A convict and a poet, a dandy and a revolutionary, Genet is one of the most controversial figures in 20th century literature. Born to an unmarried servant girl in 1910, Genet was abandoned by his mother at the age of seven months and was brought up by foster parents in central France. In the 1930s he travelled across Europe as a vagabond, petty thief and homosexual prostitute; in the 1940s, back in France and in prison, he started to write.
By 1948 he had produced five highly original novels, including Our Lady of the Flowers, Querelle and the semi-autobiographical The Thief's Journal. In Paris Genet became a reluctant celebrity. He was a friend (and enemy) of Cocteau, who discovered him, and he was lionised by Sartre, who confirmed Genet's status with Saint-Genet in 1952. He lived a life that spanned the smart Parisian cultural milieu as well as the criminal underworld, and he wrote plays, of which The Blacks, The Balcony and The Screens were immediately hailed as masterpieces. In later years, Genet became involved with the Black Panthers and the Palestinians' fight for a homeland, which resulted in his last book, Prisoner of Love, published posthumously in 1986, the year of his death.
Edmund White's authoritative and enthralling biography of Genet is the first full-scale account of this writer to appear in any language.
Contains 24 pages of b/w photographs.
