Edmund White, the author who chronicled the lives of gay men in more than a dozen novels and shared stories from his own life in a series of memoirs, has died at 85, the New York Times reports.

White, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, was raised in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. He studied Chinese at the University of Michigan, and worked as a journalist before making his literary debut in 1973 with the novel Forgetting Elena, followed five years later by Nocturnes for the King of Naples.

In 1982, he published one of his best-known books, the autobiographical novel A Boy’s Own Story, now considered a classic of LGBTQ+ literature. That novel was the first in a trilogy that continued with The Beautiful Room Is Empty and The Farewell Symphony.

His other novels include The Married Man, A Saint From Texas, and The Humble Lover. He was the author of several works of nonfiction, including The Joy of Gay Sex, co-written with with Charles Silverstein; States of Desire; The Burning Library; and Genet: A Biography.  

His memoirs include My Lives, City Boy, and, most recently, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir, which was published in January by Bloomsbury. White talked about that book on Kirkus’ Fully Booked podcast, telling host Megan Labrise, “Everybody’s been surprisingly welcoming to the idea [of a book about my sex life].…I’m so old, I’m 85, it never occurred to me that you could write such a book and get it published, but it seems you can. At least for the moment, it hasn’t been canceled.”

White’s admirers paid tribute to him on social media. On the platform X, novelist and playwright Paul Rudnick wrote, “RIP Edmund White, whose novels, memoirs and non-fiction changed and enhanced American literature. A great writer and a gay icon, he was the opposite of everything Trumpian: brave, funny, inspiring and deeply committed to books and love. A true artist with an amazing legacy.”

And author Joyce Carol Oates posted, “Edmund White—the most gracious & witty of conversationalists whom Oscar Wilde himself would have much admired.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.