Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Alfred A. Knopf (1994), Edition: 1st American ed, 386 pages
Description
A wide range of White's writings, arranged chronologically, on art, literature, politics, and sexuality.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
I love this wide-ranging selection of essays from the ubiquitous Edmund White's oeuvre. One can read about gay life and culture, literary commentary and criticism, and more in these entertaining and exemplary essays. Edmund White has a facility with prose that is among the best that I have
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
I was blown away by this collection of essays by Edmund White. The Burning Library. Writings on Art, Politics and Sexuality 1969 - 1993, edited by David Bergman, has been in my possession for a very long time before I came round to reading it this summer. It is no exaggeration to compare this
First of all, White's essays cover a very broad field, extending to all the major writers of the Twentieth century. Through his familiarity with European culture, being able to read French, White has truly profound knowledge and understanding of French culture and writers with long essays on Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jean Genet. Then, too, Edmund White lived through most exciting times, witnessing the heights in the sexual liberation and emancipation of gay people between 1969 - 1993, as well as the lows during that period of the devastating AIDS epidemic. There are essays on Herve Guibert, Juan Goytisolo and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Edmund White knew or met many of the people he writes about. They were all there in it: Christopher Isherwood, Robert Mapplethorp, Truman Capote, William Burroughs, and Tennessee Williams.
Besides essays dedicated to writers there are several comtemplative essays on movements or the period. All essays are fabulously well-researched, and very well-written, I would never have guessed from mainly knowing Edmund White as a novelist. However, it should be remembered that he started his career as a non-fiction writer.
Highly recommended!
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collection of essays with the work of Susan Sontag.First of all, White's essays cover a very broad field, extending to all the major writers of the Twentieth century. Through his familiarity with European culture, being able to read French, White has truly profound knowledge and understanding of French culture and writers with long essays on Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jean Genet. Then, too, Edmund White lived through most exciting times, witnessing the heights in the sexual liberation and emancipation of gay people between 1969 - 1993, as well as the lows during that period of the devastating AIDS epidemic. There are essays on Herve Guibert, Juan Goytisolo and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Edmund White knew or met many of the people he writes about. They were all there in it: Christopher Isherwood, Robert Mapplethorp, Truman Capote, William Burroughs, and Tennessee Williams.
Besides essays dedicated to writers there are several comtemplative essays on movements or the period. All essays are fabulously well-researched, and very well-written, I would never have guessed from mainly knowing Edmund White as a novelist. However, it should be remembered that he started his career as a non-fiction writer.
Highly recommended!
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1994
Physical description
386 p.; 6.75 x 1.25 inches
ISBN
0679434755 / 9780679434757