Edmund White

the long version

"Edmund White: The Burning World is the first biography of the novelist whose personal life reflects the course of gay history in America in the last half of the twentieth century.". "While many gay men of his era took to politics, White himself chose to record the extraordinary social and sexual revolution of which he was a prime participant through literature and novels. Whether writing about Fire Island in Forgetting Elena or about gay social revolution in America in States of Desire, White captured the energy and the emotions of an underground culture that had finally thrown off the shackles of its repression. And in A Boy's Own Summer, White helped to define the coming-out novel as a new gay genre." "With complete access to all of White's files and materials, Stephen Barber has created testament to the life of one of America's most respected literary artists."--BOOK JACKET.