Edmund White, a pioneering author who chronicled gay life and thumbed his own sexual experiences for literature that was at times arrestingly candid, died Tuesday. He was 85.

Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, memoirs and novels, has died

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,