NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� , the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, plays and such novels as 鈥淎 Boy鈥檚 Own Story鈥� and 鈥淭he Beautiful Room is Empty,鈥� has died. He was 85.
White鈥檚 death was confirmed Wednesday by his agent, Bill Clegg.
Along with , Armistead Maupin and others, White was among a generation of gay writers who in the 1970s became bards for a community no longer afraid to declare its existence. He was present at the raids of 1969, when arrests at a club in Greenwich Village led to the birth of the modern gay movement and for decades was a participant and observer through the tragedy of AIDS, the advance of gay rights and culture and the recent backlash.
A resident of New York and Paris for much of his adult life, he was a novelist, journalist, biographer, playwright, activist, teacher and memoirist. 鈥淎 Boy鈥檚 Own Story鈥� was a bestseller and classic coming-of-age novel that demonstrated gay literature鈥檚 commercial appeal. He wrote a prizewinning biography of playwright Jean Genet, books on Marcel Proust and Arthur Rimbaud. He was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, where colleagues included and his close friend, .
鈥淎mong gay writers of his generation, Edmund White has emerged as the most versatile man of letters,鈥� cultural critic Morris Dickstein wrote in The New York Times in 1995. 鈥淎 cosmopolitan writer with a deep sense of tradition, he has bridged the gap between gay subcultures and a broader literary audience.鈥�
Childhood yearnings
White was born in Cincinnati in 1940, but age at 7 moved with his mother to the Chicago area after his parents divorced. His father was a civil engineer 鈥渨ho reigned in silence over dinner as he studied his paper.鈥� His mother was a psychologist 鈥済iven to rages or fits of weeping.鈥� Trapped in 鈥渢he closed, sniveling, resentful world of childhood,鈥� at times suicidal, White was at the same time a 鈥渇ierce little autodidact鈥� who sought escape through the stories of others, whether Thomas Mann鈥檚 鈥淒eath in Venice鈥� or a biography of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.
鈥淎s a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excite me or assure me I wasn鈥檛 the only one, that might confirm my identity I was unhappily piecing together,鈥� he wrote in the 1991 essay 鈥淥ut of the Closet, On to the Bookshelf.鈥�
As he wrote in 鈥淎 Boy鈥檚 Own Story,鈥� he knew as a child that he was attracted to boys, but for years was convinced he must change 鈥� out of a desire to please his father (whom he otherwise despised) and a wish to be 鈥渘ormal.鈥� Even as he secretly wrote a 鈥渃oming out鈥� novel while a teenager, he insisted on seeing a therapist and begged to be sent to boarding school. One of the funniest and saddest episodes from 鈥淎 Boy鈥檚 Own Story鈥� told of a brief crush he had on a teenage girl, ended by a polite and devastating note of rejection.
鈥淔or the next few months I grieved,鈥� White writes. 鈥淚 would stay up all night crying and playing records and writing sonnets to Helen. What was I crying for?鈥�
Early struggles, changing times
Through much of the 1960s, he was writing novels that were rejected or never finished. Late at night, he would 鈥渄ress as a hippie, and head out for the bars.鈥� A favorite stop was the Stonewall, where he would down vodka tonics and try to find the nerve to ask a man he had crush on to dance. He was in the neighborhood on the night of June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall and 鈥渁ll hell broke loose.鈥�
鈥淯p until that moment we had all thought homosexuality was a medical term,鈥� wrote White, who soon joined the protests. 鈥淪uddenly we saw that we could be a minority group 鈥� with rights, a culture, an agenda.鈥�
White鈥檚 debut novel, the surreal and suggestive 鈥淔orgetting Elena,鈥� was published in 1973. He collaborated with Charles Silverstein on 鈥淭he Joy of Gay Sex,鈥� a follow-up to the bestselling 鈥淭he Joy of Sex鈥� that was updated after the emergence of AIDS. In 1978, his first openly gay novel, 鈥淣octurnes for the King of Naples,鈥� was released and he followed with the nonfiction 鈥淪tates of Desire,鈥� his attempt to show 鈥渢he varieties of gay experience and also to suggest the enormous range of gay life to straight and gay people 鈥� to show that gays aren鈥檛 just hairdressers, they鈥檙e also petroleum engineers and ranchers and short-order cooks.鈥�
His other works included 鈥淪kinned Alive: Stories鈥� and the novel 鈥淎 Previous Life,鈥� in which he turns himself into a fictional character and imagines himself long forgotten after his death. In 2009, he published 鈥淐ity Boy,鈥� a memoir of New York in the 1960s and 鈥�70s in which he told of his friendships and rivalries and gave the real names of fictional characters from his earlier novels. Other recent books included the novels 鈥淛ack Holmes & His Friend鈥� and the memoir 鈥淚nside a Pearl: My Years in Paris.鈥�
鈥淔rom an early age I had the idea that writing was truth-telling,鈥� he told The Guardian around the time 鈥淛ack Holmes鈥� was released. 鈥淚t鈥檚 on the record. Everybody can see it. Maybe it goes back to the sacred origins of literature 鈥� the holy book. There鈥檚 nothing holy about it for me, but it should be serious and it should be totally transparent.鈥�
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
