Edmund White, Novelist and Pioneer of Gay Literature, Dies at 85

Arts|Edmund White, Novelist and Pioneer of Gay Literature, Dies at 85

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 at his home in Manhattan. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by his agent, Bill Clegg. Mr. White had been H.I.V. positive since the 1980s and 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.

The New York Times called “Forgetting Elena” (1973), about the rituals of gay life on a fictionalized Fire Island, “an astonishing first novel, obsessively fussy, and yet uncannily beautiful.” His second novel, “Nocturnes for the King of Naples” (1978), took the form of letters from a young gay man to his deceased ex-lover.

His nonfiction works included several memoirs. “My Lives” (2005), one of his best-reviewed books, chronicles his first 65 years in chapter titles that include “My Shrinks,” “My Hustlers” and “My Blonds.” He zeroed in on his life in 1960s and 70s New York with “City Boy” (2009), and on his time away from New York with “Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris” (2014).

Earlier this year, he published “The Loves of My Life” — a “sex memoir,” as he called it — describing encounters with some of the 3,000 men he said he had slept with. In a review, Alexandra Jacobs of The Times called it X-rated, “as in explicit, yes, but also excavatory and excellent.”

He also wrote biographies of the French authors Jean Genet, Marcel Proust and Arthur Rimbaud.

Over the seven years that Mr. White spent researching and writing “Genet” (1994), he traveled extensively, visiting the haunts of his peripatetic subject. His frequent companion was Hubert Sorin, a young French architect whom he called “the love of my life” and who died of AIDS in 1994.

The “Joy of Gay Sex” (1977), a how-to based on the 1972 best seller “The Joy of Sex,” was a groundbreaking effort that became somewhat obsolete once fears of H.I.V. made safe sex far more common. Its co-author was Charles Silverstein, a psychologist who had been treating Mr. White when a publisher suggested they collaborate, not knowing they were already acquainted.

He is survived by his husband, Michael Carroll, according to Mr. Clegg, his agent. Further information about survivors was not immediately available.

A complete obituary will follow.

Alex Marshall contributed reporting.