Jean Genet

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Vocation

Notable

French writer, a novelist, playwright and poet. Abandoned by his mom, a Parisian prostitute, he was brought up unloved and unschooled by foster parents who tolerated him for the fee they were paid by the state. They threw him out when he was accused of theft at ten; he spent five years in a reformatory. When he escaped, he joined the Foreign Legion. Genet spent much of his life in various prisons from the age of 20 for crimes that included traffic in stolen goods and narcotics, prostitution and homosexuality. He began to write seriously in 1939 with a first novel, "Our Lady of Flowers," spun out of masturbatory prison fantasies, and then plays such as "The Balcony" and "The Blacks." By 1947 his acknowledgment was impressive. His autobiography, "A Thief's Journal" was published in 1949. Though a charmer, even when unwashed and hooked on Nembutal, even the most intimate biographers find a remoteness about him. He remained the needy child, as he wrote, "wholly consecrated to evil." From the '60s, for two decades, he was no longer just France's most controversial writer but a celebrity. Genet developed throat cancer and was found dead on 15 April 1986 in a hotel room in Paris. Genet may have fallen on the floor and fatally hit his head. Link to Wikipedia biography