Quentin Crisp (25 December 1908(1908-12-25) – 21 November 1999), born Denis Charles Pratt, was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, brought to the attention of the general public his defiant exhibitionism and longstanding refusal to remain in the closet.
Denis Charles Pratt was born in Sutton, Surrey, the fourth child of solicitor Charles Pratt (1871 – 1931) a...
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Quentin Crisp (25 December 1908(1908-12-25) – 21 November 1999), born Denis Charles Pratt, was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, brought to the attention of the general public his defiant exhibitionism and longstanding refusal to remain in the closet.
Denis Charles Pratt was born in Sutton, Surrey, the fourth child of solicitor Charles Pratt (1871 – 1931) and former governess Frances Pratt (née Phillips) (1873 – 1960); he changed his name to Quentin Crisp in his twenties after leaving home and cultivating his outlandishly effeminate appearance to a standard that both shocked contemporary Londoners and provoked homophobic attacks.
By his own account, Crisp was effeminate in behaviour from an early age and found himself the object of teasing at Kingswood Preparatory School in Epsom, from where he won a scholarship to the independent school Denstone College, near Uttoxeter, in 1922. After leaving...
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