Quentin Crisp / Tim Fountain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fountain, Tim.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Crisp, Quentin, 1908-1999.

Crisp, Quentin.

Gay men--Biography.

Gay men.

Humorists, English--New York (State)--New York--Biography.

Humorists, English.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

192 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm

Place of Publication:

Bath : Absolute, 2002.

Summary:

Tim Fountain came to know Quentin Crisp intimately during the last year of his life whilst researching his stage play about him, Resident Alien. Crisp died before he got a chance to see the play. Here he tells the story of that year; looking at the life and lasting legacy of one of the wittiest and most controversial figures of the last century, and shedding light on the intriguing events leading up to his death. It is a compelling portrait of what Fountain calls a 'great, glittering contradiction': a man who flaunted his sexuality at a time when the penalty for homosexual activity was jail, a man whose very name epitomized style, yet who lived alone in abject poverty in a room he simply refused to clean, and a man who confidently declared at the height of the AIDS epidemic that he didn't believe it existed.

Contents:

If I think about my life 9

The trouble with children 19

I learned nothing at school 25

The life of a homosexual 28

London was relatively easy 33

When I say you must lie alone 36

The obviously queer boys 39

Sex is the last refuge of the miserable 42

An actor's kingdom is divided 45

What have you got against the wall? 49

Never get into a narrow double bed... 54

If there is a heaven for homosexuals... 58

What crime has in common with sport 62

The stately homos of England 66

Three reasons for becoming a writer 70

There ought to be a Ministry of Death 76

I have entered the profession of being 80

The survival of the glibbest 86

Love does not cause jealousy 91

Television has so much spare time 97

My representative on earth 101

I've gone into the fame business 109

I don't believe in abroad 122

I have always been American in my heart 127

Alteration in their lives 131

Now in the winter of my life 135

England was terrible 140

Famous for wearing make-up 143

I want to die a significant death 161

A way of ending it 167

Just pop me in a black bin bag 176

The Sunday Correspondent Questionnaire 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1899791485

OCLC:

44932130