Jean Genet ([ʒɑ̃ ʒənɛ]; (1910-12-19)19 December 1910 – 15 April 1986(1986-04-15)) was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing. His major works include the novels Querelle of Brest, The Thief's Journal, and Our Lady of the Flowers, and the plays The Balcony, The Blacks, The Maids and The Screens.

Biography

Genet wrote a biography of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti entitled L’Atelier d’Alberto Giacometti. Genet wrote in an informal biographical style, incorporating excerpts of conversations between himself and Giacometti. Genet's own biographer, Edmund White, said that, rather than write in the style of an art historian, Genet "invented a whole new language for discussing" Giacometti, proposing "that the statues of Giacometti should be offered to the dead, and that they should be buried."