SAN DIEGO, Calif. – MB Books, LLC, (MB Books) today announced the worldwide publication of The Last Word, the third and final installment of Quentin Crisp’s autobiography. Today is the eighteen-year anniversary of Quentin’s passing. The Last Word is available in paperback and as an e-book, exclusively on Amazon.
The Last Word was written by Crisp with the help of his best friend, Phillip Ward, who tape-recorded and later transcribed Quentin’s words between 1997-1999. Upon his death, Quentin left the rights and responsibility to publish The Last Word to Phillip, who later enlisted former Pink News features writer Laurence Watts to help edit the resulting manuscript.
Whereas The Naked Civil Servant made Crisp famous and How To Become A Virgin detailed that fame and his move to and life in New York, The Last Word was written by a man who knew the end was near. While Crisp died from a heart attack in November 1999 in Manchester, England – on the eve of a British revival of his one-man show – having been diagnosed with prostate cancer and heart problems and at the age of ninety, Crisp had begun to put his affairs in order. The Last Word then, is Crisp’s goodbye to the world. In it he recounts the story of him having once been a temporary tramp (a hobo in American-English), his recently discovered transgender identity, his struggles with ill-health and growing old, and a host of other previously untold stories.
“I am delighted to finally be able to share The Last Word with all of Quentin’s fans throughout the world.” said Phillip Ward, literary and estate executor for Quentin Crisp. “Quentin was one of a kind. He was a philosopher, an observer of life, a survivor and a beacon of hope for many. In life, his primary mission was the immediate happiness of those around him. He leaves behind a legacy of great importance to the world’s gay and straight communities of which The Last Word is his swansong.”
