Edmund White - Genet: A Biography

Edmuning praise. Through almost all of the comple and work his latest biographer is a sure-footed formed guide.

The New York Review of Books

White pursues his subjects with evident relish. He displays a deft command over Genets messy life and the many worlds in which he moved. Whites paean to Genet makes it less likely that the man or his work will easily be forgotten.

Boston Globe

In this monumental biography, which presents new and original research White shows how Genet constructed his identity in utter oppositon to the French state that both raised and excluded him. Whites own literary powers often illuminate his analysis of Genet. Unquestionably a major biography.

USA Today

[Jean Genet] was a highly complicated, contradictory, devious, and brilliant man, and Mr. Whites biography presents his achievements with impressive research and admirable writing.

Atlantic Monthly

Edmund White devoted seven years to the research and writing of his biography of French literary genius Jean Genet. The fruit of his effort is a major contribution to our understanding of Genets oeuvre, his idiosyncratic system of ethics, and his unique life experience. Remarkable extraordinary.

San Francisco Review of Books

Edmund Whites new biography of the French writer Jean Genet is one of those rare and serendipitous matches of subject to author. White has produced a beautifully written and definitive biography [he] brings his own gifts to bear on the enigma of Genets fictional worlds, and places Genet, whom he dubs the Proust of marginal Paris, in context: as one of the twentieth centurys great artists.

Elle

To Hubert Sorin and to
the memory of Bill Whitehead

T HIS BOOK could never have been written without the collaboration of Albert Dichy, who is the leading French authority on Genets manuscripts. Indeed I tried to write it before I invited him to help me and I made virtually no headway at all. M. Dichy had already been working on Genets life and work for some ten years when we met, and his book Essai de chronologie, which he wrote with Pascal Fouch, is a masterful look at the first thirty-five years of Genets life. During our own years of collaboration I have come to trust his advice, marvel at his memory, and admire his common sense, immense knowledge and his analytical powers. Thanks to him, I was permitted to consult (and quote from) all Genets published and unpublished texts.

As the executor of Genets will and Gallimards legal counsel, Laurent Boyer gave me extensive interviews about his friendship and professional relationship with the writer. M. Boyer also showed me unpublished letters and manuscripts and read through the entire text with great care, looking for legal problems. Without his invaluable help and the indispensable permissions he granted me, this book would have been a lot less complete.

Jonathan Burnham at Chatto & Windus, in association with Bobbie Bristol of Knopf, spent hundreds of hours helping me to prepare the final text. His patience and intelligence are rare attributes in an era when most books are thrown together. Jenny Uglow edited the final typescript with logic and elegance. Sonny Mehta of Knopf and Carmen Callil of Chatto have lent me moral support through the six years required to finish this book. In France, Jean-Loup Champion at Gallimard has brought his usual taste and perfectionism to the correction of countless errors. Other editors at Gallimard who have helped me are Antoine Gallimard and Eric Vigne.

The French translator, Philippe Delamare, has spotted dozens of small errors he has helped me to weed out of the book. Earlier versions were read and commented on by such friends as James Merrill, Alison Lurie and Forrest Gander. Marie-Claude de Brunhoff not only advised me on nearly every page of the manuscript but also helped me to revise the final text. She and the late Gilles Barbedette aided me in more ways than I can enumerate. James Miller read the political sections of the book and suggested many small changes of emphasis.

My American agent Maxine Groffsky has helped me in both practical and spiritual matters, as have my English agent Deborah Rogers and her assistant David Miller, who did the odd bit of research for me as well. In France my agent Michelle Lapautre has given me the benefit of her wonderful professionalism.

Harlan Lane and Diane Johnson have lent me places to live while I researched and wrote the text.

Gergory Rowe and Roberta Fineberg worked for me doing research, for which I am deeply grateful. James Lord and Bernard Minoret not only gave me extensive interviews but also introduced me to dozens of people in Paris. Franois-Marie Banier opened many doors for me. Margaret Schmidt worked for me, preparing a useful summary of Genets play Deathwatch (Haute surveillance) in its earlier drafts owned by the University of Texas at Austin. Out of friendship Mary Dearborn photocopied the Grove archives for me at Syracuse, just as Robert McCrum and Joanna Mackle opened up the Faber archives for me in London. Thierry Bodin opened his archives to Albert Dichy and me.

Thomas Spear gave me access to an important unpublished interview of Genet that he transcribed. Dr Isabelle Blondiaux interpreted Genets medical records for me. Laurent Ditmann spent many hours deciphering Genets handwriting and preparing summaries of his correspondence. Sylvie Toux also helped me organize and interpret Genets letters.

Several people sent me articles about Genet or other useful bits of information; for this unsolicited and much appreciated help I want to name Jane Giles, Stephen Barber, David Gable, George Bulat, Harry Goldgar, Bevis Hillier, Jim Haynes, Brian Rieselman and Pierre Passebon. Giorgio Agamben and Ginevra Bompiani tracked down information about Genet in Italy for me.

Alex Jeffers typed the manuscript and made countless suggestions about changes in wording, phrasing and organization; he acted as a first editor and I am grateful for his judgment and thoroughness.

John Purceii was living with me when I began this book and over the years has continued to help me out tracking down information. Odile Hellier of the Village Voice Book Shop in Paris has also made many useful introductions and looked up information for me. Genevive Picon has given me the benefit of her immense knowledge about the cultural history of Paris.

Steven Lowe graciously received me when I travelled to Santa Fe to interview Marianne de Pury, just as Georges Bousquet, then the French cultural attach in Tangier, accompanied me during a visit to Genets last house and tomb in Larache.

My mother, even when she was dying, urged me to finish this book, a task that would have been impossible without the sustaining love that she and Hubert Sorin have given me over the years.

This book is dedicated to Hubert, my lover, and to the memory of Bill Whitehead, the editor who originally commissioned it in 1987. He died soon afterwards of AIDS, but thoughts of him have guided me ever since.

I WOULD like to acknowledge the help of the entire staff at IMEC in Paris, the Institut Mmoires de ldition Contemporaine, where most of Genets papers are stored and where I worked, sometimes on a daily basis, off and on during the last six years. The director Olivier Corpet was always especially gracious.