Editing Gore Vidal (section)

==Early life==
Vidal was born in the cadet hospital of the [[U.S. Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York]], the only child of [[Eugene Luther Vidal]] (1895–1969) and [[Nina S. Gore]] (1903–1978).<ref name="nyrb-18-oct-1973">Vidal, Gore, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/oct/18/west-point-and-the-third-loyalty/ West Point and the Third Loyalty] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715045442/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/oct/18/west-point-and-the-third-loyalty/ |date=July 15, 2014 }}", ''The New York Review of Books'', Volume 20, Number 16, October 18, 1973.</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDXEn6uGD78| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827061308/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDXEn6uGD78| archive-date=August 27, 2013 | url-status=dead|title=Gore Vidal: Author Biography, Essays, History, Novels, Style, Favorite Books – Interview (2000)|date=August 25, 2013|via=YouTube}}</ref> Vidal was born there because his father, a U.S. Army officer, was then serving as the first [[aeronautics]] instructor at the military academy. The middle name, Louis, was a mistake on the part of his father, "who could not remember, for certain, whether his own name was Eugene Louis or Eugene Luther".<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news|first=Fred|last=Kaplan|author-link=Fred Kaplan (biographer)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kaplan-vidal.html|title=Excerpt: Gore Vidal, A Biography|work=The New York Times|year=1999|access-date=June 12, 2013|archive-date=May 10, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510182354/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kaplan-vidal.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In the memoir ''Palimpsest'' (1995), Vidal said, "My birth certificate says 'Eugene Louis Vidal': this was changed to Eugene Luther Vidal Jr.; then Gore was added at my christening in 1939; then, at fourteen, I got rid of the first two names."<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|401}}

Vidal was baptized in January 1939, when he was 13 years old, by the headmaster of [[St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.)|St. Albans School]], where Vidal attended [[College-preparatory school|preparatory school]]. The baptismal ceremony was effected so he "could be confirmed [into the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] faith]" at the [[Washington Cathedral]], in February 1939, as "Eugene Luther Gore Vidal".<ref name="UPM-2005">{{cite book |last1=Peabody |first1=Richard |last2=Ebersole |first2=Lucinda |title=Conversations with Gore Vidal |date=February 2005 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Oxford |isbn=9781578066735 |edition=Paper |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578066735 |access-date=February 16, 2020 |url-access=registration }}</ref>{{RP|xix}} He later said that, although the surname "Gore" was added to his names at the time of the baptism, "I wasn't named for him [maternal grandfather [[Thomas Pryor Gore]]], although he had a great influence on my life."<ref name="UPM-2005" />{{RP|4}} In 1941, Vidal dropped his two first names, because he "wanted a sharp, distinctive name, appropriate for an aspiring author, or a national political leader ... I wasn't going to write as 'Gene' since there was already one. I didn't want to use the 'Jr.{{'"}}<ref name="nytimes"/><ref name="UPM-2005" />{{RP|xx}}

His father, Eugene Luther Vidal Sr., was director (1933–1937) of the [[Commerce Department]]'s [[Bureau of Air Commerce]] during the [[Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt Administration]], and was also the great love of the aviator [[Amelia Earhart]].<ref>"Aeronautics: $8,073.61", ''Time'', September 28, 1931</ref><ref name="Booknotes Butler">{{cite web |title=Booknotes -- East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?95192-1/susan-butler-east-dawn |publisher=C-SPAN |access-date=November 14, 2021 |date=November 13, 1997}}</ref> At the U.S. Military Academy, the exceptionally athletic Vidal Sr. had been a quarterback, coach, and captain of the football team; and an [[all-American]] basketball player. Subsequently, he competed in the [[1920 Summer Olympics]] and in the [[1924 Summer Olympics]] (seventh in the [[decathlon]], and coach of the U.S. pentathlon).<ref>{{cite news|title=Eugene L. Vidal, Aviation Leader|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 21, 1969|page=43|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/02/21/archives/eugene-l-vidal-aviation-leader-former-commerce-aide-73-diesmolympic.html|access-date=July 23, 2018|archive-date=July 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723093615/https://www.nytimes.com/1969/02/21/archives/eugene-l-vidal-aviation-leader-former-commerce-aide-73-diesmolympic.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sdshof.com/inventory/detail.cfm?id=138 South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame Profile: Gene Vidal]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016212717/http://www.sdshof.com/inventory/detail.cfm?id=138 |date=October 16, 2007}}</ref> In the 1920s and the 1930s, Vidal Sr. was a founder or executive of three airline companies: the [[Ludington Line]] (later [[Eastern Airlines]]), [[Transcontinental Air Transport]] (later [[Trans World Airlines]]), and [[Northeast Airlines]].<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|12}}

Gore's great-grandfather Eugen Fidel Vidal was born in [[Feldkirch, Vorarlberg|Feldkirch]], Austria, of [[Romansh people|Romansh]] background, and had come to the U.S. with Gore's Swiss great-grandmother, Emma Hartmann.<ref>Parini, Jay (2015). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=s1o5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT17&dq=%22Gene's+grandfather%E2%80%94Eugen+Fidel+Vidal%E2%80%94+was+a+con+artist,+born+in+Feldkirch,+Austria,+of+Romansh+stock%22 Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613163539/https://books.google.com/books?id=s1o5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT17&dq=%22Gene%27s+grandfather%E2%80%94Eugen+Fidel+Vidal%E2%80%94+was+a+con+artist%2C+born+in+Feldkirch%2C+Austria%2C+of+Romansh+stock%22 |date=June 13, 2020 }}''. New York: Penguin Random House. {{ISBN|978-0-385-53757-5}}. Retrieved December 23, 2015</ref>

Vidal's mother, Nina Gore, was a socialite who made her Broadway theater debut as an extra actress in ''Sign of the Leopard'', in 1928.<ref>{{cite news |title=General Robert Olds Marries|newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 7, 1942|page=6|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.htmlres=F10712FB3C5E17738DDDAE0894DE405B8288F1D3}} {{Dead link |date=December 2016}}</ref> In 1922, Nina married Eugene Luther Vidal Sr. and thirteen years later, in 1935, divorced him.<ref>{{cite news|title=Miss Nina Gore Marries|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 12, 1922|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/01/12/archives/miss-nina-gore-marries-former-senators-daughter-weds-lieut-eugene-l.html|access-date=June 10, 2020|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610010334/https://www.nytimes.com/1922/01/12/archives/miss-nina-gore-marries-former-senators-daughter-weds-lieut-eugene-l.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Nina Gore Vidal then was married two more times; to [[Hugh D. Auchincloss]] and to [[Robert Olds]]. She also had "a long off-and-on affair" with the actor [[Clark Gable]].<ref>Vidal, Gore. ''Point to Point Navigation'', New York: Doubleday, 2006, p. 135.</ref> As Nina Gore Auchincloss, Vidal's mother was an alternate delegate to the [[1940 Democratic National Convention]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Politicians: Aubertine to Austern|url=http://www.politicalgraveyard.com/bio/aubert-austen.html|publisher=The Political Graveyard|year=2008|access-date=October 31, 2008|archive-date=December 28, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228033542/http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/aubert-austen.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The subsequent marriages of his mother and father yielded four half-siblings for Gore Vidal—Vance Vidal, Valerie Vidal, Thomas Gore Auchincloss, and [[Nina Gore Auchincloss]]—one step-brother, Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III from his mother's second marriage to Hugh D. Auchincloss, and four step-brothers including [[Robin Olds]] from his mother's third marriage to Robert Olds, a [[major general]] in the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF), who died in 1943, 10 months after marrying Nina.<ref>{{cite news|title=Maj. Gen. Olds, 46, of Air Force, Dies|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 29, 1943|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/04/29/archives/maj-gen-0ld-46-of-air-fore-dies-outstanding-figure-in-army-aviation.html|access-date=June 10, 2020|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610010743/https://www.nytimes.com/1943/04/29/archives/maj-gen-0ld-46-of-air-fore-dies-outstanding-figure-in-army-aviation.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Through Auchincloss, Vidal also was the step-brother once removed of [[Jacqueline Kennedy]]. The nephews of Gore Vidal include [[Burr Steers]], a writer and film director, and [[Hugh Auchincloss Steers]] (1963–1995), a [[figurative painter]].<ref name="NYTimes-4-mar-1995">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/04/obituaries/hugh-steers-32-figurative-painter.html|title=Hugh Steers, 32, Figurative Painter|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 4, 1995|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-date=April 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417212631/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/04/obituaries/hugh-steers-32-figurative-painter.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NYTimes-15-sep-2002">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/arts/film-a-family-s-legacy-pain-and-humor-and-a-movie.html|title=A Family's Legacy: Pain and Humor (and a Movie)|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 15, 2002|first=Karen|last=Durbin|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-date=April 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421144024/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/arts/film-a-family-s-legacy-pain-and-humor-and-a-movie.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Raised in Washington, D.C., Vidal attended the [[Sidwell Friends School]] and St. Albans School. Given the blindness of his maternal grandfather, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore, of Oklahoma, Vidal read aloud to him, and was his [[Senate page]], and his seeing-eye guide.<ref name="LATimes-18-jun-2008">Rutten, Tim. "[http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-rutten18-2008jun18,0,193259.story 'The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004192539/http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-rutten18-2008jun18,0,193259.story |date=October 4, 2008 }}", ''Los Angeles Times'', June 18, 2008.</ref> In 1939, during his summer holiday, Vidal went with some colleagues and a professor from St. Albans School on his first European trip to visit Italy and France. He visited Rome for the first time, the city which came to be "at the center of Gore's literary imagination," and Paris. When the [[Second World War]] began in early September, the group was forced to return home early. On his way back, he and his colleagues stopped in Great Britain, where they met the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.|Joe Kennedy]] (the father of [[John Fitzgerald Kennedy]], later the President of the United States of America).<ref>Jay Parini, ''Every time a friend succeeds, something inside me dies: The Life of Gore Vidal'' (London: Little, Brown, 2015), pp. 27–28. )</ref> In 1940 he attended the [[Los Alamos Ranch School]] and later transferred to [[Phillips Exeter Academy]], in [[Exeter, New Hampshire]], where he contributed to [[the Exonian]], the school newspaper.<ref>''Gore Vidal: A Critical Companion'', Susan Baker, Curtis S. Gibson. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997. {{ISBN|0-313-29579-4}}. p. 3.</ref>

Rather than attend university, Vidal enlisted in the [[U.S. Army]] at age 17 and was assigned to work as an office clerk in the [[USAAF]]. Later, Vidal passed the examinations necessary to become a maritime [[warrant officer]] (junior grade) in the [[Transportation Corps]], and subsequently served as first mate of the ''F.S. 35th'', a US Army Freight and Supply (FS) ship berthed at [[Dutch Harbor]] in the [[Aleutian Islands]]. After three years in service, Vidal suffered [[hypothermia]], developed [[rheumatoid arthritis]] and, consequently, was reassigned to duty as a mess officer.<ref>Vidal, Gore. ''Williwaw'', "Preface", p. 1.</ref>