Brad L. Graham, the highly influential gay blogger credited with coining the term “blogosphere” in 1999, has passed away at the age of 41.

Graham, a self-described “raconteur, bon vivant, riverboat gambler and singer of sentimental ballads“, seems to have died of natural causes in his home in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri.

“We are all mystified,” states Steven Woolf, artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where Graham worked as a publicist. Woolf last saw Graham on the evening of December 31, when the blogger was described as being “in a terrific mood, very upbeat.”

Graham got his start in print publishing, but was an early adopter of social networking and the blog platform. His blog The BradLands was highly influential to many gay bloggers and has been regularly updated since 1998. Graham is widely regarded as a pacesetter for new media for his innovative usage social media such as Twitter, and served as an inspiration to such influential bloggers as Towleroad’s Andy Towle.

Image from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.