The Burning Library

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 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, show more 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

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 encountered in my reading.

A beautifully written book as most of Whites are