In these reflections, colleagues, friends and admirers recall his risk-taking, his generosity and his insatiable taste for gossip.

Edmund White, who cracked open the conversation around gay sex in America, has died. He is survived by husband and fellow writer Michael Carroll.

Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, plays and such novels as “A Boy’s Own Story” and “The Beautiful Room is Empty,