Gore Vidal

The blind senator needed a reader, and the job fell to his grandson. Thomas Pryor Gore of Oklahoma had lost both eyes in childhood accidents, and the boy born at the West Point cadet hospital on October 3, 1925 read aloud to him, guided him through the Capitol and served as his Senate page. Vidal's father directed the Bureau of Air Commerce under Franklin Roosevelt and had a hand in founding three airlines, including the predecessors of TWA and Eastern. His mother's second husband, Hugh D. Auchincloss, married Jacqueline Bouvier's mother next, making the two of them step-relations. Vidal went to Exeter, enlisted in the Army at 17, and never attended a university at all. Everything he attacked afterward, he attacked from inside.

Williwaw, drafted aboard an Army freight ship in the Aleutians, made him a novelist before he turned 21. The City and the Pillar followed in 1948, treating a homosexual relationship without apology or tragedy. The consequence was concrete: Vidal said the New York Times refused to review it or his next several books. He wrote mysteries as Edgar Box to earn a living, then teleplays, Broadway and screenplays. Then came Julian, Myra Breckinridge, the seven Narratives of Empire novels from Burr to The Golden Age, and 40 years of essays.

ABC hired him and William F. Buckley Jr. to analyze the 1968 conventions. In Chicago, arguing over protesters displaying a Viet Cong flag, Vidal said the only crypto-Nazi he could think of was Buckley. Buckley replied: now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face. The feud moved to Esquire. Buckley sued Vidal and the magazine for libel, Vidal counterclaimed and lost the counterclaim, and Esquire settled Buckley's legal fees at 115,000 dollars. Norman Mailer head-butted him backstage at The Dick Cavett Show in December 1971, and Vidal told a reporter that words had once again failed Norman Mailer. Truman Capote put it in print that Vidal had been thrown drunk out of the Kennedy White House. Vidal sued for slander and won when Capote's witness refused to testify.

He won the National Book Award in 1993 for United States: Essays 1952-1992, and critics have generally settled on the essays, not the novels, as the durable work. The late positions complicate it. He corresponded with Timothy McVeigh for three years and was invited by McVeigh to witness his execution. Of September 11 he said the Bush administration could not have staged the attacks but might have stepped aside and let them happen. Former admirers called both indefensible. He lived 53 years with Howard Austen, said publicly they were not lovers, and rejected gay as a word for people. He died in Los Angeles on July 31, 2012, leaving 37 million dollars to Harvard, which never taught him.

Gore Vidal's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Williwaw book
  Written during Army service in the Aleutians and published before he turned 21 1946
• The City and the Pillar book
  Among the first American novels to present homosexuality without apology or tragedy 1948
• Myra Breckinridge book
  A satire of Hollywood and gender that became a bestseller and a scandal 1968
• Burr book
  The first-written of the seven Narratives of Empire novels 1973
• Lincoln book
  The Civil War volume of Narratives of Empire 1984
• United States: Essays 1952-1992 book
  Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction 1993

• October 3, 1925 aged 0 Born in the cadet hospital at West Point His father was then the first aeronautics instructor at the military academy.
• 1943 aged ~18 Enlists in the Army at 17 rather than go to university He served until 1946 and ended as a maritime warrant officer in the Transportation Corps.
• 1946 aged ~21 Publishes Williwaw, his first novel Drafted aboard an Army freight and supply ship in the Aleutians.
• 1948 aged ~23 The City and the Pillar makes him a bestseller and a problem Vidal said the New York Times then refused to review his next several books.
• 1952 aged ~27 Begins publishing mysteries under the pseudonym Edgar Box Three novels in three years, written to earn a living while blacklisted.
• November 8, 1960 aged 35 Loses a race for Congress in New York's 29th district He took 43 percent and outpolled John F. Kennedy in the same district.
• August 28, 1968 aged 42 Calls William F. Buckley Jr. a crypto-Nazi live on ABC Buckley threatened to hit him. The two ended up suing each other.
• December 15, 1971 aged 46 Norman Mailer head-butts him backstage at The Dick Cavett Show Asked why, Vidal said that once again words had failed Norman Mailer.
• July 31, 2012 aged 86 Dies of pneumonia at his home in the Hollywood Hills He was buried beside Howard Austen at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington.

• Truman Capote 1924–1984
  Writer of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood — an early nonfiction novel. sued for slander
• Norman Mailer 1923–2007
  Novelist and journalist who won two Pulitzer Prizes and helped establish literary nonfiction. feuded with
• Timothy McVeigh 1968–2001
  Domestic terrorist whose Oklahoma City bombing became one of the deadliest attacks in American history. corresponded with
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929–1994
  First Lady who restored the White House as a museum and shaped the public memory of her husband's presidency. shared a stepfather with
• John F. Kennedy 1917–1963
  35th President whose brief tenure included the Cuban Missile Crisis and the launch of the Apollo program. outpolled in 1960
• Susan Sontag 1933–2004
  Against Interpretation, On Photography, and Illness as Metaphor opposed