Acclaimed Gay Novelist Edmund White Dies At Age 85

June 4, 2025 LGBT Culture, The Arts

The New York Times reports:

Edmund White, who became a pioneer in gay literature by mining his own varied catalog of sexual experiences in more than 30 books and hundreds of articles and essays, died on Tuesday. He was 85. Mr. White died of natural causes at home in New York City, his agent, Bill Clegg, said in an email on Wednesday. Mr. White, who had been H.I.V. positive since the 1980s, survived two major strokes in 2012 and a heart attack in 2014.

Many of Mr. White’s novels, short story collections and works of nonfiction were critical successes, and several were best-sellers. “A Boy’s Own Story” (1982), a tale of coming out set in the 1950s, was narrated by a teenager who bore more than a passing resemblance to a young Mr. White. His other semi-autobiographical novels, “The Beautiful Room Is Empty” (1988) and “The Farewell Symphony” (1997), follow the same unnamed protagonist into adulthood during the 1960s, then through the horrors of AIDS as he approaches middle age.

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