Éric Jourdan

Who is Éric Jourdan?

Éric Jourdan is a French novelist and playwright.

Perhaps his most famous book is his first, Les Mauvais Anges, published in 1955 at the age of 17. It was immediately a source of controversy for its frank and erotic depiction of a homosexual relationship between two adolescent boys. Despite being banned twice over the course of thirty years, it was critically acclaimed. A translation into English by Richard Howard soon followed, and was also well received.

After the reception of Les Mauvais Anges, Jourdan continued to write using pseudonyms. He moved often and lived a bohemian lifestyle, living in Savoie and Tyrol, Austria before becoming the adopted ward of French-American writer Julien Green, after which he lived primarily in Paris.