Edmund White (1940-2025), who died on June 3, 2025, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded while on tour for “The Farewell Symphony,” the third volume of his autobiographical trilogy, recorded September 15, 1997. Digitized, remastered and edited on October 10, 2025 and heard for the first time in over a quarter century.

Edmund White wrote novels, memoirs, plays, essays, biographies, and various hybrids. He was the co-author of The Joy of Gay Sex, and worked extensively in the gay community during the AIDS crisis and later. This interview, the second of four conducted with Edmund White between 1993 and 2014, was recorded on September 15, 1997 while he was on tour for “The Farewell Symphony” the third volume of his semi-autobiographical trilogy about his early year and the effect of the AIDS crisis.

In the interview, he discusses various books he plans to write, including one about his Paris years. That book, “Inside a Pearl,” was published in 2014. He also said he’d never write another biography, but “Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel” was published in He discusses returning to the character of Brice from “The Farewell Symphony.” He did return to the character, who was renamed and appears in the novel “The Married Man” in 2000. He also wonders if he will return to historical fiction. He did, with the novel “Fanny,” published in 2003. The three novels in his trilogy are A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room is Empty and The Farewell Symphony.

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