Blake Gopnik

Warhol sought out all the most glamorous figures of his times – Susan Sontag, Mick Jagger, the Barons de Rothschild – despite being burdened with an almost crippling shyness. Behind the public glitter of the artist’s Factory, with its superstars, drag queens and socialites, there was a man who lived with his mother for much of his life and guarded the privacy of his home. He overcame the vicious homophobia of his youth to become a symbol of gay achievement, while always seeking the pleasures of traditional romance and coupledom.