Wow! eBook
Don Bachardy: An Artist's Life
Author(s): Michael Schreiber (Author)
- Publisher: Citadel
- Publication Date: October 28, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 416 pages
- ISBN-10: 0806543795
- ISBN-13: 9780806543796
Book Description
A figure as fascinating as any of his celebrated subjects, Don Bachardy has lived an extraordinary life at the heart of Hollywood, literary, and artistic circles. His drawings and paintings reside in museums throughout Europe and the United States, and include portraits of movie stars, writers, artists, and public and private figures of every background—from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford to Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote—all rendered in a candid, expressive style unmistakably the artist’s own.
In this unique oral biography, Bachardy recounts his astonishing story, providing illuminating recollections of celebrity portrait sittings and revelations about his 30-year relationship with Christopher Isherwood. From their meeting in the 1950s until Isherwood’s death in 1986, theirs was a legendary love story, courageous and uncompromising for its time, and remarkable in any era for the creative collaborations and art it continues to inspire.
Drawn from one-on-one interviews and conversations conducted at the Santa Monica home Bachardy shared with Isherwood, Michael Schreiber has crafted a biography unlike any other, filled with tantalizing celebrity tales set against the backdrop of Bachardy’s artistic and personal journey. Wise, warm, and thoroughly unflinching, this is a fresh and revealing portrait of a life lived with boundless bravery, curiosity, and love.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is a fiercely queer-positive book. [In] his excellent and far-ranging oral history … Schreiber displays an adroit knack for bringing out Bachardy, who responds with candid, compelling, gossipy, and witty stories.” –
The Gay & Lesbian Review“
Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life is not only a document of queer emancipation history, but also a testament to courage, tenderness, and uncompromising openness. Bachardy and Isherwood lived what seems self-evident today: a love without disguise. The fact that this story is being told right now is more than a coincidence. It sends a message: memory can be resistance, and the visibility of love remains political.” – MANNSCHAFT Magazine“A sweeping, intimate, decades-in-the-making oral biography of one of the most important queer artists of the 20th century.
Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life,an extraordinary oral biography that captures not just one artist’s story, but a whole queer generation.” – YASS Magazine“
Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life offers ravishing insight into what Advocate writer Christopher Harrity labeled ‘the most famous gay couple who has ever lived.'” – Siegessäule“Readers will sense that this is not just a story being told, but a life being lived, remembered, and processed. It is queer history, portraiture, and a love story all at once – a book for everyone who wants to understand how a life becomes a legend.” –
XTRA! Magazine
