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Edmund White
Edmund White is the author of the
novels Fanny: A Fiction, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, and The
Married Man; a biography of Jean Genet; a study of Marcel Proust; and, most
recently, a memoir, My Lives. Having lived in Paris for many years, he has now
settled in New York, and he teaches at Princeton University. Mr. White is a
prolific writer--see the end of this blog for his credits--of fiction and
nonfiction books.
Edmund White appeared in the Stonewall Library ArtServe auditorium talking for
about an hour. He read from his latest work in progress (not giving the title)
which seems to be about the San Francisco gay community being 'invaded' by the
New York gay community in 1970-1971 when the Castro district/are was just
beginning.
While Mr. White was funny I much prefer reading an author's words than
hearing them speak them.
He did refer to himself as a militant atheist and stated the fact that he has
been HIV+ since 1985. He briefly mentioned his boyfriend, not by name, with whom
he has been together with for 10 years.
He also referred to a play of his "Terre Haute" that was opening off Broadway
this evening--actually he said Broadway but writers do tend to exaggerate a
little! :O)
Having a good sense of humor and more than enough charm I was sort of
disappointed in his appearance which wasn't what I expected him to look like. He
is 69 years old and was in NYC at the time I was but from what he said I have a
feeling we lived different gay lives. He said something about there being one
gay bar in NYC but I knew/know of at least 7-8. He also looked at different
aspects--the baths, sense of community--of gay life then from a different
perspective than I did/do. Where he was negative--like talking about the Everrod
Baths--I saw things in a positive light.
We are two different men about the same age--both gay--who experienced many
of the same things at the same time but saw them differently. I, also, heard him
say certain things as fact which I would argue with but he is an entertaining
talker.
He believes the gay movement, the gay community, came together after the
Stonewall riots and when AIDS came on the scene ignoring such groups as The
Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Biliotis came before either.
He did make me look up a word that he used and that I heard/read for the
first time last week--extrude!!!
All in all a pleasant hour with a writer I admire!!

• Forgetting Elena
• The Joy of Gay Sex
•
Nocturnes for the King of Naples
• States of Desire: Travels in Gay
America
• A Boy's Own Story
• The Beautiful Room is Empty
•
Caracole
• The Darker Proof: Stories from a Crisis
• The Faber
Book of Gay Short Fiction
• Genet: A Biography
• The Burning
Library
• Our Paris: Sketches from Memory
• Skinned Alive
•
The Farewell Symphony
• Marcel Proust
• The Married Man
•
Loss Within Loss: Artists in the Age of AIDS
• The Flâneur
•
Fanny, A Fiction
• Arts and Letters
• My Lives
• Chaos
•
Hotel de Dream
• Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel