Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp was an English writer, raconteur, and actor whose memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, chronicled his life as an openly gay man in mid-century Britain.

The Naked Civil Servant: Quentin Crisp’s memoir recounts his life as an openly gay man in Britain from the 1920s through the 1960s. The book that made Crisp’s life and defiant self-presentation widely known.
The Naked Civil Servant (film): A 1975 television film starring John Hurt as Quentin Crisp, adapted from Crisp’s memoir. The adaptation brought Crisp’s story to a large television audience.
Philip Mackie: An English playwright and screenwriter who adapted Quentin Crisp’s memoir for the 1975 television film. Mackie shaped the television version that made Crisp famous beyond his own writing.
Camp (style): An aesthetic sensibility that uses exaggeration, artifice, theatricality, and irony. Crisp’s appearance and storytelling often relied on conspicuous theatricality.
Homosexual Law Reform Society: A British organization founded in 1958 to campaign for the decriminalization of consensual homosexual acts between men. Its campaign unfolded against the legal climate Crisp describes in his memoir.
John Hurt: An English actor whose screen career included roles in films such as The Elephant Man and Alien. His portrayal of Crisp in the 1975 film became closely associated with the memoir.
Richard O’Brien: An English actor, writer, and composer who created The Rocky Horror Show. O’Brien’s musical featured Crisp as its Narrator in a London production.
Coming out: The process by which LGBTQ people disclose or affirm their sexual orientation or gender identity. Crisp lived openly at a time when doing so exposed him to harassment and legal discrimination.
Sexual Offences Act 1967: A British law that partially decriminalized consensual homosexual acts between men in England and Wales. Its limited reform came just after the period covered by Crisp’s memoir.
An Englishman in New York: A 2009 biographical film about Quentin Crisp’s later years in New York, starring John Hurt. The film follows Crisp beyond the British life recounted in his memoir.