In Resident Alien: The New York Diaries, Quentin Crisp records his life after leaving Britain for New York in his seventies, where he unexpectedly became a cult figure of downtown bohemia.

The diary entries move through the early 1990s, capturing Crisp’s encounters with artists, journalists, drag performers, and curious strangers who sought him out as a living emblem of flamboyant outsiderhood.

Sharp, dry, and often mischievous, the book reads less like conventional autobiography than a running commentary on loneliness, celebrity, sexuality, and ageing. Crisp observes the city with amused detachment—reflecting on everything from fashion and etiquette to the peculiarities of American culture—while maintaining the theatrical persona that made him famous after The Naked Civil Servant.