A groundswell of emotion poured out across the nation on Friday as news filtered out about the death of E. Lynn Harris, a trailblazer in black gay fiction, who helped pave the way for scores of aspiring African American writers.

Omar Tyree, a New York Times bestselling author and a recipient of a 2001 NAACP Image Award, called Harris one of the most generous authors in the business. He met Harris in 1996 at a book party in connection with BookExpo America in Chicago.

"He would give a review quote and use his popularity to help other writers,'' Tyree said. "It was important to him because when he was starting out no one would give him a review quote or review his books because he wanted to talk about homosexuality in the black community.''

Harris, 54, reportedly died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after he was stricken by an unknown cause, according to the Associated Press. He was staying at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills while on tour to promote his new novel, 'Basketball Jones,' which was released in January. It is the story of a NBA star living on the down low.

Harris's life story was a veritable slice of the American Dream. A native of Flint, Mich., Harris was a computer salesman for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T in Dallas, Texas, before he quit to write his first self-published novel, 'Invisible Life.' Like a door-to-door salesman, he peddled the book to black-owned bookstores, beauty salons and book clubs before he was picked up by Anchor Books in 1994. Once he signed with Anchor, "that was all she wrote,'' as the cliché goes. Harris went on to write bestseller after bestseller, including 11 novels and a memoir, 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.'

Gil L. Roberterson IV, editor of the recently released 'Family Affair: What It Means to be African-American Today,' called Harris a pioneer, who paved the way for a lot of African American authors to have careers and make a living in the business because of his breakthrough subject matter and accessible writing style.

Terrance Dean, author of 'Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry-from Music to Hollywood,' said he didn't believe it--or didn't' want to believe it--when he first heard the news from his publisher on Friday. Dean thought it was a sick joke.

"I was like you're lying,'' Dean said. "I just broke out in tears. It was such a shock to me. He could have been under a lot of stress. I don't know what happened.''

Dean met Harris seven years ago when he invited him to speak at Men's Empowerment, his nonprofit networking organization. At that time, Harris encouraged him as a budding author "to get my voice heard,'' Dean said. "He's been a friend and an inspiration ever since, especially in my career. In fact, I received an e-mail from him on Tuesday. He said he was going to L.A. for a signing and to attend some meetings. He told me to wish him luck; I did.''

James Fugate, co-owner of Esowon Bookstore in Los Angeles, said Harris would be missed, adding that he was loyal to black-owned bookstores and had held signings at his store since 1994. "He was our guy,'' Fugate said.

"When he was here for a signing a few months ago, he looked well,'' Fugate recalled. "He looked well...''