Editing Quentin Crisp (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Denis Charles Pratt was born at Wolverton, Egmond Road, [[Sutton, London|Sutton]], [[Surrey]], on 25 December 1908, the fourth and youngest child of "feckless and frequently unemployed" [[solicitor]] Spencer Charles Pratt, and former [[governess]] Frances Marion, née Phillips.<ref>{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-73162 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/73162 | title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | date=2004 }}</ref> He changed his name to Quentin Crisp in his twenties after leaving home, and expressed a feminine appearance to a degree that shocked contemporary Londoners and provoked "[[gay-bashing]]" assaults.<ref name="Tatchell"/>

By his own account, Crisp was "effeminate" from an early age, resulting in his being teased while at [[Kingswood House School]]<ref name="qandp">{{cite book |last=Barrow |first=Andrew |title=Quentin and Philip |date=8 November 2002 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-333-78051-0 }}</ref> in [[Epsom]], Surrey, from which he won a scholarship to [[Denstone College]], [[Uttoxeter]], Staffordshire, in 1922. After leaving school in 1926, Crisp studied journalism at [[King's College London]], but failed to graduate in 1928, going on to take art classes at the [[Regent Street Polytechnic]].

Around this time, Crisp began visiting the cafés of [[Soho]], his favourite being The Black Cat in [[Old Compton Street]], meeting other young gay men and [[rent boys]], and experimenting with make-up and [[transvestism|women's clothes]]. For six months, he worked as a prostitute;<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/211644.stm "Crisp: The naked civil servant"], BBC News, November twenty-first, 1999</ref> in a 1998 interview,<ref>{{Cite web|date=21 December 1998|title=Quentin Crisp interview: Old Spice|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/quentin-crisp-interview-old-spice-1193631.html|access-date=9 October 2020|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> he said he was looking for love, but found only degradation, a reflection he had previously expressed in the 1968 ''[[World in Action]]'' interview, which aired on television in 1971.

Crisp left home to move to the [[central London|centre of London]] at the end of 1930, and after dwelling in a succession of flats, found a [[Bedsit|bed-sitting]] room in Denbigh Street, [[Pimlico]], where he "held court with London's brightest and roughest characters."{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} His 'outlandish' appearance—he wore bright make-up, dyed his long hair crimson, painted his fingernails and wore sandals to display his painted toe-nails—brought admiration and curiosity from some quarters, but generally attracted hostility and violence from strangers passing him in the streets.

===Middle years===
Crisp attempted to join the [[British army]] at the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], but was rejected and declared exempt by the medical board on the grounds that he was "suffering from sexual perversion". He remained in London during [[The Blitz|the 1941 Blitz]], stocked up on cosmetics, purchased five pounds of [[henna]] and later paraded through the streets during the black-out, picking up [[G.I.s]]. In 1940, he moved into a first-floor flat at 129 Beaufort Street, [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], a bed-sitting room that he occupied until he emigrated to the United States in 1981. In the intervening years, he never attempted any housework, writing famously in his memoir ''The Naked Civil Servant'': "After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse."<ref>Crisp, Quentin. ''The Naked Civil Servant''. Penguin Press, 1997, p. 102.</ref>

Crisp left his job as an [[technical drawing|engineer's tracer]] in 1942 to become a model in [[life class]]es in London and the [[Home Counties]]. Crisp wanted to call his book ''I Reign in Hell'', a reference to [[John Milton|Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' ("Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven"), but his agent insisted on ''The Naked Civil Servant'', an insistence that later gave him pause when he offered the manuscript to [[Tom Maschler]] of [[Jonathan Cape]] on the same day that [[Desmond Morris]] delivered ''[[The Naked Ape]]''. [[The Naked Civil Servant (book)|''The Naked Civil Servant'']] was published in 1968 to generally good reviews, although it initially only sold 3,500 copies. Crisp was then approached by the documentary film maker [[Denis Mitchell (filmmaker)|Denis Mitchell]] to be the subject of a 1968 short film in which he discussed his life and lifestyle. The documentary aired on British television in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c7t5c|title=Quentin Crisp - 1968 - video|date=25 December 2017|website=Dailymotion}}</ref>

===Fame===
[[File:QuentinCrisp(Q&A)RossBennettLewisPHOTO.png|thumb|Quentin Crisp during a Q&A session for his book and the film ''[[The Naked Civil Servant (film)|The Naked Civil Servant]]'']]
In 1975, the television version of ''[[The Naked Civil Servant (film)|The Naked Civil Servant]]'' was broadcast on British and US television, making actor [[John Hurt]], and Crisp, into stars. This success launched Crisp in a new direction: that of performer and tutor. He devised a one-man show and began touring the country with it. The first half of the show was an entertaining monologue loosely based on his memoirs, while the second half was a question-and-answer session with Crisp picking the audience's written questions at random and answering them in an amusing manner.

After the success of the film, his autobiography was reprinted; ''[[Gay News]]'' commented that it should have been published posthumously (Crisp said that this was their polite way of telling him to drop dead). Gay rights campaigner [[Peter Tatchell]] said he had met Crisp in 1974, and alleged that he was not sympathetic to the [[Gay Liberation]] movement of the time.<ref>{{Cite web|date=28 December 2009|title=Comment: Quentin Crisp was no gay rights hero|url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/12/28/comment-quentin-crisp-was-no-gay-rights-hero/|access-date=1 September 2020|website=PinkNews |language=en-GB}}</ref> Tatchell said Crisp quipped: "What do you want liberation from? What is there to be proud of? I don't believe in rights for homosexuals."<ref name=Tatchell/>

By now Crisp was a theatre-filling humourist; in 1978, his one-man show sold out London's [[Duke of York's Theatre]]. He then took the show to New York. His first stay in the [[Hotel Chelsea]] coincided with a fire, a robbery, and the death of [[Nancy Spungen]]. Crisp decided to move to New York permanently and, in 1981, found a small apartment at 46 East 3rd Street in Manhattan's [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Notable Abodes - East 3rd Street, New York, New York|url=http://www.notableabodes.com/person-abode-details/6315/quentin-crisp-author_46-east-3rd-street-new-york-new-york|access-date=1 September 2020|website=notableabodes.com}}{{Dead link|date=April 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

As he had done in London, Crisp allowed his telephone number to be listed in the [[telephone directory]]. He saw it as his duty to converse with anyone who called him, saying "If you don't have your name in the phone book, you're stuck with your friends. How will you ever enlarge your horizons?"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaXPFuIXpk4|title=Quentin Crisp Collection on Letterman, 1982-83|date=10 March 2018 |via=YouTube}}</ref> He answered the phone with the phrase: "Yes, Lord?", or "Oh yes?", in a querulous tone of voice.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} His openness to strangers extended to accepting dinner invitations from almost anyone. While he expected that the host would pay for dinner, Crisp did his best to "sing for his supper" by regaling his host with wonderful stories and yarns, much as he did in his theatrical performances.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

[[File:Quentin Crisp's Signature.jpg|thumb|alt=The title page of Crisp's 1981 book, How to Become a Virgin. Mr. Crisp's handwritten dedication for a fan appears beneath the title, and reads: "To Graham from Quentin Crisp". The dedication is written in a large, round hand with a circle dotting each I.|Quentin Crisp's handwriting and signature, from a dedication on the title page of ''How to Become a Virgin'' (1981)]]
Crisp continued to perform his one-man show, published books on the importance of contemporary manners as a means of social inclusion (as opposed to etiquette, which he claimed is socially exclusive), and supported himself by accepting social invitations and writing film reviews and columns for UK and US magazines and newspapers. He said that provided one could exist on peanuts and champagne, one could quite easily live by going to every [[cocktail party]], [[premiere]] and first night to which one was invited.<ref>{{Cite web|date=14 July 1996|title=Life is a bowl of peanuts|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/life-is-a-bowl-of-peanuts-1328759.html|access-date=30 October 2020|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Crisp 1982.jpg|thumb |alt=A sepia-toned photograph. A straight-faced Quentin Crisp gestures from an ornate, high-backed chair. A large, red handkerchief flops from his jacket pocket.|Quentin Crisp in a performance of his one-man show, ''An Evening With Quentin Crisp'', in [[Birmingham]], 1982]]
Crisp also acted on television and in films. He made his debut as a film actor in the [[Royal College of Art]]'s low-budget production of ''[[Hamlet]]'' (1976). Crisp played [[Polonius]] in the 65-minute adaptation of [[Shakespeare]]'s play, alongside [[Helen Mirren]], who played both [[Ophelia]] and [[Gertrude (Hamlet)|Gertrude]]. He appeared in the 1985 film ''[[The Bride (1985 film)|The Bride]]'', which brought him into contact with [[Sting (musician)|Sting]], who played the lead role of Baron [[Frankenstein]], and who in 1987 wrote the song "[[Englishman in New York]]" for and about Crisp. Crisp also appeared on the television show ''[[The Equalizer (1985 TV series)|The Equalizer]]'' in the 1987 episode "First Light", and as the narrator of director [[Richard Kwietniowski]]'s short film ''Ballad of Reading Gaol'' (1988), based on the [[The Ballad of Reading Gaol|poem]] by [[Oscar Wilde]]. Four years later, he was cast in a lead role, and got top billing, in the low-budget [[independent film]] ''[[Topsy and Bunker: The Cat Killers]]'', playing the door-man of a flea-bag hotel in a run-down neighbourhood, quite like the one he lived in. Director Thomas Massengale reportedly said that Crisp was a delight to work with.

The 1990s were his most prolific decade as an actor, as more and more directors offered him roles. In 1992 he was persuaded by [[Sally Potter]] to play [[Elizabeth I]] in the film ''[[Orlando (film)|Orlando]]''. Although he found the role taxing, he won acclaim for a dignified and touching performance. Crisp next had an uncredited cameo in the 1993 AIDS drama ''[[Philadelphia (film)|Philadelphia]].'' He accepted some other small bit parts and cameos, such as a pageant judge in 1995's ''[[To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar]]''. Crisp's last role was in an independent film, ''American Mod'' (1999), while his last full-feature film was ''HomoHeights'' (also released as ''Happy Heights'', 1996). He was chosen by [[Channel 4]] to deliver the first ''[[Alternative Christmas Speech]]'', a counterpoint to the [[Queen's Christmas speech]], in 1993.

===Last years===
Crisp remained fiercely independent and unpredictable into old age. He caused controversy and confusion in the gay community by (perhaps jokingly) calling AIDS "a fad", and homosexuality "a terrible disease".<ref name="Tatchell"/> He was continually in demand from journalists requiring a sound-bite, and throughout the 1990s his commentary was sought on any number of topics.

Crisp was a stern critic of [[Diana, Princess of Wales]], and her attempts to gain public sympathy following her divorce from [[Prince Charles]]. He stated: "I always thought Diana was such trash and got what she deserved. She was Lady Diana before she was Princess Diana, so she knew the racket. She knew that royal marriages have nothing to do with love. You marry a man and you stand beside him on public occasions and you wave and for that you never have a financial worry until the day you die."<ref>{{cite book |last=Fountain |first=Tim |title=Resident Alien: Quentin Crisp Explains It All |year=1999 |publisher=Nick Hern Books |location=London, UK |isbn=1-85459-657-8 |page=20}}</ref> Following [[Death of Diana, Princess of Wales|her death in 1997]], he commented that it was perhaps her "fast and shallow" lifestyle that led to her demise: "She could have been Queen of England - and she was swanning about Paris with Arabs. What disgraceful behaviour! Going about saying she wanted to be the queen of hearts. The vulgarity of it is so overpowering."<ref>''Atlanta Southern Voice'', 1 July 1999</ref>

In 1995 he was among the many people interviewed for ''[[The Celluloid Closet (film)|The Celluloid Closet]]'', a historical documentary addressing how Hollywood films have depicted homosexuality. In his third volume of memoirs, ''Resident Alien'', published in the same year, Crisp stated that he was close to the end of his life, though he continued to make public appearances, and in June of that year he was one of the guest entertainers at the second [[Pride Scotia#1996|Pride Scotland]] festival in Glasgow.

In 1997 Crisp was crowned king of the [[Beaux-Arts Ball]] run by the Beaux Arts Society. He presided alongside Queen Audrey Kargere, Prince George Bettinger and Princess Annette Hunt.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beauxartssociety.org/19356.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=24 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102192849/http://beauxartssociety.org/19356.html |archive-date=2 January 2014}}</ref>

In December 1998 he celebrated his ninetieth birthday, performing the opening night of his one-man show, ''An Evening with Quentin Crisp'', at The Intar Theatre on Forty-Second Street in New York City (produced by [[John Glines]] of [[The Glines]] organisation).

===Gender identity===
In an interview with CBC in 1977, upon being queried about whether he desired to be a woman, Crisp stated: "Well, I suppose when I was a child, when I lived almost entirely in a dreamworld, I suppose I thought of myself as a woman. But, later on, you realise that you have to live in the real world, and that you are ''not'' a woman. You are only in some senses 'effeminate,' or 'feminine,' and you must learn to make this compromise - to live in a world where, statistically, you are a man, whatever you may think about yourself."<ref>{{YouTube|id=L_j26OASthY|title = Quentin Crisp on the gay liberation movement|t=2m24s}}</ref>

At the age of 90 Crisp said in his book ''The Last Word'' that he had come to the conclusion that he was [[transgender]].<blockquote>"Having labelled myself homosexual and having been labelled as such by the wider world, I have effectively lived a 'gay' life for most of my years. Consequently, I can relate to gay men because I have more or less been one for so long in spite of my actual fate being that of a woman trapped in a man's body. I refer to myself as homosexual without thinking because of how I have lived my life. If you are reading this and are gay, think of me as one of your own even though you now know the truth. If it's confusing for you, think how confusing it has been for me these past ninety years.</blockquote><blockquote>The only thing in my life I have wanted and didn't get was to be a woman. It will be my life's biggest regret. If the operation had been available and cheap when I was young, say when I was twenty-five or twenty-six, I would have jumped at the chance. My life would have been much simpler as a result. I would have told nobody. Instead, I would have gone to live in a distant town and run a knitting wool shop and no one would ever have known my secret. I would have joined the real world and it would have been wonderful."<ref name="pink">Crisp, Quentin and Ward, Phillip (2017). The Last Word: An Autobiography. MB Books LLC. pp. 15-16.

ISBN 978-0692968482</ref></blockquote>

===Death===
Crisp died of a heart attack on 21 November 1999, at age 90, while staying at the home of a friend in [[Chorlton-cum-Hardy]], Manchester, on the eve of a nationwide revival of his one-man show.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/nov/22/uk.news|title = Quentin Crisp, 90, dies on eve of sell-out British tour|work = [[The Guardian]]|date = 22 November 1999|accessdate = 7 March 2022|last = Baldwin|first = Paul}}</ref>  He was cremated with a minimum of ceremony as he had requested, and his ashes were flown back to his personal assistant and travel companion Phillip Ward in New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/phillip-ward-talks-the-last-word-by-quentin-crisp_b_5a293aafe4b09ee35b8ae69a|title=Phillip Ward Talks 'The Last Word' by Quentin Crisp and More (AUDIO)|date=7 December 2017|website=HuffPost}}</ref>

He bequeathed his rights in three books to his respective collaborators: Phillip Ward for Crisp's final book ''The Last Word'' and the book ''And One More Thing'' (formerly titled ''Dusty Answers''); Guy Kettelhack for ''The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp'' and [[John Hofsess]] for ''Manners from Heaven''. From his remaining literary estate (including The Naked Civil Servant), he bequeathed all future UK-only income (but not the [[copyright]]s, which are managed by Ward, and belong to Ward, literary agent Stedman Mays, and writer Mary Tahan) to the two men he considered to have had the greatest influence on his career: his long-time agent Richard Gollner, and his first agent Donald Carroll.{{fact|date=September 2024}}

===Posthumously published works===
In the two years before his death (1997–1999), Crisp had been compiling a work that was initially to be titled ''The Dusty Answers'' with Philip Ward. Crisp and Ward developed material for this book through many hours of recorded interviews, which was necessary because Crisp had lost the use of his left hand and he was unable to use a typewriter or computer. The resulting manuscript remained unpublished for eighteen years after Crisp's death, because Ward found it emotionally difficult to transcribe Crisp's words. A chance meeting with Laurence Watts, who interviewed Ward for ''[[Pink News]]'', led them to co-edit Crisp's remaining work.

On 21 November 2017, MB Books published ''The Last Word: An Autobiography'', written by Crisp's friend, Philip Ward, on the basis of tape recordings made of Crisp's dictations, and edited by Ward and Watts. Whereas ''The Naked Civil Servant'' made Crisp famous, and ''How To Become A Virgin'' detailed that fame and his life in New York, ''The Last Word'' was written as a goodbye to the world, with Crisp knowing the end was near. In it he recounts several previously untold stories from his life, walks the reader through his journey from obscurity, reflects on his philosophy and gender identity. <ref name="pink" />

In January 2019, MB Books published ''And One More Thing'', a companion book to ''The Last Word: An Autobiography'', again edited by Ward and Watts. This book contains material that the editors believed did not fit into ''The Last Word''. In ''And One More Thing'', Crisp primarily shares his views on other people, their lives and their opinions, from [[flapper]] girls to [[Monica Lewinsky]], and from the [[British Royal Family]] to [[Walt Disney]]. Also included are his collected poems, the script for his [[Alternative Christmas message]] broadcast on Britain's [[Channel 4]] in 1993, and the script of his one-man show ''An Evening With Quentin Crisp''.