RIP, Edmund White

Pioneering gay author Edmund White died on June 3 at the age of 85. Hailed as a pioneer of gay literature, White mined his own life story, including his vast and varied catalog of sexual experiences, in more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as hundreds of articles and essays. Many were critical successes, and several were best-sellers, leading the Chicago Tribune to label him “the godfather of queer lit.”

We have read eight of his books over the years; in alphabetical order, they are: A Saint from Texas (discussed in 2021); Caracole (2011); City Boy (2011); The Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction, which he edited (1999); The Farewell Symphony (2013); Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, which he edited (2006); My Lives (2007); and The Tastemaker (2019). Curiously, his breakout book, A Boy's Own Story, is not among them--an omission I trust we'll rectify with next year's reading list. (And yes, that is a hint to nominate it this fall :-). Later this year, we will discuss his Nocturnes for the King of Naples (with a new foreword by Garth Greenwell).

I am still compiling the many obituaries, tributes and reflections on White's career, and will post those in a separate entry.