Lions and Shadows: An Education in the Twenties was published by the Hogarth Press in 1938. The subtitle is precise: this is an account of how Isherwood was educated — not at Cambridge, which he left without a degree, but by the experiences, friendships, and failures of the 1920s that shaped him as a writer.
The book’s characters are barely disguised versions of real people: “Hugh Weston” is W. H. Auden, “Stephen Doyle” is Stephen Spender, “Chalmers” is Edward Upward. Isherwood’s portraits of his friends are affectionate, sharp, and occasionally devastating. Auden/Weston is presented as a force of nature — intellectually omnivorous, socially clumsy, and possessed of a confidence that Isherwood simultaneously envies and distrusts.
The autobiography is subtitled “An Education” rather than “A Life” because Isherwood is interested in formation rather than events. He describes the development of his sensibility — his discovery of literature, his rejection of conventional ambition, his growing awareness that he is different from the people around him (the homosexuality that is the real source of this difference is, again, suppressed) — with a self-mockery that is both genuine and defensive. Isherwood satirizes his own pretensions mercilessly, but the satire also keeps the reader at a distance from the emotional reality.
Collecting Lions and Shadows
First edition (Hogarth Press, London, 1938): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $800–$2,000
- Very good/very good: $300–$800