Quentin Crisp : The Naked Civil Servant Click cover to BUY |
Dennis Pratt was in his early twenties when he decided to rename himself Quentin Crisp. Having done so, he felt he could at last be his own man - by not looking like one. Crisp wore make-up at a time when eye shadow on women was considered sinful. For a man to tart himself up was an abomination. But Crisp refused to feel any shame and paid no attention to the abuse his effeminate appearance inevitably evoked. It was never Crisp's intention to instil hostility: "Only to be accepted by others without bevelling down my individuality to please them".
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After various careers - as a tap dance teacher, a commercial artist and a nude model - Quentin Crisp found fame following the TV dramatisation of his autobiography, The Naked Civil Servant, in the 1970s. Asked what he thought of the TV adaptation, Crisp replied: "It's a lot better than real life, because it's so much shorter."
Once considered heinous, Crisp was now regarded heroic. But despite becoming a figure of public affection, Crisp hated England and yearned to live in America. At the age of 72, Crisp finally moved to the city of his dreams, New York - where "the freaks pass unnoticed". But whether a freak, an English eccentric, a wit or a writer, it was impossible not to notice Quentin Crisp. Although championed by the gay community, Quentin Crisp disliked being perceived as a pioneering poof and considered homosexuality an illness: "Had surgery existed in my youth I would have had the op and opened a knitting shop in Carlisle." Nevertheless, Quentin Crisp played his part with eloquence and elegance, by simply being himself. And by refusing to be anything else, he was more than many of us could ever hope to be. Quentin Crisp died in 1999, aged 90. |
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