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Edmund White

Born: 1940 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: When White was seven years he moved to Evanston with his mother and sister.

Biography: Edmund White is a novelist, writer of memoirs and an essayist on literary and social topics. He lives in New York and teaches at Princeton. White is one of the best-known writers in gay fiction though his works also include non-fiction and fiction on a wide variety of themes. He has won acclaim from both gay and mainstream literary critics. Along with the books he has written, he also edited the book, ''Loss Within Loss: Artists in the Age of AIDS'' in 2001 and compiled the anthology ''Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction'' with Don Weise in 2004.


Awards:
  • The Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1982 Chevalier (later Officier) de LOrdre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, 1993 Made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1997 Made a member of the

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Website: http://www.edmundwhite.com
Edmund White on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=edmund+white


Selected Titles

A boy's own story /
ISBN: 0375707409 OCLC: 8493518

Dutton, New York : ©1982.

At home, in school, and on the streets, a homosexual teenager moves through comic sexual experiments, isolation, fear, and exciting expectations toward an escape from childhood and a firm sense of self.

Arts And Letters
ISBN: 9781573445733 OCLC: 947056921

Cleis Press, San Francisco, Calif. : 2006.

A dazzling collection of profiles and interviews by the preeminent American cultural essayist of our time. In these 39 lively essays and profiles, best-selling novelist and biographer Edmund White draws on his wide reading and his sly good humor to illuminate some of the most influential writers, artists, and cultural icons of the past century: among them, Marcel Proust, Catherine Deneuve, George Eliot, Andy Warhol, AndrE Gide, David Geffen, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Whether he's praising Nabokov's sensuality, or critiquing Elton John's walk (as though he's a wind-up doll that's been overwound and sent heading for the top of the stairs), or describing serendipitous moments in his seven-year-long research into the life of Genet, White is unfailingly observant, erudite, and entertaining.

Arts and letters /
ISBN: 1573441953 OCLC: 55085684

Cleis Press, San Francisco, Calif. : ©2004.

"39 lively essays and profiles ... illuminate some of the most influential writers, artists, and cultural icons of the past century"--Jacket.

Caracole
ISBN: 9780307764515 OCLC: 712069171

Vintage International, New York : [1996], ©1985.

Gabriel, an awkward boy from the provinces whose social naïveté and sexual ardor make him endlessly attractive to a variety of patrons and paramours, comes to the big city.

Caracole /
ISBN: 067976416X OCLC: 33360038

Vintage Books, New York : 1996.

Chaos
ISBN: 9781408803899 OCLC: 455813682

Bloomsbury, London : 2010.

Chaos :
ISBN: 0786720050 OCLC: 124040387

When a respected older man clings to the values and mores of the liberated 1970s, when he pursues sex relentlessly and his reputation suffers, Chaos ensues. White explores different aspects of aging, romance, and sex, inviting his readers to come with him to Florida, the Greek Isles, and Turkey ̮and into the chaotic gay demimonde of contemporary New York.

City boy :
ISBN: 1596914025 OCLC: 317455986

Bloomsbury, New York : 2009.

"City Boy" tells the story of White's years in 1970s New York, bouncing from intellectual encounters with Susan Sontag and Harold Brodkey to his erotic entanglements downtown to the city's burgeoning gay scene of artists and writers.

City boy :
ISBN: 9781608192342 OCLC: 667235827

Bloomsbury, New York : 2010, ©2009.

The story of White's years in 1970s New York, bouncing from intellectual encounters with Susan Sontag and Harold Brodkey to his erotic entanglements downtown to the city's burgeoning gay scene of artists and writers.

  Edmund White reads Nocturnes for the king of Naples (chapter eight) and A boy's own story (exerpt). Edmund White reads The beautiful room is empty (chapter two).
ISBN: 1556443404 OCLC: 26401333

American Audio Prose Library, Columbia, MO : ℗1989.

Fanny :
ISBN: 0060004843 OCLC: 51855496

Ecco/HarperCollins, New York : ©2003.

A fictional account based on the life of Fanny Wright is presented from the perspective of social critic and biographer Frances Trollope, who remembers young Wright's utopian idealism and move to mid-nineteenth century America.

  Fanny :
ISBN: 009928572X OCLC: 56647770

Vintage, London : 2004.

Forgetting Elena /
ISBN: 067975573X OCLC: 31299488

Vintage International, New York : 1994.

Forgetting Elena.
ISBN: 0394483413 OCLC: 495205

Random House New York, [1973]

  Genet :
ISBN: 129920886X OCLC: 842859299

Vintage, 2010.

Genet :
ISBN: 0679754792 OCLC: 31389369

Random House, New York : 1994.

Hotel de dream
ISBN: 9780061851865 OCLC: 877894372

HarperCollins e-Books, [Place of publication not identified] : 2014.

In a damp, old Sussex castle, American literary phenomenon Stephen Crane lies on his deathbed, wasting away from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-eight. The world-famous author has retreated to England with his wife, Cora, in part to avoid gossip about her ignominious past as the proprietress of an infamous Florida bordello, the Hotel de Dream. In the midst of gathering tragedy, Crane begins dictating what will surely be his final work: a strange and poignant novel of a boy prostitute in 1890s New York and the married man who ruins his own life to win his love.>

Hotel de Dream :
ISBN: 0060852259 OCLC: 148886814

A tale inspired by the final days of literary master Stephen Crane is set in the underworld of turn-of-the-century New York and follows his death-bed dictation of his final novel, "The Painted Boy," while biding farewell to a long-time love.

Inside a pearl :
ISBN: 1608195821 OCLC: 843228648

The book's title evokes the Parisian landscape in the eternal mists and the half-light, the serenity of the city compared to the New York White had known (and vividly recalled in City Boy).

  Inside a pearl :
ISBN: 1620406330 OCLC: 881092866

Bloomsbury, New York : 2015.

When Edmund White moved to Paris in 1983, leaving New York City in the midst of the AIDS crisis, he was forty-three years old, couldn't speak French, and only knew two people in the entire city. But in middle age, he discovered the new anxieties and pleasures of mastering a new culture. When he left fifteen years later to take a teaching position in the U.S., he was fluent enough to broadcast on French radio and TV, and in his work as a journalist, he'd made the acquaintance of everyone from Yves Saint Laurent to Catherine Deneuve to Michel Foucault. He'd also developed a close friendship with an older woman, Marie-Claude, through which he'd come to understand French life and culture in a deeper way. The book's title evokes the Parisian landscape in the eternal mists and the half-light, the serenity of the city compared to the New York White had known (and vividly recalled in City Boy). White fell headily in love with the city and its culture: both intoxicated and intellectually stimulated. He became the definitive biographer of Jean Genet; he wrote lives of Marcel Proust and Arthur Rimbaud; and he became a recipient of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Inside a Pearl recalls those fertile years for White. It's a memoir which gossips and ruminates, and offers a brilliant examination of a city and a culture eternally imbued with an aura of enchantment--Page [4] of cover.

Jack Holmes and his friend :
ISBN: 1608197034 OCLC: 713834626

Bloomsbury, New York : 2012.

Traces the decades-long friendship of Jack Holmes and Will Wright, which is marked by Jack's secret love for Will, Will's marriage in spite of conflicted sexual feelings, and the devastating rise of AIDS--

Marcel Proust /
ISBN: 0670880574 OCLC: 39195365

"Considered the greatest - and most influential - writer of the twentieth century, Marcel Proust was also one of its most fascinating figures. In this portrait, Edmund White, author of an acclaimed biography of Jean Genet and the much admired novel A Boy's Own Story displays a rare understanding of this most complex man. A strange, reclusive genius who often lay in bed for days at a time in his cork-lined room, obsessively rewriting his masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past, Proust was at other times a tireless socialite, attending the grandest parties and dazzling the guests - especially the most important ones - with his vivacity and wit. White also depicts the yearning, lonely boy, the ambitious grasper after honors, and the miserably closeted homosexual, an aspect of his life that this book explores frankly and perceptively."--Jacket.

Marcel Proust :
ISBN: 9780143114987 OCLC: 233547908

Penguin Group, New York : 2009.

Profiles Proust beyond his reclusive and obsessive persona, as a lonely young boy, darling of Parisian salons, fame seeker, and troubled homosexual.

My lives /
ISBN: 0066213975 OCLC: 61687902

Arranged thematically rather than chronologically, a collection of reminiscences by the critically acclaimed author integrates social history and humor as he discusses such topics as his psychologists, lovers, family, and friends.

Nocturnes for the King of Naples /
ISBN: 0312022638 OCLC: 4004899

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1978.

A hauntingly beautiful evocation of lost love, Noctunes for the King of Naples has all the startling, almost embarrassing, intimacy of a stranger's love letters. The intense emotional situation envelops the readers from the first page; like all images in a dream, White's characters are the most real people we know, thought they remain phantoms. Each chapter, each nocturne, is set in a different emotional key, but all are interconnected through such subtle modulations that the final effect is devastating.

Our Paris :
ISBN: 9780307800466 OCLC: 773579874

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 1995.

Edmund White, one of our most celebrated writers, and the French artist Hubert Sorin offer us a lighthearted, gently satiric portrait of their favorite people and places in and around their neighborhood, the run-down heart of Paris called the Chatelet. It is an enchantingly varied world, populated not only by dazzling literati and ultra-chic couturiers and art dealers but also by poetic shopkeepers, grandmotherly prostitutes, and, ever underfoot, an irrepressible basset hound named Fred. The foibles and eccentricities of these sometimes outrageous, always memorable individuals are brought to life with unfailing wit and affection. Below the surface of this sparkling comedy there is a tragic undercurrent, for while Sorin was completing his work, he was nearing the end of his struggle with AIDS. The book is a tribute to the brave spirit that led the authors to banish the somber and to celebrate the pleasures of their life together, as well as the differences between them.--Jacket.

Our Paris :
ISBN: 0679441662 OCLC: 32274463

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 1995.

"Edmund White, one of our most celebrated writers, and the French artist Hubert Sorin offer us a lighthearted, gently satiric portrait of their favorite people and places in and around their neighborhood, the run-down heart of Paris called the Chatelet. It is an enchantingly varied world, populated not only by dazzling literati and ultra-chic couturiers and art dealers but also by poetic shopkeepers, grandmotherly prostitutes, and, ever underfoot, an irrepressible basset hound named Fred. The foibles and eccentricities of these sometimes outrageous, always memorable individuals are brought to life with unfailing wit and affection." "Below the surface of this sparkling comedy there is a tragic undercurrent, for while Sorin was completing his work, he was nearing the end of his struggle with AIDS. The book is a tribute to the brave spirit that led the authors to banish the somber and to celebrate the pleasures of their life together, as well as the differences between them."--Jacket.

Rimbaud :
ISBN: 1934633151 OCLC: 262630047

Atlas & Co. : New York : ©2008.

Poet and prodigy Arthur Rimbaud led a life that was tragically brief, but just as dramatically eventful and accomplished.

Rimbaud :
ISBN: 9781843549727 OCLC: 260208847

Atlantic, London : 2009.

Sacred monsters /
ISBN: 1936833115 OCLC: 711052335

"Named by novelist John Irving as "one of the best writers of my generation," Edmund White is one of our most celebrated novelists. He is also a brilliant journalist and cultural commentator on the arts. In Sacred Monsters, White collects more than twenty of his most recent writings on legendary figures from the worlds of art and literature, including John Cheever, Edith Wharton, David Hockney, Truman Capote, Auguste Rodin, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Mapplethorpe, Martin Amis, E.M. Forster, Tennessee Williams, The Beats, Glenway Westcott, Vladimir Nabokov, James Merrill, Marguerite Duras, John Rechy, Henry James, Paul Bowles, Ford Madox Ford, Reynolds Price, Howard Sturgis, and Marcel Proust. Filled with wit, erudition, and charm, White's writing manages to entertain as it enlightens readers."--Jacket.

Skinned alive :
ISBN: 067975475X OCLC: 31938025

Knopf : New York : 1995.

Eight stories featuring homosexual protagonists. The story, Pyrography, is on the discomfort of a gay boy camping with two straight boys, Running on Empty describes a man's emotions on learning he is HIV-positive, and Palace Days is on the adventures of two American homosexuals in Paris.

States of desire :
ISBN: 0452266890 OCLC: 24782773

Plume, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : ©1991.

States of desire :
ISBN: 0525222359 OCLC: 5196782

Terre Haute /
ISBN: 0713687940 OCLC: 174491643

Methuen Drama, London : 2007.

Imagines the relationship between Gore Vidal, the author, and Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, while McVeigh sits on death row.

The beautiful room is empty /
ISBN: 0679755403 OCLC: 31299386

"Moving from a Midwestern college to the Stonewall Tavern on the night of the first gay uprising--and populated by eloquent queens, butch poseurs, and a fearfully incompetent shrink--The beautiful room is empty conflates the acts of coming out and coming of age."--Cover.

The burning library :
ISBN: 9780307764539 OCLC: 774728295

Vintage eBooks, New York : [2010]

Along with his groundbreaking essays that redefine politics, language, identity, and friendship in the light of gay experience and desire, this magisterial collection of 25 years of White's nonfiction writings includes dazzling subversive appreciations of cultural icons as diverse as Truman Capote and Cormac McCarthy, Robert Mapplethorpe and the singer formerly known as Prince. Reading tour.

The burning library :
ISBN: 0679754741 OCLC: 33488913

Vintage International, New York : 1995, ©1994.

The darker proof
ISBN: 0571151884 OCLC: 59165452

Faber, 1988.

The darker proof :
ISBN: 0452260701 OCLC: 16922991

New American Library, New York, N.Y. : [1988]

The Faber book of gay short fiction
ISBN: 057114473X OCLC: 27770283

Faber and Faber, 1991

The Faber book of gay short fiction /
ISBN: 0571129080 OCLC: 26055300

Faber and Faber, Boston : 1992.

The farewell symphony :
ISBN: 9780679754763 OCLC: 37538014

A writer looks back on a decade of homosexual affairs on both sides of the Atlantic. In the process he describes the gay man's dilemma, on the one hand he wants the right to be different, on the other he wants to be accepted as normal.

The Flaneur
ISBN: 9781408883723 OCLC: 958946294

A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the streets he walks - and is in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. Acclaimed writer Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the avenues and along the quays, into parts of the city virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many locals, luring the reader into the fascinating and seductive backstreets of his personal Paris.

The flaneur :
ISBN: 1582341354 OCLC: 45080050

Bloomsbury, New York : 2001.

A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. The author, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians.

The joy of gay sex :
ISBN: 006058324X OCLC: 52872988

PerfectBound, New York : 2003.

The married man
ISBN: 9780307764485 OCLC: 680643162

Vintage eBooks, New York : [2010]

Austin, an American working in Paris, and Julien, a French architect, fall in love, but inevitably ... Julien's past catches up with them. With increasing desperation, in a quest to save health and happiness, they move from the shuttered squares of Venice to sun-drenched Key West, to Montreal in the snow and Providence in the rain. But it is amid the bleak, baking sands of the Sahara that their love is pushed to its ultimate crisis.--Jacket.

The married man /
ISBN: 0375400052 OCLC: 42717622

Knopf, New York : 2000.

Austin, an American working in Paris, and Julien, a French architect, fall in love, but "inevitably ... Julien's past catches up with them. With increasing desperation, in a quest to save health and happiness, they move from the shuttered squares of Venice to sun-drenched Key West, to Montreal in the snow and Providence in the rain. But it is amid the bleak, baking sands of the Sahara that their love is pushed to its ultimate crisis."--Jacket.

The portable Jack Kerouac
ISBN: 067084957X OCLC: 30546714

Viking, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : 1995.

The collection includes excerpts, chronologically arranged, from novels which make up the Legend of Duluoz. Kerouac appears as a child in Doctor Sax, as a teenager in Maggie Cassidy, as a young man in On the Road, as a road-wary traveler in Tristessa, as a committed seeker of truth in the Dharma Bums, and as a man at the end of the road in Satori in Paris.

 

 

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