Cocteau A Biography

"[Mr. Steegmuller] had the problem of obtaining documentary materials and confidences not previously available, and these he...uses skillfully and tactfully....[For the] ambiguous relationships with men like Gide, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Apollinaire, as with certain powerful figures in the salons...Cocteau's own memoirs are of little use. Mr. Steegmuller straightens out the record with precision and clarity in this book that is surely a model of the biographer's art....He takes us with ease and grace through the complex, often tortured world of modern French literary and artistic culture...[and] the personal and darker world of homosexual love and intrigue....And if he never glosses over [Cocteau's] limitations either as a man or artist, he yet communicates sharply his irrepressible wit and charm.Steegmuller, Francis is the author of 'Cocteau A Biography' with ISBN 9780879236069 and ISBN 087923606X.