Jean Cocteau
JEAN COCTEAU (1889–1963) is regarded as one of France’s greatest men of letters. A multi-faceted talent, he achieved distinction as a poet, playwright and critic, as well as an artist, illustrator, composer, actor and film maker. He served during the First World War as an ambulance driver in the Red Cross, and later in his life developed a serious addiction to opium.
His circle of friends included Marcel Proust, Raymond Radiguet, André Gide, Guillaume Apollinaire and the artists Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani. Indeed, Cocteau's name became synonymous with the bohemian culture and art that transpired out of France between the world wars. Among his best known novels are Les Enfants Terribles, Thomas the Impostor and The Miscreant. He died in 1963, the day after his friend the chanteuse Édith Piaf had died, the knowledge of which it has been suggested hastened his own demise.
Erotica: Drawings By Cocteau
‘These erotic drawings are replete with Cocteau favourites - well-endowed teenage sailors disporting..
Le Livre Blanc
Le Livre Blanc, a ‘white paper’ on homosexual love, was first published anonymously in France by C..
My Contemporaries
Jean Cocteau's personal reminiscences and drawings of his esteemed contemporaries from a generation ..
Opium: The Diary Of His Cure
According to legend, Jean Cocteau took to opium in 1923 to assuage his grief at the early death of h..
The Miscreant
Jacques Forrestier, the central character of Cocteau’s famous first novel from 1921, is a parasite a..
Thomas The Impostor
Thomas the Impostor is set at the outbreak of the First World War and is based on Jean Cocteau's e..