What is Jean Genet?
{{Infobox Biography | name = Jean Genet | image = JeanGenet-HansKoechler1983-cropped.jpg | caption = | birth_date = 19 December 1910 | birth_place = [[Paris]], [[France]] | death_date = 15 April 1986 (aged 75) | death_place = Paris, France }} {{wikiquote-en}} '''Jean Genet''' ({{pronounced|ʒɑ̃ ʒəˈnɛ}} in French) (19 December 1910 – 15 April 1986), was a [[French people|French]] [[writer]] and later political [[activism|activist]]. Early in his life he was a vagabond ([[homeless]] person) and petty criminal. Later in life, Genet wrote novels, plays, poems, and essays, including ''[[Querelle]]'', ''[[The Thief's Journal]]'', ''[[Our Lady of the Flowers]]'', ''[[The Balcony]]'', ''[[The Blacks (play)|The Blacks]]'' and ''[[The Maids]]''. == Life == Genet's mother was a young prostitute who put him up for [[adoption]]. After committing small crimes as a child, he was sent to the [[youth prison]] of Mettray. In the 1940s, he was a vagabond, petty thief and [[Male prostitute|prostitute]] across [[Europe]]. In the mid-1940s, Genet met [[Jean Cocteau]]. Cocteau helped Genet to publish his novel. By 1949, when liberated from prison through [[petition]]s of many persons including Jean Conteau and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], Genet had completed five novels, three plays and numerous poems. His books were banned in the [[United States]].<ref>Edward de Grazia, ''An Interview with Jean Genet''. Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 307-324.</ref> Between 1955 and 1961 Genet wrote three more plays. In 1964, Genet entered a period of [[clinical depression|depression]] and attempted suicide. In the late 1960s, Genet became politically active. Jean Genet was [[gay]] ([[homosexual]]). Genet developed throat [[cancer]] and died on 15 April 1986 in Paris. == Genet's works == === Novels === The first novel, ''[[Our Lady of the Flowers]]'' (1944), is an about the life in prison. His novels ''[[The Miracle of the Rose]]'' (1946) and ''[[The Thief's Journal]]'' (1949), describe h