EDMUND WHITE

Author, critic, social commentator, activist—Edmund White has exerted a seismic influence on gay culture over the past thirty years. A child of divorce in an incestuous Midwestern family, White emerged as a leading voice in gay literature with the mid-‘70s literary movement known as The Violet Quill, penning his debut novel Forgetting Elena and the autobiographical A Boy’s Own Story, as well as the landmark sexual handbook The Joy of Gay Sex. When his circle of friends and collaborators was devastated by AIDS, White became one of the six founders of Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Whether through novels like Fanny and Chaos, memoirs like My Lives, or anthologies like Fresh Men, White, a Creative Writing professor at Princeton, remains a vital force.