Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist,

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

ist, playwright, biographer and an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

ist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. France made him (and later ) de l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in 1993. White's books include '' The Joy of Gay Sex'', written with

Charles Silverstein Charles Silverstein (born 1935) is an American writer, therapist, and gay activist. He is best known for his presentation before the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 that led to the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the orga ...

(1977); his trilogy of semi-autobiographic novels, ''

A Boy's Own Story ''A Boy's Own Story'' is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by Edmund White. Overview ''A Boy’s Own Story'' is the first of a trilogy of novels, describing a boy's coming of age and documenting a young man's experience of homosexuality in the ...

'' (1982), '' The Beautiful Room Is Empty'' (1988) and ''

The Farewell Symphony ''The Farewell Symphony'' is a 1997 semi-autobiographical novel by Edmund White. It is the third of a trilogy of novels, being preceded by '' A Boy's Own Story'' (1982) and '' The Beautiful Room Is Empty'' (1988). It depicts the later adultho ...

'' (1997); and his biography of

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Thief ...

. Much of his writing is on the theme of same-sex love. White has also written biographies of three French writers:

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...

and

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

. He is the namesake of the

Edmund White Award The Edmund White Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour debut novels by writers within the LGBT community. First presented in 2006, the award was named in honour of American novelist Edmund White. Winners * 2 ...

for Debut Fiction, awarded annually by Publishing Triangle.

Early life and education

Edmund Valentine White mostly grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Cranbrook School in

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

, as a boy. Afterward, he studied Chinese at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, graduating in 1962. Incestuous feelings colored his early family life. White stated that his mother, for instance, was sexually attracted to him. He, moreover, spoke of his own attraction to his father: "I think with my father he was somebody who every eye in the family was focused on and he was a sort of a tyrant and nice-looking, the source of all power, money, happiness, and he was implacable and difficult. He was always spoken of in sexual terms, in the sense he left our mother for a much younger woman who was very sexy but had nothing else going for her. He was a famous womanizer. And he slept with my sister!" He has also stated: "Writing has always been my recourse when I've tried to make sense of my experience or when it's been very painful. When I was 15 years old, I wrote my first (unpublished) novel about being gay, at a time when there were no other gay novels. So I was really inventing a genre, and it was a way of administering a therapy to myself, I suppose." White was present at the

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...

in 1969 when the

Stonewall uprising ''Stonewall Uprising'' is a 2010 American documentary film examining the events surrounding the Stonewall riots that began during the early hours of June 28, 1969. ''Stonewall Uprising'' made its theatrical debut on June 16, 2010, at the Film For ...

began. He later wrote, "Ours may have been the first ''funny'' revolution. When someone shouted 'Gay is good' in imitation of 'Black is beautiful', we all laughed; at that moment we went from seeing ourselves as a mental illness to thinking we were a minority". White declined admission to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

's Chinese

doctoral program A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' l ...

in favor of following a lover to New York. There he freelanced for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' and spent seven years working as a staffer at

Time-Life Books Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

. After briefly relocating to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, and then returning to New York, he was briefly employed as an editor for the '' Saturday Review'' when the magazine was based in

in the early 1970s; after the magazine folded in 1973, White returned to New York to edit ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

'' (a quarterly cultural journal) and freelance as a writer and editor for entities, including Time-Life and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

''.

Personal life

White identifies as gay and is also an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, though he was reared as a

Christian Scientist Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known ...

. He discovered he was HIV-positive in 1985. However, he is a "non-progressor", one of the small percentage of cases that have not led to

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

. He is in a long-term open relationship with the American writer Michael Carroll, living with him from 1995 onward. In June 2012, Carroll reported that White was making a "remarkable" recovery after suffering two

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

s in previous months. He has also had a heart attack.

Influences

In his 2005 memoir ''My Lives'', White cites

and

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...

as influences, writing: "they convinced me that homosexuality was crucial to the development of the modern novel because it led to a resurrection of love, a profound scepticism about the naturalness of gender roles and a revival of the classical tradition of same-sex love that dominated Western poetry and prose until the birth of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

". His favorite living writers in the early 1970s were

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

and

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include ''Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

Literary career

White wrote books and plays while a youth, including one unpublished novel titled ''Mrs Morrigan''. Much of White's work draws on his experience of being gay. His debut novel, ''Forgetting Elena'' (1973), set on an island, can be read as commenting on gay culture in a coded manner. The Russian-American novelist

called it "a marvelous book". Written with his psychotherapist

, ''The Joy of Gay Sex'' (1977) made him known to a wider readership. It is celebrated for its sex-positive tone. His next novel, ''Nocturnes for the King of Naples'' (1978) was explicitly gay-themed and drew on his own life. From 1980 to 1981, White was a member of a gay writers' group,

The Violet Quill The Violet Quill (or the Violet Quill Club) was a group of seven gay male writers that met in 1980 and 1981 in New York City to read from their writings to each other and to critique them. This group and the writers epitomize the years between the ...

, which met briefly during that period, and included

Andrew Holleran Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber (born 1944), an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florid ...

and Felice Picano. White's autobiographic works are frank and unapologetic about his promiscuity and his HIV-positive status. In 1980, he brought out ''States of Desire'', a survey of some aspects of gay life in America. In 1982, he helped found the group

Gay Men's Health Crisis The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." His ...

in New York City. In the same year appeared White's best-known work, ''

'' — the first volume of an autobiographic-fiction series, continuing with '' The Beautiful Room Is Empty'' (1988) and ''

'' (1997), describing stages in the life of a gay man from boyhood to middle age. Several characters in the latter novel are recognizably based on well-known people from White's New York-centered literary and artistic milieu. From 1983 to 1990 White lived in France. He moved there initially for one year in 1983 via the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

for writing he had received, but took such a liking to Paris "with its drizzle, as cool, grey and luxurious as chinchilla," (as he described it in his autobiographical novel ''The Farewell Symphony'') that he stayed there for longer. French philosopher

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...

invited him for dinner on several occasions, though he dismissed White's concerns about

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

(Foucault would die of the illness shortly afterward). In 1984 in Paris, shortly after discovering he was HIV-positive, White joined the French HIV/AIDS organisation, AIDES. During this period, he brought out his novel, ''Caracole'' (1985), which centres on heterosexual relationships. But he also maintained an interest in France and French literature, writing biographies of

and

. He published ''Genet: a biography'' (1993), ''Our Paris: sketches from memory'' (1995), ''Marcel Proust'' (1998), ''The Flaneur: a stroll through the paradoxes of Paris'' (2000) and ''Rimbaud'' (2008). He spent seven years writing the biography of Genet. White came back to the United States in 1997. ''The Married Man'', a novel published in 2000, is gay-themed and draws on White's life. ''Fanny: A Fiction'' (2003) is a historical novel about novelist Frances Trollope and social reformer

Frances Wright Frances Wright (September 6, 1795 – December 13, 1852), widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, utopian socialist, abolitionist, social reformer, and Epicurean philosopher, who becam ...

in early 19th-century America. White's 2006 play ''Terre Haute'' (produced in New York City in 2009) portrays discussions that take place when a prisoner, based on terrorist bomber

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third ...

, is visited by a writer based on

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

. (In real life McVeigh and Vidal corresponded but did not meet.) In 2005 White published his autobiography, ''My Lives'' — organised by theme rather than chronology — and in 2009 his memoir of New York life in the 1960s and 1970s, ''City Boy''. White himself was the subject of a biography by

Stephen Barber Stephen Barber (born 1974) is a British political scientist, political economist and author. He is Professor of Global Affairs at Regent's University London. He is also a senior fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He has also worked in the ...

. His response to the book was that Barber "had a very romantic vision of me. It was very flattering. He painted me as a brooding figure. I see myself as much more self-mocking and satirical. I just skimmed that biography. As Genet put it, I didn't want to end up resembling myself". From 1999 onwards, White became professor of creative writing in

's Lewis Center for the Arts.

Awards and honors

White has received numerous awards and distinctions. Recipient of the inaugural Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 1989, he is also the namesake of the organization's

for Debut Fiction. In 2014, Edmund White was presented with the Bonham Centre Award from the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, for his contributions to the advancement and education of issues around sexual identification. *1983:

for Creative Arts *1988:

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

, for '' The Beautiful Room Is Empty'' *1989: Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement *1992:

nomination, for ''Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction'' *1993: David R. Kessler Award in LGBTQ Studies, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies *1993: National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, for ''Genet'' *1993: (and later ) de l'

*1994:

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...

nomination, for ''Genet: A Biography'' *1994:

, for ''Genet: A Biography'' *1996: Member,

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

*1996:

nomination, for ''Our Paris'' *1998:

nomination, for ''

'' *2001:

nomination, for ''The Married Man'' *2002: Stonewall Book Award for ''Loss within Loss: Artists in the Age of AIDS'' *2016–2018: New York State

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

Citation of Merit *2018: PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction *2019:

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

, Lifetime Achievement Award

Works

Fiction

* ''Forgetting Elena'' (1973) * ''Nocturnes for the King of Naples'' (1978) , * ''

'' (1982) , * ''Caracole'' (1985) , * '' The Beautiful Room Is Empty'' (1988) * ''Skinned Alive: Stories'' (1995) * ''

'' (1997) * ''The Married Man'' (2000) * ''Fanny: A Fiction'' (2003) * ''Chaos: A Novella and Stories'' (2007) * ''Hotel de Dream'' (2007) * ''Jack Holmes and His Friend'' (2012) , * ''Our Young Man'' (2016) , * ''A Saint from Texas'' (2020) * ''A Previous Life'' (2022)

Plays

* ''

Terre Haute Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

'' (2006)

Nonfiction

* '' The Joy of Gay Sex'', with

(1977) * ''States of Desire'' (1980) * ''The Burning Library: Writings on Art, Politics and Sexuality 1969–1993'' (1994) , * ''The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris'' (2000) * ''Arts and Letters'' (2004) , * ''Sacred Monsters'' (2011)

Biography

* ''Genet: A Biography'' (1993) , * ''Marcel Proust'' (1998) , * ''Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel'' (2008) ,

Memoir

* ''Our Paris: Sketches from Memory'' (1995) * ''My Lives'' (2005) * ''City Boy'' (2009) , * ''Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris'' (2014) , * ''The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading'' (2018)

Anthologies

* ''The Darker Proof: Stories from a Crisis'', with

Adam Mars-Jones Adam Mars-Jones (born 26 October 1954) is a British novelist and literary and film critic. Early life and education Mars-Jones was born in London, to Sir William Mars-Jones (1915–1999), a Welsh High Court judge and a President of the Londo ...

(1988) * ''In Another Part of the Forest: An Anthology of Gay Short Fiction'' (1994) * ''The Art of the Story'' (2000) * ''A Fine Excess: Contemporary Literature at Play'' (2001)

Articles

* White, Edmund
"My Women. Learning how to love them"
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', June 13, 2005. Autobiographical article excerpted from ''My Lives''.

References

External links

Official website

* Edmund White Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. *
Interview with Edmund White
''Untitled Books''
of Edmund White's lecture "A Man's Own Story," delivered at the Key West Literary Seminar, January 2008
of interview with

Ramona Koval Ramona Koval (born 1954, Melbourne) is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist. Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of The Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950. Koval is known for her extended and in-depth in ...

The Book Show Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

November 7, 2007
White article archive and bio
from ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''
An excerpt from White's memoir ''City Boy''
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Edmund 1940 births Living people American atheists American expatriates in France American gay writers American LGBT novelists American male biographers American male dramatists and playwrights American male essayists American male novelists American memoirists American relationships and sexuality writers Cranbrook Educational Community alumni Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners LGBT memoirists LGBT people from Illinois LGBT people from Michigan LGBT people from New Jersey LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT people from Ohio Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Novelists from Illinois Novelists from Michigan Novelists from New Jersey Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Ohio People with HIV/AIDS Princeton University faculty 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century atheists 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century atheists University of Michigan alumni Writers from Chicago Writers from Cincinnati Writers from New York City Writers from Paris