A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
WINNER
| 1993 Lambda Book Award
WINNER
| 1993 National Book Critics Circle Awards
'Dazzling. Genet has found a scrupulous, meticulous chronicler in Edmund White.' -- Philip Henscher, The Guardian
'An absorbing and magisterial biography...a labor of love in every sense. A comparable achievement [is] Richard Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde.'
-- John Bayley, The Evening Standard
'Elegant, meticulous and wholly satisfying.'
-- Brian Masters, The Sunday telegraph
'White has caught the uncatchable man -- the public Genet as well as the recluse: no better praise can be given a biographer.'
-- Paul Bailey, The Daily Telegraph
Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940. His fiction includes the autobiographical trilogy A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, andThe Farewell Symphony, as well as Caracole, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, andSkinned Alive, a collection of short stories. He is also the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Jean Genet, a short study of Proust, a travel book about gay America—States of Desire—and Our Paris. He is an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and teaches at Princeton University. He lives in New York City.
View titles by Edmund White
A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
Awards
WINNER
| 1993 Lambda Book Award
WINNER
| 1993 National Book Critics Circle Awards
Reviews
'Dazzling. Genet has found a scrupulous, meticulous chronicler in Edmund White.' -- Philip Henscher, The Guardian
'An absorbing and magisterial biography...a labor of love in every sense. A comparable achievement [is] Richard Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde.'
-- John Bayley, The Evening Standard
'Elegant, meticulous and wholly satisfying.'
-- Brian Masters, The Sunday telegraph
'White has caught the uncatchable man -- the public Genet as well as the recluse: no better praise can be given a biographer.'
-- Paul Bailey, The Daily Telegraph
Author
Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940. His fiction includes the autobiographical trilogy A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, andThe Farewell Symphony, as well as Caracole, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, andSkinned Alive, a collection of short stories. He is also the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Jean Genet, a short study of Proust, a travel book about gay America—States of Desire—and Our Paris. He is an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and teaches at Princeton University. He lives in New York City.
View titles by Edmund White
