A.E. Hotchner, a novelist, playwright, biographer, literary bon vivant and philanthropist whose life was shaped and colored by close friendships with two extraordinarily gifted and well-known men, Ernest Hemingway and Paul Newman, died on Saturday at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 102.

His death was announced by his wife, Virginia Kiser.

Mr. Hotchner was not to the manner born, nor was he a celebrity. But he was nonetheless at home among the glitterati, one of those not-so-famous people whom famous people, for whatever reason, take to.

He was aware of this quality in himself, and he made use of it professionally. One of his books, “Choice People” (1984), consists of anecdotal profiles of Clark Gable, Barbara Hutton, Marlene Dietrich and others of his acquaintance; another, “Everyone Comes to Elaine’s” (2004), is about that now-closed Manhattan bistro and its clientele, aptly described in the book’s subtitle: “Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot.”

Hemingway, for whom Mr. Hotchner was a friend, editor and traveling companion from 1948 until the novelist’s death in 1961, and Coco Chanel, among others, appear as characters in his 1981 novel, “The Man Who Lived at the Ritz.” Mr. Hotchner also wrote “Doris Day: Her Own Story” (1976), based on interviews he conducted with Ms. Day, and “Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story” (1979), a biography of Sophia Loren.