QUEER LIFE & LITERARY REVOLT IN THE 1920S

Isherwood, Christopher (1904–1986)

Lions and Shadows: An Education in the Twenties [Hogarth Press] [Coded LGBTQ+ Memoir] [Auden Circle]

London: Hogarth Press, 1938. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.
ISHERWOOD’S 1938 HOGARTH PRESS MEMOIR OF THE AUDEN CIRCLE & QUEER MODERNISM.
A pivotal semi-autobiographical work tracing Isherwood's journey from a Cambridge student to an emerging literary figure in Berlin. Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, this memoir provides a vital, though coded, look at queer identity and the intellectual growth of the 'Auden Circle' during the interwar period.

KEY FEATURES 
+++ Visuals: Original dust jacket featuring the iconic Hogarth Press typographic style. 
+++ Binding: Blue cloth with gold-stamped spine titles. 
+++ Content: Memoirs of the 1920s featuring thinly veiled portraits of W.H. Auden (as 'Weston') and Stephen Spender (as 'Savage'). 
+++ Associated Names: Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf; chronicles the formative years of the most influential British literary clique of the 1930s. 
+++ Imprint: First Edition, First Printing (Hogarth Press). 
+++ Specs: 7.5 inches tall / 312 pages.

CONDITION: Very Good / Good -- The blue cloth bindings are tight with a hint of shelf lean; text block is clean with light, even age-toning. Offsetting present in the gutter of front paste-downs. The dust jacket is age-toned, particularly at the spine, with small loss on the lower spine and lower corners.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE -- 
Christopher Isherwood remains a titan of 20th-century prose, best known for 'Goodbye to Berlin'. 'Lions and Shadows' serves as the intellectual blueprint for his later masterpieces, offering a clear-eyed account of the 'Auden Generation' and their rejection of traditional British values in favor of European modernism.

This edition is specifically significant as a Hogarth Press production. The Woolfs recognized Isherwood’s 'clear and intellectually sharp' prose as the future of the English novel. While the queer themes were restricted by 1930s censorship, the text is now recognized as a cornerstone of interwar LGBTQ+ literature, documenting the experiences of a young gay man navigating a rigid society.

SUBJECTS: Christopher Isherwood, Hogarth Press, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, LGBTQ+ Literature, 1920s British Society, Modernism, Interwar Literature, Memoir, Memoir, Queer History, Literary Criticism.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Woolmer 431.

Item #21578

Price: $325.00