If you’ve ever had a lengthy conversation at a dinner party with an accomplished artist, you know how woven they can be in their stories, but also how some discuss their accomplishments as if it were outside themselves, that their talent was a gift, not the results of years of practice and work.

Such as the case with “Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life,” Michael Schreiber’s oral history, which at length delves into the experiences of the prolific painter and decades-long partner of acclaimed author and screenwriter Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986).

The richness of his celebrity contacts is evident in the book’s advanced praise from no less than Liza Minnelli, actors Michael York, Joe Gray, Ian McKellen and the late author, Edmund White. The book also has two forwards from actor Simon Callow

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