Le Livre Blanc

Overview

A classic of gay literature, featuring the author's original woodcut illustrations, is reissued for the 50th anniversary of Cocteau's death in 1963Le Livre Blanc, a "white paper" on homosexual love, was first published anonymously in France by Cocteau's contemporary Maurice Sachs, and was at once decried as by the critics as obscene. The semiautobiographical narrative describes a youth's love affairs with a succession of boys and men during the 1900s. The young man's self-deceptive attempts to find fulfillment, first through women and then by way of the church, are movingly conveyed; the book ends with a strong plea for male homosexuality to be accepted without censure. The book is fully illustrated and includes many woodcuts by the author.

Reviews

"An appealingly unhealthy blend of pure style and impure thoughts."  —Edmund White, author, The Flaneur

"Historically, politically and above all, aesthetically, this book is a masterpiece."  —Pink Paper

Author Biography

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) is a poet, novelist, designer, playwright, and filmmaker. He is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles and the films Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus.