Edmund WhiteThe highly acclaimed author and a leading influencer on American gay literature passed away at the age of 85 on June 4, 2025, decades after his HIV diagnosis that has not been linked to AIDS.
Hollywood Life Here are five facts about Edmund:
Edmund White has written over 30 books
The Ohio native has written over 30 literary works throughout his life, including fiction and non-fiction books. Among his most famous ones were Forget Elena, the boy’s own story, joy is gay sex, state of desire, Humility mistress And my love in life, The latter was published several months before Edmund’s death.
Edmund got married
From the early 1990s to the 2010s, Edmund and his husband, Michael Carroll, dated. In an interview with the nation in 2014, the novelist revealed that he had married that November of that year.
“I married my friend Michael Carroll in November. Michael Carroll was together for 19 years. At least we weren’t in a hurry,” Edmund said at the time.
When the writer passed away in 2025, Michael called his late husband “sense enough to be almost always kind”; Guardian. He added that Edmund “was generally beyond anger and generous. He continues to think about telling him something before he remembers.”
Edmund studied Chinese at university
Instead of attending Harvard, where he was accepted, Edmund chose to attend University of Michigan from his Chinese major.
Edmund was diagnosed with HIV positive in the 1980s.
In 1984, Edmund learned that he was HIV positive, but he was a “non-progressor”, a rare case of people who don’t develop AIDS. Nevertheless, the diagnosis made him “pessimistic,” the late author said. Guardian Second half of 2024.
“I pulled the cover over my head and thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to die in a year or two,'” Edmund told the outlet. “Like a piece of iron, I had many opportunistic illnesses, but I turned out to be a slow progression.”
According to the publication, Edmund’s T cells, the cells that fight infections, were in decline. However, their decline was not as rapid as others lived with HIV.
Edmund died after a stomach illness
On June 3, 2025, Edmund passed away following a “malicious stomach bug,” Michael said. New York Times. The exact cause of his death is still unknown, and whether his HIV positive has anything to do with his death is unknown. Previously, Edmund had survived the stroke in 2012, followed by a heart attack two years later.
