"A Single Man" - the loneliness of separation
"A Single Man" - the loneliness of separation In the annals of Gay relationships in twentieth century, none had more transcendental quality, artistic flamboyance, endurance and perfect affinity than the celebrated romance between Novelist Christopher Isherwood (1904 -1986) and painter Don Bachardy. They met memorably for the first time on a moonlit evening in 1953, on the pristine beaches of Santa Monica, California. It was coincidentally Valentine’s Day as well; Isherwood was then 48 years old- a celebrated author, poet and a renowned translator of Indian spiritual texts; and Don was an 18 year old boy, fragile, lonely with mellow green eyes studying to be a painter. The fire that crackled between them on that cool windy night was never doused for the next 32 years. It physical, emotional and intellectual heat abated only when Isherwood (86 years) died in Don’s arms in 1986, after a prolonged battle with prostate cancer, and the embers of those last few months were i