The Burning Library is a collection of White's most enduring essays through the past 25 years.  He begins with "The Gay Philosopher," a powerful statement on the centrality of friendship in gay life, written just after the Stonewall riots. Finishing the work with "The Personal is Political," a discussion of the place of queer fiction in the current dust-storm of literary identity politics, White constructs a fascinating portrait of his times and of himself.
Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940. His fiction includes the autobiographical trilogy A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony, as well as Caracole, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, and Skinned Alive, a collection of short stories. He is also the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Jean Genet, a short study of Proust, a travel book about gay America—States of Desire—and Our Paris. He is an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and teaches at Princeton University. He lives in New York City. View titles by Edmund White

About

The Burning Library is a collection of White's most enduring essays through the past 25 years.  He begins with "The Gay Philosopher," a powerful statement on the centrality of friendship in gay life, written just after the Stonewall riots. Finishing the work with "The Personal is Political," a discussion of the place of queer fiction in the current dust-storm of literary identity politics, White constructs a fascinating portrait of his times and of himself.

Author

Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940. His fiction includes the autobiographical trilogy A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony, as well as Caracole, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, and Skinned Alive, a collection of short stories. He is also the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Jean Genet, a short study of Proust, a travel book about gay America—States of Desire—and Our Paris. He is an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and teaches at Princeton University. He lives in New York City. View titles by Edmund White