Bory was born and died in the village of Méréville in the Beauce region not far from Paris. His father was a pharmacist; his mother, a schoolteacher. Bory had a happy childhood, despite initial anguish when he realized at 16 that he was a homosexual. An understandin teacher assured him that the minority to which he belonged was "not monstruous", while his father told him, "As long as you don't hurt anybody, you have no reason to be ashamed".

During World War II, Bory served in the French army (1939-42), and participated in the resistance (1944). He graduated from university in 1945 with a degree in classical literature. He was a highly successful and popular teacher of Greek, Latin and French literature in secondary schools until 1962, when he decided to devote himself to his literary pursuits.

Bory once described the four stages through which every homosexual must pass as "recognizing yourself, accepting yourself, getting others to recognize you. getting others to accept you". He came out as gay in 1969 on a radio show. Open about his homosexuality, Bory wanted it to be regarded as ordinary and normal, not something to be object of crusades.

Bory was cultured, witty and charming, yet rarely happy. His ugliness tormented him, and he once told his mother, "I would give ten years of my life to be handsome". By the end of the 1970s Bory was in deep depression and under heavy medication. Discouraged by his literary failures, weary of his role as "the homosexuals' Joan od Arc" (his phrase), and dispirited at the end of an unhappy love affair with a young actor, Bory took his own life.