were split up in May of 1937, when Heinz was unfortunately arrested by the Gestapo.

The author would go to China along with Auden in 1938. He went with his childhood friend with the intent of writing 1939’s Journey to a War, which was all about the Sino-Japanese conflict. The pair completed their work and came back to England. Chris would take a trip to Hollywood in an attempt to track down some work writing for movies. At that time he also started to follow Swami Prabhavananda, a Ramakrishna monk in Southern California heading up their Vedanta Society. While the author did not take monastic vows, he did continue to be a Hindu for the entirety of his life and would pray, serve, lecture and go to temple weekly and also wrote Ramakrishna and His Disciples, a biography published in 1965.

Christopher would go on to write a book about his first job writing movies in London for two years and it came out in 1945. He would then spend the beginning of the fifties dealing with an affair that he had with William Caskey, an attractive photographer in America. The affair lasted five years and Caskey had also taken the images for his South American travel book. He would move on with college student Don Bachardy in 1953. The Los Angeles native stayed with him until he passed away.

Isherwood would write several more novels throughout the course of his career. He would take a break from fiction and instead focus on autobiography storytelling, and would use his parents’ diaries and letters to write Kathleen and Frank. He wrote Christopher and His Kind influenced by his own homosexual experiences living in Berlin and his wandering Europe along with Heinz in the thirties. The book was adapted into a movie made for television in 2011. It was also hugely popular and made him a gay liberation icon and a celebrity renewed once more.

Much of the author’s writing has been adapted for the small and big screen. The Ascent of F6 was made into a television movie in 1976. He also wrote the screenplay for Rage in Heaven, the writer of Forever and a Day, wrote the screenplay for The Great Sinner, wrote the screenplay for The Loved One, wrote the teleplay for Frankenstein: The True Story, and inspired Cabaret.

Christopher Isherwood wrote The Berlin Novels. The two novel series premiered in 1935, with Mr. Norris Changes Trains. It then continued with the second book, Goodbye to Berlin.

Mr. Norris Changes Trains tells the story of different encounters had in the 1930s in Berlin between William Bradshaw and Mr. Norris, a sinister character. The book captures a distinct atmosphere in the German city leading up to and then following the Nazis coming into power.

William Bradshaw is an English teacher and is on a train when he has a random encounter. This leads him to starting a relationship and becoming friends with Arthur Norris, a man that seems slightly sinister. He’s in debt but appears to have a lavish lifestyle. He appears to have manners but also seems sexually deviant.

This is a unique book and a blast from the past that you must check out!

Goodbye to Berlin is the second of the Berlin Novels. This is the story of the city of Berlin and how it was as the Nazis started to come into power and gain more strength.

Look through different characters’ eyes as they see events happen in real time and know their lives will never be the same. Get a copy and read it to follow along with everything that happens!