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Archive: June 2024 (2 Posts)

Orphanos, Stathis. Christopher Isherwood. Santa Monica, ca 1972.

The Berlin of Christopher Isherwood

Posted by: Mark Manivong

Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin from 1929 to 1932 and observed first-hand the rise of the Nazis and the damage and terror inflicted on the famously tolerant city and its inhabitants. He drew from his journals that he kept from those years to write "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" (1935) and "Goodbye to Berlin" (1939), which would later be combined into an omnibus volume entitled "The Berlin Stories" (1945). Playful and powerful, Isherwood's depiction of Berlin captured the imagination of later artists, whose work is also represented in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Posted in: 20th Century, LGBTQIA+, Seasonal

newspaper image of Voltairine de Cleyre

Discovering Voltairine de Cleyre, Neglected Poet of American Radicalism

Posted by: Amanda Zimmerman

Published in 1978, Paul Avrich’s "An American Anarchist: The Life of Voltairine de Cleyre" was the first substantial biography of Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912), an influential member of the American labor movement at the turn of the 20th century. Donated to the Library of Congress in 1986, the biography refers to de Cleyre as “one of the most interesting if neglected figures in the history of American radicalism.”

Posted in: 20th Century, American History, Women's Stories