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New Statesman
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Sharing a bed with Edmund White
Photo by Peter Kevin Solness / Fairfax Media via Getty Images For a time, Edmund White and I slept in a bed reputed to have belonged to Walt Whitman. We were both living in New York and teaching at Princeton. When we had to stay the night, we were hosted by a friend who lived on the edge of the campus. In his guest room was a dark wood bed purchased in the 1950s from an antique dealer who produced the story of its connection to the 19th-century American poet. Whatever the truth, on our separate nights, Edmund and I both slept in 'Whitman's bed', smoothing the unchanged sheets in the mornings to maintain the fiction that it had not been slept in by anyone else. Eventually, Edmund wrote a poem about it, describing himself, an aged gay novelist, chastely reading Chekhov's stories, and a British PhD student who was the object of his erotic fantasy, both sharing the great gay poet's bed. 'My first poem since 1985', he told me untruthfully in an email. Edmund, who died this week at the age of 85, was perhaps America's greatest living gay writer. The author of more than 30 books, including novels, memoirs, and biographies of Proust, Genet, and Rimbaud, he occupied a unique position in American literature. I first met Edmund in Princeton, where he was a professor of creative writing until 2018, at a weekly dinner that he hosted with the owner of 'Whitman's bed' – the philosopher George Pitcher. The evening before Edmund taught his class, he and his husband, the writer Michael Carroll, would travel down to Princeton, stay with George, and take a group of PhD students out to dinner at a local restaurant. The dinners were a finely honed ritual: George, then in his early nineties, would use a flashlight on his key ring to inspect the menu. Someone would order a bottle of white wine. And the PhD students would attempt to keep up with Edmund and Michael's wit. Edmund was a conversationalist of the kind I associate with 18th-century philosophers: intellectually curious but also a master of levity, ranging from minor French literature to celebrity gossip. He once recalled a dinner with Michel Foucault to which he had also invited Susan Sontag. When she went to the bathroom, Foucault hissed at Edmund: 'Why did you invite her? She only ever talks about work!' Edmund's life informed his literature in a special way. In The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir (2025), his last published work, he writes: 'I'm at an age when writers are supposed to say finally what mattered most to them – for me it would be thousands of sex partners.' This is another connection with his 19th-century predecessor, as his Princeton colleague Jeff Nunokawa points out: 'Ed believes with a Whitmanesque unabashedness that sex is an instrument of knowledge.' His promiscuity gives his work an epic quality. His oeuvreis, in one sense, a story of America in the second half of the 20th century: its husbands and hustlers observed in their most intimate moments. In The Loves of My Life, he writes: 'I remember a big Southerner who fucked me as I wiggled my butt to show passion, though he kept saying in his baritone drawl, 'Just lay still, little honey.' More wiggling and he'd say, 'C'mon, baby, just lay still for me.' I thought his bad grammar proved he was a lifelong top. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe There is also an unignorable darkness in Edmund's account of desire. As a child, he was sent to a Freudian therapist who pronounced his sexuality pathological. His most well-known book A Boy's Own Story (1982) features a boy who seduces his teacher, only to betray him. To readers who complained that this was unbelievable, Edmund wrote: 'how could the product of an oppressive culture not be deformed?' In time, he outgrew the belief that his desires were curable. He witnessed the Stonewall riots, in the summer of 1969, after a police raid on a popular gay bar. Recalling the laughter, Edmund called it 'the first funny revolution', but emphasised its importance: 'Stonewall inaugurated an epoch when partners of the same sex could claim, maybe for the first time in history, their common humanity.' Like Whitman and the American Civil War, this revolution required its writers, and Edmund would be one of them. After becoming HIV positive in 1984, Edmund was found to be a 'long-term non-progressor', a condition affecting 1 in 500 people infected with HIV. It meant that he would not die from AIDS. Instead, he watched his friends and acquaintances die, and his own writing became a record of the disease and the political intolerance that met it. In Artforum in 1987, he wrote: 'I feel repatriated to my lonely adolescence, the time when I was alone with my writing and I felt weird about being a queer.' Unlike so many gay writers of his generation, Edmund lived long enough to see himself be celebrated as a legend. He spent his summers in Europe and winters in Florida. He was made the director of creative writing at Princeton, until, according to his friend and colleague Joyce Carol Oates, he realised that he would not be able to spend the first week of every January in Key West. At this point, he 'graciously resigned'. Success, inevitably, brought criticism. A review of The Loves of My Life by James Cahill in The Spectator called it 'lurid.' Edmund had cleverly anticipated this, noting in the book's introduction that 'sex writing can seem foolish, especially to the English.' It is his openness to and about sex that will grant Edmund's work its enduring significance, and which makes it feel vital for an era threatened both by a new puritanism and an even more repressive 'anti-wokeness'. His funny, detailed, historiographical writing makes sex appear motivated more by curiosity than appetite. 'I always feel as if I don't really know people unless I've gone to bed with him,' he claimed. I loved visiting Edmund and Michael's apartment in the West Village, the walls stacked to the roof with books. The dinner conversations were full of warmth and wit and smut. I simply expected to see him again. His long life and many books are something to be grateful for and amazed by. My friend Amelia Worsley, who visited him at home a few days before his sudden death, writes: 'I was amazed when Stan, one of Edmund's first loves, stopped by the apartment. We talked about the glamour of New York in the 1960s and the AIDS crisis that followed. 'It's a wonder that I am still alive,' Stan said to Edmund, 'And a wonder you are too.'' [See also: Alan Hollinghurst's English underground] Related
9 News
3 days ago
- Business
- 9 News
Something 'unusual' has happened to the Australian dollar
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here The financial uncertainty around Donald Trump's tariffs has had an "unusual" impact on the Australian dollar even as it weighs on global markets, according to the Reserve Bank . The Aussie plummeted in the aftermath of Trump's so-called "liberation day" announcement, dropping below 60 US cents for the first time since the pandemic. While a blow, particularly for Australians overseas who suddenly were getting less value for money on their travels, that was largely in line with historical trends. The Australian dollar is behaving unusually nearly two months after Donald Trump's tariff announcements. (Fairfax Media) "When the outlook for global growth weakens, the Australian dollar typically depreciates as investors expect our economy to be buffeted by the global headwinds," RBA assistant governor Sarah Hunter said in a speech to the Economic Society of Australia in Brisbane today. "When global investors are worried, they tend to focus on reducing risk exposure, moving their capital to low-risk assets in countries like the United States, Switzerland and Japan," she added. However, the dollar has since rebounded, bouncing between 64 and 65 US cents over the last month or so – more than it was buying before the tariffs were unveiled – and improving against other currencies tied to the greenback. That, Hunter said, is "more unusual", but appears down to what's happening to the US dollar more than a particular strength in the Aussie. "The weakness in the US dollar during a period of heightened risk is in contrast with many previous episodes, though it's too early to know whether this dynamic will continue," she said. "On average, the price of our exports in foreign currency terms hasn't changed. The so-called "liberation day" saw the Australian dollar plunge, but it's since sharply rebounded. (AP) "But the relative move of capital towards Australian assets compared to the United States... could support domestic investment activity. "We'll be monitoring how these channels play out over time." More broadly, Hunter said the uncertainty caused by Trump's volatile trade policy could lead to households delaying spending and businesses pushing back hiring and investment plans, and could also push down prices, although she said the RBA "can't be completely sure" about the overall impact. CONTACT US Auto news: Google Gemini AI assistant coming to new cars in 2025.
The Age
24-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Roberts-Smith's appeal dealt blow after ‘fishing expedition' cut down
Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has suffered a blow to his plans to appeal a defamation judgement which found he committed war crimes while on duty in Afghanistan. The former Special Air Service corporal sued the publisher of this newspaper, then known as Fairfax Media, and T he Age and The Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, after a series of articles alleged he carried out war crime murders while deployed with the SAS. The Federal Court dismissed the case in June 2023 when a judge found, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that Roberts-Smith had committed multiple war crime murders, assaulted Afghans and engaged in a campaign of bullying against Australian troops a decade earlier. The Victoria Cross recipient appealed the judgement and has been waiting for a decision for more than a year. Last month he filed an application to reopen his appeal to introduce as evidence a recording of McKenzie speaking to a woman the famed soldier had an affair with, known in the trial as Person 17. Loading In the call, McKenzie allegedly says Roberts-Smith's ex-wife, Emma Roberts, and her close friend Danielle Scott, were 'actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you'. Roberts-Smith's legal team on Wednesday defended wide-ranging subpoenas they had issued to McKenzie, the journalist's lawyers, Person 17, Roberts, Scott, and the ABC. 'To say that (the recording) contents are shocking is an understatement,' Roberts-Smith's lawyer Arthur Moses, SC, told the court.
Sydney Morning Herald
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Roberts-Smith's appeal dealt blow after ‘fishing expedition' cut down
Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has suffered a blow to his plans to appeal a defamation judgement which found he committed war crimes while on duty in Afghanistan. The former Special Air Service corporal sued the publisher of this newspaper, then known as Fairfax Media, and T he Age and The Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, after a series of articles alleged he carried out war crime murders while deployed with the SAS. The Federal Court dismissed the case in June 2023 when a judge found, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that Roberts-Smith had committed multiple war crime murders, assaulted Afghans and engaged in a campaign of bullying against Australian troops a decade earlier. The Victoria Cross recipient appealed the judgement and has been waiting for a decision for more than a year. Last month he filed an application to reopen his appeal to introduce as evidence a recording of McKenzie speaking to a woman the famed soldier had an affair with, known in the trial as Person 17. Loading In the call, McKenzie allegedly says Roberts-Smith's ex-wife, Emma Roberts, and her close friend Danielle Scott, were 'actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you'. Roberts-Smith's legal team on Wednesday defended wide-ranging subpoenas they had issued to McKenzie, the journalist's lawyers, Person 17, Roberts, Scott, and the ABC. 'To say that (the recording) contents are shocking is an understatement,' Roberts-Smith's lawyer Arthur Moses, SC, told the court.
Buzz Feed
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
The Influencer Who Took A Baby Wombat From Its Mother Has Broken Her Silence
This is American influencer Sam Jones. Earlier this week, Sam posted and deleted a video during a trip to Australia in which she apparently took a baby wombat from its mother on the side of the road before returning it. You can watch the video below: The video almost immediately sparked outrage across Australia — and, honestly, for good reason. As this article points out, when a baby wombat is taken from its mother, there's the chance that the mother will then reject the baby upon reunion — which, obviously, is not good for the baby. So, yeah, people are pissed. Sam basically fled Australia after her visa status in the country was threatened, and government officials weighed in on the offense. 'To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage,' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Fairfax Media Tony Burke — Australia's Home Affairs Minister — had even stronger words for Sam. 'There's never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia,' he said. 'I can't wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don't expect she will return." Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images Of course, anyone who's followed a "influencer does something wrong" narrative knows what comes next: The public apology. And so Sam has posted a doozy of a series of statements apologizing for the whole affair while defending herself in the process. The first statement was mostly comprised of the "apology" portion, which you can read right here. Basically, Sam claims that she actually picked up the wombat so that it "didn't get hit" by a passing car. 'I have done a great deal of reflection on this situation and have realized that I did not handle this situation as best as I should have,' she said. 'My only intent was to prevent these amazing animals from being hit...I have learned from this situation, and am truly sorry for the distress I have caused.' Here's the second part of the statement, in which Sam claims that "Things, dear reader, are not as they seem." She goes on to claim that "the Australian government allows and permits the slaughter of wombats" every year, and alleges that "the prime minister wishes harm on me for picking up a wombat." Again, you can read the entire thing below — and you might as well.
