Editing Gore Vidal

{{Short description|American writer (1925–2012)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Redirect|Eugene Vidal|his father|Eugene Luther Vidal}}
{{Infobox person <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox person/doc]] -->
| image              = GoreVidalVanVechten1 (cropped).jpg
| caption            = Vidal in 1948
| birth_name         = Eugene Louis Vidal
| other names        = Eugene Luther Vidal Jr.
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1925|10|03|mf=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[West Point, New York]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2012|07|31|1925|10|03|mf=yes}}
| death_place        = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| resting_place      = [[Rock Creek Cemetery]] (Washington, D.C.)
| occupation         = {{flatlist|
* Writer
* novelist
* essayist
* playwright
* screenwriter
* actor
}}
| parents            = {{Unbulleted list|[[Eugene Luther Vidal]]|[[Nina S. Gore]]}}
| partner            = {{Collapsible list|title={{nobold|See list}}
|1= [[Anaïs Nin]] (1944–1948)
|2= [[Diana Lynn]] (1949–1950)
|3= [[Joanne Woodward]] (1950–1951)
|4= [[Howard Austen]] (1951–2003)}}
| relations          = {{Collapsible list|title={{nobold|See list}}
|1= [[Thomas Gore]] (grandfather)
|2= [[Nina Auchincloss Straight|Nina Auchincloss]] (half-sister)
|3= [[Hugh Steers]] (half-nephew)
|4= [[Burr Steers]] (half-nephew)
|5= [[Jimmy Carter]] (fifth cousin)}}
| party              = {{plainlist|
* [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
* {{longitem|[[People's Party (United States, 1971)|People's]] (affiliated non-member)}}
}}
| movement           = [[Postmodern literature|Postmodernism]]
| education          = [[Phillips Exeter Academy]]
| known for          = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The City and the Pillar]]'' (1948)
* ''[[Julian (novel)|Julian]]'' (1964)
* ''[[Myra Breckinridge]]'' (1968)
* ''[[Burr (novel)|Burr]]'' (1973)
* ''[[Lincoln (novel)|Lincoln]]'' (1984)
}}
| module             = {{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes
|office      = Chairman of the [[People's Party (United States, 1971)|People's Party]]
|term_start  = November 27, 1970
|term_end    = November 7, 1972
}}
| module2            = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
|allegiance   = <!-- United States -->
|branch       = [[United States Army]]
|serviceyears = 1943–1946
|rank         = [[Warrant officer (United States)|Warrant officer]]
|battles      = [[World War II]]
}}
}}
'''Eugene Luther Gore Vidal''' ({{IPAc-en|v|ᵻ|ˈ|d|ɑː|l}} {{respell|vih|DAHL}}; born '''Eugene Louis Vidal''', October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and [[public intellectual]] known for his acerbic [[epigram]]matic [[wit]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/01/gore-vidal-best-quotes|title=Gore Vidal quotes: 26 of the best: Gore Vidal, the celebrated writer, has died aged 86. He was famous for his acerbic wit. Here are some of his best quotes|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|author=Anon|year=2012|quote="Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences"}}</ref> His novels and essays interrogated the [[Social norm|social]] and [[sexual norm]]s he perceived as driving American life. Vidal was heavily involved in politics, and unsuccessfully sought office twice as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] candidate, first in 1960 to the [[United States House of Representatives]] (for New York), and later in 1982 to the [[United States Senate]] (for California).

A grandson of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Thomas Gore]], Vidal was born into an upper-class political family. As a political commentator and essayist, Vidal's primary focus was the [[History of the United States|history]] and [[society of the United States]], especially how a [[militaristic]] [[Foreign policy of the United States|foreign policy]] reduced the country to a [[American imperialism|decadent empire]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vidal |first1=Gore |title=I Told You So: Gore Vidal Talks Politics: Interviews with Jon Wiener |date=April 1, 2013 |publisher=Catapult |isbn=978-1-61902-212-6 |pages=54–55 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kt0REAAAQBAJ&q=decadent |language=en}}</ref> His political and cultural essays were published in ''[[The Nation]]'', the ''[[New Statesman]]'', the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'', and ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazines. As a public intellectual, Gore Vidal's topical debates on sex, politics, and religion with other intellectuals and writers occasionally turned into quarrels with the likes of [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] and [[Norman Mailer]].

As a novelist, Vidal explored the nature of corruption in public and private life. His style of narration evoked the time and place of his stories, and delineated the [[psychology]] of his characters.<ref>Murphy, Bruce. ''Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia'' (4th&nbsp;ed.). HarperCollins Publishers (1996), p.&nbsp;1080.</ref> His third novel, ''[[The City and the Pillar]]'' (1948), offended the literary, political, and moral sensibilities of conservative book reviewers, the plot being about a dispassionately presented male homosexual relationship.<ref>Terry, C. V. ''New York Times Book Review'', "The City and the Pillar", January 11, 1948, p.&nbsp;22.</ref>

In the historical novel genre, Vidal recreated the imperial world of [[Julian the Apostate]] (r. AD&nbsp;361–363) in ''[[Julian (novel)|Julian]]'' (1964). Julian was the Roman emperor who attempted to re-establish [[Roman polytheism]] to [[Julian (emperor)#Restoration of state paganism|counter Christianity]].<ref>Hornblower, Simon & Spawforth, Editors. ''The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization'' Oxford University Press (1998), pp.&nbsp;383–384.</ref> In social satire, ''[[Myra Breckinridge]]'' (1968) explores the mutability of [[gender role]]s and sexual orientation as being social constructs established by [[social mores]].<ref name="Kiernan-1982">{{cite book |last1=Kiernan |first1=Robert F |title=Gore Vidal |date=1982 |publisher=Frederick Ungar Publishing |isbn=9780804424615 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzUgAQAAIAAJ&q=Kiernan,+Robert+F.+Gore+Vidal |access-date=February 16, 2020}}</ref>{{RP|94-100}} In ''[[Burr (novel)|Burr]]'' (1973) and ''[[Lincoln (novel)|Lincoln]]'' (1984), both part of his ''[[Narratives of Empire]]'' series of novels, each protagonist is presented as "A Man of the People" and as "A Man" in a narrative exploration of how the public and private facets of personality affect the national politics of the United States.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995">{{cite book |last1=Vidal |first1=Gore |title=Palimpsest: A Memoir |date=1995 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780679440383 |url=https://archive.org/details/palimpsestmemoir0000vida |url-access=registration |access-date=February 16, 2020}}</ref>{{RP|439}}<ref name="Kiernan-1982" />{{RP|75-85}}

==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>

==Literary career==
Vidal's literary works were influenced by numerous other writers, poets and playwrights, novelists and essayists. These include, from antiquity, [[Petronius]] (d. AD 66), [[Juvenal]] (AD 60–140), and [[Apuleius]] ([[fl.]] c. AD 155); and from the post-Renaissance, [[Michel de Montaigne]] (1533–1592), [[Thomas Love Peacock]] (1785–1866), and [[George Meredith]] (1828–1909). More recent literary influences included [[Marcel Proust]] (1871–1922), [[Henry James]] (1843–1916), and [[Evelyn Waugh]] (1903–1966).<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3917/the-art-of-fiction-no-50-gore-vidal|title=Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 50, Gore Vidal|magazine=[[The Paris Review]]|year=1974|volume=Fall 1974|issue=59|access-date=November 29, 2010|archive-date=October 28, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028143626/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3917/the-art-of-fiction-no-50-gore-vidal|url-status=live|last1=Clarke|first1=Interviewed by Gerald}}</ref> The cultural critic [[Harold Bloom]] has written that Vidal believed that his sexuality had denied him full recognition from the literary community in the United States. Bloom himself contends that such limited recognition resulted more from Vidal's "best fictions" being "distinguished historical novels", a subgenre "no longer available for canonization".<ref name="Bloom1994">{{cite book|last=Bloom|first=Harold|title=The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_-QzKinSsz0C|access-date=August 1, 2012|year=1994|publisher=Riverhead Books|isbn=978-1-57322-514-4|page=21|archive-date=September 19, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919025924/https://books.google.com/books?id=_-QzKinSsz0C|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Fiction===
[[File:GoreVidal2008.jpg|thumb|Vidal at the [[Los Angeles Times Festival of Books]], 2008]]

Vidal's literary career began with the success of the [[military novel]] [[Williwaw (Vidal novel)|''Williwaw'']], a men-at-war story derived from his [[Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears, U.S. Army|Alaskan Harbor Detachment]] duty during the Second World War.<ref>Vidal, Gore. ''The City and the Pillar and Seven Early Stories'' (NY: Random House), p. xiii.</ref> His third novel, ''[[The City and the Pillar]]'' (1948), caused a moralistic furor over his dispassionate presentation of a young protagonist coming to terms with his homosexuality.<ref name=Freethinker0812/> The novel was dedicated to "J. T."; decades later, Vidal confirmed that the initials were those of his boyhood friend and St. Albans classmate, James Trimble III, killed in the [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] on March 1, 1945, and that Trimble was the only person he ever loved.<ref name="ESPN-14-mar-2002">Roberts, James. "[https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=1351570&type=page2Story The Legacy of Jimmy Trimble] ", ESPN, March 14, 2002.</ref><ref name="Independent-25-may-2008">Chalmers, Robert. "[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/gore-vidal-literary-feuds-his-vicious-mother-and-rumours-of-a-secret-love-child-832525.html Gore Vidal: Literary feuds, his 'vicious' mother and rumours of a secret love child] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614230531/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/gore-vidal-literary-feuds-his-vicious-mother-and-rumours-of-a-secret-love-child-832525.html |date=June 14, 2012 }}", ''The Independent'', May 25, 2008.</ref> Critics railed against Vidal's presentation of homosexuality in the novel as natural, as it was viewed generally at the time as unnatural and immoral.<ref name=Freethinker0812/> Vidal claimed that ''New York Times'' critic [[Orville Prescott]] was so offended by the book that he refused to review or to permit other critics to review any book by Vidal.<ref>Vidal, Gore. ''Point to Point Navigation'' (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 245</ref> Vidal said that upon publication of the book, an editor at [[E. P. Dutton]] told him "You will never be forgiven for this book. Twenty years from now, you will still be attacked for it."<ref name=Freethinker0812/> Today, Vidal is often seen as an early champion of [[sexual liberation]].<ref>[http://www.consulfrance-losangeles.org/spip.php?article547 Décoration de l'écrivain Gore Vidal].{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013002425/http://www.consulfrance-losangeles.org/spip.php?article547 |date=October 13, 2008 }}</ref>

Vidal took the pseudonym "Edgar Box" and wrote the mystery novels ''Death in the Fifth Position'' (1952), ''Death before Bedtime'' (1953) and ''Death Likes it Hot'' (1954) featuring Peter Cutler Sargeant II, a publicist-turned-private-eye. His satirical novel ''[[Messiah (Vidal novel)|Messiah]]'', detailing the rise of a new [[nontheistic religion]] that comes to largely replace the [[Abrahamic faiths]], was also published in 1954. The Edgar Box genre novels sold well and earned the blacklisted Vidal a secret living.<ref>''The Boston Globe'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20111127004526/http://articles.boston.com/2011-03-25/ae/29352611_1_novels-mysteries-paperback Diane White, "Murder, He Wrote, Before Becoming a Man of Letters", 25 March 2011]. Retrieved July 11, 2011 </ref><ref>Vidal, Gore. "Introduction to ''Death in the Fifth Position''{{-"}}, in Edgar Box, ''Death in the Fifth Position'' (Vintage, 2011), pp. 5–6.</ref> That mystery-novel success led Vidal to write in other genres, where he produced the stage play ''[[The Best Man (play)|The Best Man: A Play about Politics]]'' (1960) and the television play ''[[Visit to a Small Planet]]'' (1957). Two early teleplays were ''A Sense of Justice'' (1955) and ''Honor''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Philco Television Playhouse: A Sense of Justice (TV)|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Goodyear+Television+Playhouse&p=1&item=T:40573|work=The Paley Center for Media|access-date=January 1, 2013|archive-date=August 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826181908/http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Goodyear+Television+Playhouse&p=1&item=T:40573|url-status=live}}</ref> He also wrote the pulp novel ''Thieves Fall Out'' under the pseudonym Cameron Kay but refused to have it reprinted under his real name during his life.<ref name="thieves">{{Citation|last= Bayard|first= Louis|title= Review: Gore Vidal's 'Thieves Fall Out', Where Pulp Fiction and Hard Reality Met|work= [[The New York Times]]|date= April 12, 2015|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/books/review-gore-vidals-thieves-fall-out-where-pulp-fiction-and-hard-reality-met.html|access-date= April 12, 2015|archive-date= April 13, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150413035059/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/books/review-gore-vidals-thieves-fall-out-where-pulp-fiction-and-hard-reality-met.html|url-status= live}}</ref>

In the 1960s, Vidal published [[Julian (novel)|''Julian'']] (1964), about the Roman Emperor [[Julian the Apostate]] (r. A.D. 361–363), who sought to reinstate [[polytheism|polytheistic paganism]] when Julian viewed that Christianity threatened the cultural integrity of the Roman Empire; [[Washington, D.C. (novel)|''Washington, D.C.'']] (1967), about political life during the presidential era of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (1933–1945); and ''[[Myra Breckinridge]]'' (1968), a satire of the American movie business, by way of a school of dramatic arts owned by a [[transsexual]] woman, the eponymous anti-heroine.

After publishing the plays [[Weekend (play)|''Weekend'']] (1968) and ''[[An Evening With Richard Nixon]]'' (1972) and the novel ''Two Sisters: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir'' (1970), Vidal concentrated upon the essay and developed two types of fiction. The first type is about American history, novels specifically about the nature of national politics.<ref name="NYTimes -7-jul-1970">{{cite news|author=Leonard, John|author-link=John Leonard (critic)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-sisters.html|title=Not Enough Blood, Not Enough Gore|work=The New York Times|date=July 7, 1970|access-date=October 30, 2008|archive-date=April 10, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410073540/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-sisters.html|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The New York Times'', quoting critic Harold Bloom about those historical novels, said that "Vidal's imagination of American politics is so powerful as to compel awe."<ref name=NYTobit /> The historical novels formed the seven-book series [[Narratives of Empire]]: (i) ''[[Burr (novel)|Burr]]'' (1973), (ii) ''[[Lincoln (novel)|Lincoln]]'' (1984), (iii) ''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976), (iv) ''[[Empire (Vidal novel)|Empire]]'' (1987), (v) ''[[Hollywood (Vidal novel)|Hollywood]]'' (1990), (vi) ''Washington, D.C.'' (1967), and (vii) ''[[The Golden Age (Gore Vidal novel)|The Golden Age]]'' (2000). Besides U.S. history, Vidal also explored and analyzed the history of the ancient world, specifically the [[Axial Age]] (800–200 B.C.), with the novel ''[[Creation (novel)|Creation]]'' (1981). The novel was published without four chapters that were part of the manuscript he submitted to the publisher; years later, Vidal restored the chapters to the text and republished the novel ''Creation'' in 2002.

The second type of fiction is the topical satire, such as ''[[Myron (novel)|Myron]]'' (1974), the sequel to ''Myra Breckinridge''; ''[[Kalki (novel)|Kalki]]'' (1978), about the end of the world and the consequent ennui; ''[[Duluth (novel)|Duluth]]'' (1983), an [[Parallel universe (fiction)|alternate universe]] story; ''[[Live from Golgotha]]'' (1992), about the adventures of Timothy, Bishop of Macedonia, in the early days of Christianity; and ''[[Smithsonian Institution (novel)|The Smithsonian Institution]]'' (1998), a time-travel story.

===Nonfiction===
[[File:1876Novel.jpg|thumb|upright|Vidal's historical novel ''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976)]]
In the United States, Vidal is often considered an essayist rather than a novelist.<ref>{{cite news |first=Deborah |last=Solomon |title=Literary Lion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=June 15, 2008 |access-date=June 29, 2008 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210225213/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine |url-status=live }}</ref> Even the occasionally hostile literary critic, such as [[Martin Amis]], admitted that "Essays are what he is good at ... [Vidal] is learned, funny, and exceptionally clear-sighted. Even his blind spots are illuminating."

For six decades, Vidal applied himself to socio-political, sexual, historical and literary subjects. In the essay anthology ''Armageddon'' (1987) he explored the intricacies of power (political and cultural) in the contemporary United States. His criticism of the incumbent U.S. president, [[Ronald Reagan]], as a "triumph of the embalmer's art" communicated that Reagan's provincial worldview, and that of his administration's, was out of date and inadequate to the geopolitical realities of the world in the late twentieth century. In 1993, Vidal won the [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] for the anthology ''United States: Essays 1952–92'' (1993).<ref name=nba1993>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1993 "National Book Awards&nbsp;– 1993"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029015053/http://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1993/ |date=October 29, 2018 }}. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-12.<br />(With acceptance speech by Vidal, read by Harry Evans.)</ref>

In 2000, Vidal published the collection of essays ''The Last Empire'', then such self-described "pamphlets" as ''Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace'', ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'' and ''Imperial America'', critiques of American expansionism, the [[military–industrial complex]], the national security state and the [[George W. Bush administration]]. Vidal also wrote a historical essay about the [[Founding Fathers]], ''Inventing a Nation''. In 1995, he published a memoir, ''Palimpsest'', and in 2006 its follow-up volume, ''Point to Point Navigation''. Earlier that year, Vidal had published ''Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories''.

In 2009, Vidal won the [[National Book Award#Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters]] from the [[National Book Foundation]], which called him a "prominent social critic on politics, history, literature and culture".<ref name=medal>[http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310053959/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html |date=March 10, 2011 }}. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.<br />(With acceptance speech by Vidal and official blurb.)</ref><!-- the blurb is substantially lacking as an award citation; contrast Joan Didion 2007; nor does NBF publish anyone's introduction of Vidal -->
In the same year, the Man of Letters Gore Vidal was named honorary president of the [[American Humanist Association]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atheists.org/gore-vidal-death-legend |title=Gore Vidal: The Death of a Legend &#124; American Atheists |publisher=Atheists.org |date=August 1, 2012 |access-date=August 5, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804052134/http://www.atheists.org/gore-vidal-death-legend |archive-date=August 4, 2012}}</ref><!-- dead link --><ref name=Freethinker0812>{{cite web|last=Duke|first=Barry|url=http://freethinker.co.uk/2012/08/01/farewell-gore-vidal-gay-atheist-extraordinary/|title=Farewell Gore Vidal, Gay Atheist Extraordinary|publisher=Freethinker.co.uk|date=August 1, 2012|access-date=December 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108041016/http://freethinker.co.uk/2012/08/01/farewell-gore-vidal-gay-atheist-extraordinary/|archive-date=January 8, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Hollywood===
[[File:Broogoldvidawild.jpg|thumb|upright|Vidal (second from right) supporting the [[1981 Writers Guild of America strike]]]]
In 1956, [[MGM]] hired Vidal as a screenwriter with a four-year employment contract. In 1958, the director [[William Wyler]] required a [[script doctor]] to rewrite the screenplay for [[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|''Ben-Hur'']] (1959), originally written by [[Karl Tunberg]]. As one of several script doctors assigned to the project, Vidal rewrote significant portions of the script to resolve ambiguities of character motivation, specifically to clarify the enmity between the Jewish protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur, and the Roman antagonist, Messala, who had been close boyhood friends. In exchange for rewriting the ''Ben-Hur'' screenplay, on location in Italy, Vidal negotiated the early termination (at the two-year mark) of his four-year contract with MGM.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|301–307}}

36 years later, in the documentary film ''[[The Celluloid Closet (film)|The Celluloid Closet]]'' (1995), Vidal explained that Messala's failed attempt at resuming their homosexual, boyhood relationship motivated the ostensibly political enmity between Ben-Hur ([[Charlton Heston]]) and Messala ([[Stephen Boyd]]). Vidal said that Boyd was aware of the homosexual subtext to the scene and that the director, the producer and the screenwriter agreed to keep Heston ignorant of the subtext, lest he refuse to play the scene.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|306}} In turn, on learning of that explanation, Heston said that Vidal had contributed little to the script of ''Ben-Hur''.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Commanding Presence: Actor Charlton Heston Sets His Epic Career in Stone – or At Least on Paper |author=Mick LaSalle |newspaper=The San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 2, 1995 |page=E1}}</ref> Despite Vidal's resolution of the character's motivations, the [[Screen Writers Guild]] assigned formal screenwriter-credit to Karl Tunberg, in accordance with the [[WGA screenwriting credit system]], which favored the "original author" of a screenplay, rather than the writer of the filmed screenplay.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gore Vidal, Aloof in Art and Life |author=Ned Rorem |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=December 12, 1999 |page=18S}}</ref>

Two plays, ''The Best Man: A Play about Politics'' (1960, made into a [[The Best Man (1964 film)|film]] in 1964) and ''Visit to a Small Planet'' (1955), were theater and movie successes. Vidal occasionally returned to the movie business, and wrote historically accurate teleplays and screenplays about subjects important to him. [[Billy the Kid (1989 film)|''Billy the Kid'']] (1989) is one, about [[William H. Bonney]], a gunman in the New Mexico territory [[Lincoln County War]] (1878), and later an outlaw in the U.S. Western frontier. Another is 1979's [[Caligula (film)|''Caligula'']] (based upon the life of the [[Roman Emperor]] [[Caligula]]),<ref name="Time-3-jan-1977">"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947822,00.html Show Business: Will the Real Caligula Stand Up?]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022172027/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947822,00.html |date=October 22, 2010 }}, ''Time'', January 3, 1977.</ref> from which Vidal had his screenwriter credit removed because the producer, [[Bob Guccione]], the director, [[Tinto Brass]], and the leading actor, [[Malcolm McDowell]], rewrote the script to add extra sex and violence to increase its commercial appeal.

In the 1960s, Vidal migrated to Italy, where he befriended the film director [[Federico Fellini]], for whom he appeared in a cameo role in the film ''[[Roma (1972 film)|Roma]]'' (1972). He also appeared in the American television series ''[[Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman]]'' and in the films ''[[Bob Roberts]]'' (1992), a serio-comedy about a [[reactionary]] populist politician who manipulates youth culture to win votes; ''[[With Honors (film)|With Honors]]'' (1994), an [[Ivy league]] comedy-drama; ''[[Gattaca]]'' (1997), a science-fiction drama about [[genetic engineering]]; and ''[[Igby Goes Down]]'' (2002), a coming-of-age serio-comedy directed by his nephew, Burr Steers.

==Politics==
===Political campaigns===
[[File:Gore Vidal for the People's Party.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|Vidal speaking for the [[People's Party (United States, 1971)|People's Party]] in 1972]]
Vidal began to drift towards the political left after he received his first paycheck, and realized how much money the government took in tax.<ref name="nationalsec">{{cite book |last1=Vidal |first1=Gore |title=The History of the National Security State |date=2014 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |page=6}}</ref> He reasoned that if the government was taking so much money, then it should at least provide first-rate healthcare and education.<ref name="nationalsec"/>

As a public intellectual, Vidal was identified with the [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] politicians and the [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] social causes of the old Democratic Party.<ref name="The Nation profile">{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/gore_vidal |title=Gore Vidal |work=The Nation |access-date=January 22, 2009 |archive-date=January 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116010329/http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/gore_vidal |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Ira Henry Freeman, [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-campaign.html "Gore Vidal Conducts Campaign of Quips and Liberal Views"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629121515/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-campaign.html |date=June 29, 2016 }}, ''The New York Times'', September 15, 1960</ref>

In 1960, Vidal was the Democratic candidate for Congress for the [[New York's 29th congressional district|29th Congressional District]] of New York, a usually Republican district that included most of the [[Catskills]] and the western bank of the Hudson River, including [[Newburgh, New York|Newburgh]], but lost to the Republican candidate [[J. Ernest Wharton]], by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1960election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1960|publisher=Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives|year=1960|page=31, item #29|access-date=August 4, 2012|archive-date=October 21, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021081722/http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1960election.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Campaigning under the slogan of ''You'll get more with Gore'', Vidal received the most votes any Democratic candidate had received in the district in fifty years and outpolled John F. Kennedy (who lost the district with 38 percent of the vote).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wwu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist/index.html?appid=eeaf147abda34d578f0f75d133bf0d1d|title=1960 U.S. Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District|publisher=Western Washington University}}</ref> Among his supporters were [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and [[Paul Newman]] and [[Joanne Woodward]], friends who spoke on his behalf.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ira Henry |last=Freeman |title=The Playwright, the Lawyer, and the Voters |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 15, 1960 |page=20 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/the-playwright-the-lawyer-and-the-voters-gore-vidal-conducts.html |access-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723093455/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/the-playwright-the-lawyer-and-the-voters-gore-vidal-conducts.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1982, he campaigned against [[Jerry Brown]], the incumbent Governor of California, in the Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate; Vidal forecast accurately that the opposing Republican candidate ([[Pete Wilson]]) would win [[1982 United States Senate election in California|the election]].<ref name="vidal_correx_july_2011">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120402190800/http://www.gorevidalnow.com/in-which-gore-vidal-corrects-his-wikipedia-page/ Archived from gorevidalnow.com], in which Gore Vidal corrects his Wikipedia page</ref> That foray into senatorial politics is the subject of the documentary film ''[[Gore Vidal: The Man Who Said No]]'' (1983), directed by [[Gary Conklin]].

[[File:TimothyMcVeighPerryOKApr2195.jpg|thumb|In 2001, ''Vanity Fair'' published an article by Vidal on [[Timothy James McVeigh|Timothy McVeigh]]. The article attempts to understand why McVeigh perpetrated the 1995 [[Oklahoma City bombing]].]]
In a 2001 article, "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh", Gore undertook to discover why domestic terrorist [[Timothy McVeigh]] perpetrated the [[Oklahoma City bombing]] in 1995. He concluded that McVeigh (a politically disillusioned U.S. Army veteran of the [[Gulf War|First Iraq War]], 1990–91) had destroyed the [[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] as an act of revenge for the FBI's [[Waco massacre]] (1993) at the [[Branch Davidian]] Compound in Texas, believing that the U.S. government had mistreated Americans in the same manner that he believed that the U.S. Army had mistreated the Iraqis. In concluding the ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' article, Vidal refers to McVeigh as an "unlikely sole mover", and theorizes that foreign/domestic conspiracies could have been involved.<ref>Gore Vidal, [http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?printable=true&currentPage=all "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530073906/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?printable=true&currentPage=all |date=May 30, 2010 }}. ''Vanity Fair'', September 2001.</ref>

Vidal was very much against any kind of [[military intervention]] in the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/reflections-on-the-life-and-work-of-gore-vidal-8583|title=Reflections on the life and work of Gore Vidal|first=Fron|last=Jackson-Webb|website=The Conversation|date=August 2012 |access-date=May 6, 2019|archive-date=May 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506081608/http://theconversation.com/reflections-on-the-life-and-work-of-gore-vidal-8583|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'' (2002), Vidal drew parallels about how the United States enters wars and said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt provoked [[Imperial Japan]] to attack the U.S. to justify the American entry to the [[Second World War]] (1939–45). He contended that Roosevelt had [[Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory|advance knowledge]] of the dawn-raid [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] (December 7, 1941).<ref>Gore Vidal, "Three Lies to Rule By" and "Japanese Intentions in the Second World War", from ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'', New York, 2002, {{ISBN|1-56025-502-1}}</ref> In the documentary [[Why We Fight (2005 film)|''Why We Fight'']] (2005), Vidal said that, during the final months of the war, the Japanese had tried to surrender: "They were trying to surrender all that summer, but [[Harry Truman|Truman]] wouldn't listen, because Truman wanted to drop the bombs ... To show off. To frighten Stalin. To change the [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] in the world. To declare war on [[communism]]. Perhaps we were starting a pre-emptive world war".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.say2.org/why-we-fight/09.htm |title=Why We Fight (9 of 48) |publisher=Say2.org (Series of Subtitles for Documentary Video) |access-date=November 7, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728000320/http://www.say2.org/why-we-fight/09.htm |archive-date=July 28, 2011}}</ref>

===Criticism of George W. Bush===
[[File:Gore Vidal and McGovern 1.JPG|thumb|Vidal and ex-senator [[George McGovern]] at the [[Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum]], August 26, 2009]]
As a public intellectual, Vidal criticized what he viewed as political harm to the nation and the voiding of the [[citizen's rights]] through the passage of the [[USA Patriot Act]] (2001) during the George W. Bush administration (2001–2009). He described Bush as "the stupidest man in the United States" and said that Bush's foreign policy was explicitly [[Expansionist nationalism|expansionist]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Osborne, Kevin|url=http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-1001-gore-vidal-obama-a-disappointment.html|title=Obama a Disappointment|publisher=City Beat|access-date=June 2, 2010|archive-date=May 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526184359/http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-1001-gore-vidal-obama-a-disappointment.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-drWGnF6DjM |title=YouTube – The Henry Rollins Show – The Corruption of Election 2008 |via=YouTube |date=January 12, 2008 |access-date=October 20, 2008 |archive-date=November 14, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081114175959/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-drWGnF6DjM |url-status=live }}</ref> He contended that the Bush Administration and their oil-business sponsors, aimed to control the petroleum of Central Asia, after having gained hegemony over the petroleum of the [[Persian Gulf]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3156121348015048039&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en |title=Gore Vidal Interview with Alex Jones Infowars, 29 October 2006 Texas Book Fest |date=November 1, 2006 |access-date=January 22, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519205813/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3156121348015048039&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en |archive-date=May 19, 2011}}</ref>

Vidal became a member of the board of advisors of [[The World Can't Wait]], a political organization which sought to publicly repudiate the foreign-policy program of the Bush Administration (2001–2009) and advocated Bush's [[movement to impeach George W. Bush|impeachment]] for [[war crime]]s, such as the [[Second Iraq War]] (2003–2011) and torturing prisoners of war (soldiers, guerrillas, civilians) in violation of international law.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Can't Wait Advisory Board |url=http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=2 |access-date=July 29, 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426110309/http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=2 |archive-date=April 26, 2006}}</ref>

In May 2007, while discussing [[9/11 conspiracy theories]] that might explain the "who?" and the "why?" of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Vidal said

{{blockquote|I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst. Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. They could never have pulled off 9/11, even if they wanted to. Even if they longed to. They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them.<ref>{{cite news |author=Close |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 |title=Vidal salon |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=May 5, 2007 |access-date=August 17, 2009 |location=London |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220203148/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

===Political philosophy===
[[File:Gore Vidal (c. 1976-1983).jpg|right|thumb|Vidal, c. 1978]]
In the ''American Conservative'' article "My Pen Pal Gore Vidal" (2012), Bill Kauffman reported that Vidal's favorite American politician, during his lifetime, was [[Huey Long]] (1893–1935), the [[American populism|populist]] Governor (1928–32) and Senator (1932–35) from Louisiana, who also had perceived the essential, one-party nature of U.S. politics and who was [[Assassination of Huey Long|assassinated]] by a lone gunman called [[Carl Weiss]].<ref>Kauffman, Bill (September 14, 2012) [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/my-pen-pal-gore-vidal/ My Pen Pal Gore Vidal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328092414/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/my-pen-pal-gore-vidal/ |date=March 28, 2019 }}, ''The American Conservative''</ref>

Despite that, Vidal said, "I think of myself as a conservative", with a proprietary attitude towards the United States. "My family helped start [this country] ... and we've been in political life ... since the 1690s, and I have a very possessive sense about this country".<ref>Real Time With Bill Maher, Season 7, Episode 149, April 10, 2009</ref><ref>Gore Vidal, "Sexually Speaking: Collected Sexual Writings", Cleis Press, 1999.</ref> Based upon that background of populism, from 1970 to 1972, Vidal was a chairman of the [[People's Party (United States, 1970s)|People's Party]] of the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/gore_vidal.html |title=Gore Vidal |publisher=Wtp.org |access-date=October 20, 2008 |archive-date=July 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708181559/http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/gore_vidal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1971, he endorsed the consumer-rights advocate [[Ralph Nader]] for U.S. president in the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 election]].<ref>Vidal, Gore [http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-archive/best-man-1972 The Best Man/'72] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105221536/http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-archive/best-man-1972 |date=January 5, 2010 }}, ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]''</ref> In 2007, he endorsed Democrat [[Dennis Kucinich]] in his candidacy for the U.S. presidency (in 2008), because Kucinich was "the most eloquent of the lot" of presidential candidates, from either the Republican or the Democratic parties and that Kucinich was "very much a favorite out there, in the amber fields of grain".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/dennis-kucinich|title=Dennis Kucinich|work=The Nation|date=November 8, 2007|access-date=March 25, 2012|archive-date=August 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804215659/http://www.thenation.com/article/dennis-kucinich|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a September 30, 2009, interview with ''[[The Times]]'' of London, Vidal said that there soon would be a dictatorship in the United States. The newspaper emphasized that Vidal, described as "the Grand Old Man of American ''[[belles-lettres]]''", claimed that America is rotting away – and to not expect [[Barack Obama]] to save the country and the nation from imperial decay. In this interview, he also updated his views of his life, the United States, and other political subjects.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/gore-vidal-well-have-a-dictatorship-soon-in-the-us-dlmwzcrzp8j Interview]  ''The Times'' September 30, 2009</ref> Vidal had earlier described what he saw as the political and cultural rot in the United States in his essay "The State of the Union" (1975),

{{blockquote|There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more [[doctrinaire]] in their [[laissez-faire capitalism|''laissez-faire'' capitalism]] than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently ... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gore Vidal |title=Matters of Fact and of Fiction: Essays 1973–76 |publisher=Random House |year=1977 |isbn=0-394-41128-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mattersoffactoff00vida/page/265 265–85] |url=https://archive.org/details/mattersoffactoff00vida/page/265 }}</ref>}}

==Feuds==
=== The Capote–Vidal feud ===
In 1975, Vidal sued [[Truman Capote]] for slander, over the accusation that he had once been thrown out of the [[White House]] for being drunk, putting his arm around First Lady [[Jacqueline Kennedy]], and then insulting [[Janet Lee Bouvier|her mother]].<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html|title=Gore Vidal Dies at 86; Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer|date=August 1, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128072905/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Capote said of Vidal at the time: "I'm always sad about Gore—very sad that he has to breathe every day."<ref name="people.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20073969,00.html|title=Sued by Gore Vidal and Stung by Lee Radziwill, a Wounded Truman Capote Lashes Back at the Dastardly Duo|access-date=April 9, 2015|archive-date=June 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614032029/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20073969,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Mutual friend [[George Plimpton]] observed: "There's no venom like Capote's when he's on the prowl—and Gore's too, I don't know what division the feud should be in." The suit was settled in Vidal's favor when [[Lee Radziwill]] refused to testify on Capote's behalf, telling columnist [[Liz Smith (journalist)|Liz Smith]], "Oh, Liz, what do we care; they're just a couple of fags! They're disgusting."<ref name="people.com"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/at-92-liz-smith-reveals-787004|title=At 92, Liz Smith Reveals How Rupert Murdoch Fired Her, What It Felt Like to Be Outed|author=Maer Roshan|date=April 8, 2015|work=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=April 9, 2015|archive-date=April 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409000943/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/at-92-liz-smith-reveals-787004|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== The Buckley–Vidal feud ===
[[File:William F. Buckley, Jr. 1985.jpg|thumb|upright|The feud between Vidal and [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] (pictured) lasted until the latter's death in 2008.]]

In 1968, the [[ABC News (United States)|ABC television network]] hired the liberal Vidal and the conservative [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] as political analysts of the presidential-nomination conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |title=Political Animals: Vidal, Buckley and the '68 Conventions |last1=Kloman |first1=Harry |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=November 2, 2009 |archive-date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921082404/http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After days of bickering, their debates deteriorated to vitriolic ''[[ad&nbsp;hominem]]'' attacks. During a moment of crosstalk while discussing the [[1968 Democratic National Convention protests]], the pair argued about [[freedom of speech]]; namely, the legality of protesters to display a [[Viet Cong]] flag in America, Vidal snapped at Buckley to "shut up a minute". Moments later, the following exchange transpired: <blockquote> BUCKLEY: Some people were pro-Nazi, and the answer is that they were well treated by people who ostracized them. And I'm for ostracizing people who egg on other people to shoot American Marines and American soldiers.
VIDAL: As far as I'm concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself. Failing that, I would only say that we can't have—
BUCKLEY: Now listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered.</blockquote> ABC's [[Howard K. Smith]] intervened, and the debate resumed without violence.<ref name="vidal_correx_july_2011"/><ref>{{cite web|title=William Buckley/Gore Vidal Debate|via = YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsysyanTZbA|access-date=August 3, 2012|archive-date=January 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011616/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, Buckley said he regretted having called Vidal a "queer", but still expressed some distaste for Vidal when he said that he was an "evangelist for bisexuality".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898542,00.html |title=Feuds: Wasted Talent |magazine=Time |date=August 22, 1969 |access-date=November 7, 2011 |archive-date=November 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127012500/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898542,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1969, in ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine, Buckley continued his cultural feud with Vidal in the essay "On Experiencing Gore Vidal" (August 1969), in which he portrayed Vidal as an [[Apologia|apologist]] for homosexuality; Buckley said, "The man who, in his essays, proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher." The essay is collected in ''The Governor Listeth: A Book of Inspired Political Revelations'' (1970), an anthology of Buckley's writings from the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buckley |first=William F. |author-link=William F. Buckley Jr. |date=1970 |title=The governor listeth: a book of inspired political revelations |location=New York |publisher=Putnam |lccn=70-105581}}</ref>

Vidal riposted in ''Esquire'' with the September 1969 essay "A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr." and said that Buckley was "anti-black", "[[anti-semitic]]" and a "warmonger".<ref name="esquire_sept_1969"/> Buckley sued Vidal for [[libel]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Vidal Is Sued by Buckley; A 'Nazi' Libel Is Charged |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/07/archives/vidal-is-sued-by-buckley-a-nazi-libel-is-charged.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 7, 1969 |access-date=April 29, 2019 |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716083813/https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/07/archives/vidal-is-sued-by-buckley-a-nazi-libel-is-charged.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The feud continued in ''Esquire'', where Vidal implied that in 1944, Buckley and unnamed siblings had vandalized a [[Protestant]] church in [[Sharon, Connecticut]] (the Buckley family hometown) after the wife of a pastor had sold a house to a Jewish family. Additionally, Vidal later claimed to know for a fact that Buckley was "rather infatuated" with him. Buckley again sued Vidal and ''Esquire'' for libel and Vidal filed a counterclaim for libel against Buckley, citing Buckley's characterization of ''Myra Breckinridge'' (1968) as a [[pornographic novel]].<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Buckley v. Vidal |vol=327 |reporter=F.Supp. |opinion=1051 |court=US [[S.D.N.Y.]] |date=May 13, 1971 |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/19711378327fsupp105111171 |via=Leagle Inc. |access-date=March 31, 2018 |quote= ... in August 1968, Buckley made the following statement: 'Let Myra Breckinridge [referring to the novel bearing such name and thereby identifying its author, Gore Vidal, with such novel] go back to his pornography.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Athitakis |first=Mark |date=February 23, 2018 |title=Saluting 'Myra Breckinridge' on its 50th anniversary |url=http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-myra-breckinridge-20180223-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=March 31, 2018 |archive-date=April 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401144836/http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-myra-breckinridge-20180223-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The court dismissed Vidal's counterclaim.<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=19711378327FSupp1051_11171.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985 Buckley v. Vidal]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011514/https://www.leagle.com/decision/19711378327fsupp105111171.xml |date=January 11, 2021 }}. 327 F. Supp. 1051 (1971).</ref> Buckley accepted a money settlement of $115,000 to pay the fee of his attorney and an editorial apology from ''Esquire'', in which the publisher and the editors said that they were "utterly convinced" of the untruthfulness of Vidal's assertions.<ref>"Buckley Drops Vidal Suit, Settles With Esquire", ''The New York Times'', September 26, 1972, p.&nbsp;40.</ref> In a letter to ''Newsweek'' magazine, the publisher of ''Esquire'' said that "the settlement of Buckley's suit against us" was not "a 'disavowal' of Vidal's article. On the contrary, it clearly states that we published that article because we believed that Vidal had a right to assert his opinions, even though we did not share them."<ref name=Kaplan-1999>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=Fred |title=Gore Vidal; A Biography |date=1999 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385477031 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvHRY1vECCIC&q=we+published+that+article+because+we+believed+that+Vidal+had+a+right+to+assert+his+opinions&pg=PT601 |access-date=October 8, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011522/https://books.google.com/books?id=EvHRY1vECCIC&q=we+published+that+article+because+we+believed+that+Vidal+had+a+right+to+assert+his+opinions&pg=PT601 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In ''Gore Vidal: A Biography'' (1999), [[Fred Kaplan (biographer)|Fred Kaplan]] said that "The court had 'not' sustained Buckley's case against ''Esquire''&nbsp;... [that] the court had 'not' ruled that Vidal's article was 'defamatory'. It had ruled that the case would have to go to trial ''in order to determine, as a matter of fact, whether or not it was defamatory''. The cash value of the settlement with ''Esquire'' represented 'only' Buckley's legal expenses."<ref name=Kaplan-1999 />

In 2003, Buckley resumed his complaint of having been libeled by Vidal, this time with the publication of the anthology ''Esquire's Big Book of Great Writing'' (2003), which included Vidal's essay "A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr." Again, the offended Buckley filed lawsuit for libel and ''Esquire'' magazine again settled Buckley's claim with $55,000–65,000 for the fees of his attorney and $10,000 for personal damages suffered by Buckley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |title=Political Animals: Vidal, Buckley and the '68 Conventions |last1=Kloman |first1=Harry |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=December 28, 2016 |archive-date=November 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117030038/http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the obituary "RIP WFB – in Hell" (March 20, 2008), Vidal remembered Buckley, who had died on February 27, 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/ |title=Reports&nbsp;– Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the Dead |publisher=Truthdig |date=March 20, 2008 |access-date=January 22, 2009 |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204113214/http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Later, in the interview "Literary Lion: Questions for Gore Vidal" (June 15, 2008), ''New York Times'' reporter [[Deborah Solomon]] asked Vidal: "How did you feel, when you heard that Buckley died this year?" Vidal responded:<ref>Solomon, Deborah. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html "Literary Lion: Questions for Gore Vidal"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105507/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html |date=February 6, 2017 }}. ''New York Times''. June 15, 2008.</ref>
{{blockquote|
I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins, forever, those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.
}}

=== The Mailer–Vidal feud ===
On December 15, 1971, during the recording of ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', with [[Janet Flanner]], [[Norman Mailer]] allegedly head-butted Vidal when they were backstage.<ref>{{cite news |last=Veitch |first=Jonathan |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/29671606.html?dids=29671606:29671606&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+24%2C+1998&author=JONATHAN+VEITCH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Raging+Bull%3B+THE+TIME+OF+OUR+TIME.+By+Norman+Mailer+%28Random+House%3A+1%2C290+pp.%2C+%2439.50%29&pqatl=google |title=Raging Bull; THE TIME OF OUR TIME. By Norman Mailer |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=May 24, 1998 |access-date=November 7, 2011 |archive-date=July 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725101300/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/29671606.html?dids=29671606:29671606&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+24%2C+1998&author=JONATHAN+VEITCH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Raging+Bull%3B+THE+TIME+OF+OUR+TIME.+By+Norman+Mailer+%28Random+House%3A+1%2C290+pp.%2C+%2439.50%29&pqatl=google |url-status=dead }}</ref> When a reporter asked Vidal why Mailer had knocked heads with him, Vidal said, "Once again, words failed Norman Mailer."<ref>{{cite news|last=Cavett |first=Dick |title=Cavett: Gore Vidal Hates Being Dead |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-02/opinion/opinion_cavett-gore-vidal_1_gore-norman-mailer-simple-elegance |publisher=CNN |date=January 23, 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807010453/http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-02/opinion/opinion_cavett-gore-vidal_1_gore-norman-mailer-simple-elegance |archive-date=August 7, 2012 }}</ref> During the recording of the talk show, Vidal and Mailer insulted each other, over what Vidal had written about him, prompting Mailer to say, "I've had to smell your works from time to time." Apparently, Mailer's umbrage resulted from Vidal's reference to Mailer having [[Stabbing of Adele Morales by Norman Mailer|stabbed his wife of the time]].<ref name=cavettshow>{{cite web|title=The Guest From Hell: Savoring Norman Mailer's Legendary Appearance on The Dick Cavett Show|date=August 2, 2007|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2007/08/the_guest_from_hell.single.html|work=Slate|access-date=April 13, 2012|archive-date=August 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802133531/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2007/08/the_guest_from_hell.single.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Views==
===Polanski rape case===
{{Further|Roman Polanski sexual abuse case}}
In ''[[The Atlantic]]'' magazine interview "A Conversation with Gore Vidal" (October 2009), by John Meroney, Vidal spoke about topical and cultural matters of U.S. society. Asked his opinion about the arrest of the film director [[Roman Polanski]], in Switzerland, in September 2009, in response to an extradition request by U.S. authorities, for having fled the U.S. in 1978 to avoid jail for the [[statutory rape]] of a thirteen-year-old girl in Hollywood, Vidal said: "I really don't give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she's been taken advantage of?"

Asked for elaboration, Vidal explained the cultural temper of the U.S. and of the Hollywood movie business in the 1970s:<ref name="John Meroney">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/10/a-conversation-with-gore-vidal/307767/2/|title=A Conversation With Gore Vidal|author=John Meroney|date=October 28, 2009|work=The Atlantic|access-date=March 7, 2017|archive-date=January 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104100511/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/10/a-conversation-with-gore-vidal/307767/2/|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{blockquote|
The [news] media can't get anything straight. Plus, there's usually an anti-Semitic and [[homophobia|anti-fag]] thing going on with the press—lots of crazy things. The idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel, all in white, being raped by this awful Jew ''[[Polack]]o''—that's what people were calling him—well, the story is totally different now [2009] from what it was then [1970s]&nbsp;... Anti-Semitism got poor Polanski. He was also a foreigner. He did not subscribe to American values, in the least. To [his persecutors], that seemed vicious and unnatural.
}}

Asked to explain the term "American values", Vidal replied: "Lying and cheating. There's nothing better."<ref name="John Meroney"/>

In response to Vidal's opinion about the decades-old Polanski rape case, a spokeswoman for the organization [[Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests]], Barbara Dorris, said, "People should express their outrage, by refusing to buy any of his books", called Vidal a "mean-spirited buffoon" and said that, although "a boycott wouldn't hurt Vidal financially", it would "cause anyone else, with such callous views, to keep his mouth shut, and [so] avoid rubbing salt into the already deep [psychological] wounds of (the victims)" of sexual abuse.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gore Vidal rips Roman Polanski rape victim as 'hooker' |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2009/11/gore_vidal_rips_roman_polanski_rape_victim_%E2%80%98hooker%E2%80%99|newspaper=[[Boston Herald]] |date=November 1, 2009 |access-date=January 10, 2015 |archive-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228055456/http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2009/11/gore_vidal_rips_roman_polanski_rape_victim_%E2%80%98hooker%E2%80%99|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Scientology===
In 1997, Vidal was one of thirty-four public intellectuals and celebrities who joined a publicity campaign waged by [[Church of Scientology|Scientologists]] against the German government, signing an open letter addressed to German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], published in the ''International Herald Tribune'', alleging that [[Scientology in Germany|Scientologists in Germany]] were treated "in the same way that the Nazi regime persecuted the Jews".<ref>Drozdiak, William (January 14, 1997). [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/10844567.html?dids=10844567:10844567&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+14%2C+1997&author=William+Drozdiak&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=U.S.+Celebrities+Defend+Scientology+in+Germany&pqatl=google U.S. Celebrities Defend Scientology in Germany] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724145939/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/10844567.html?dids=10844567:10844567&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+14%2C+1997&author=William+Drozdiak&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=U.S.+Celebrities+Defend+Scientology+in+Germany&pqatl=google |date=July 24, 2013 }}, ''The Washington Post'', p. A-11.</ref> Scientologists are free to operate in Germany; the Church of Scientology, however, is not recognized as a religious body but as a business with political goals and thus monitored by the German [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution|domestic intelligence service]].<ref>{{citation|ref=Barber|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/germany-is-harassing-scientologists-says-us-1285857.html|title=Germany is harassing Scientologists, says US|last=Barber|first=Tony|date=January 30, 1997|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=September 11, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Kent | first = Stephen A. | author-link = Stephen A. Kent |date=January 2001 | title = The French and German versus American Debate over 'New Religions', Scientology, and Human Rights | journal = [[Marburg Journal of Religion]] | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | url = http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb03/ivk/mjr/pdfs/2001/articles/kent2001.pdf | access-date = June 17, 2009 }}</ref> Despite signing the letter, Vidal was critical of [[Scientology]] as a religion.<ref>Baker, Russ. April 1997. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120207143937/http://factnet.org/node/1370/#gorevidal "Clash of the Titans: Scientology vs. Germany"], ''[[George (magazine)|George]]'' magazine.</ref>

===Sexuality===
In 1967, Vidal appeared in the [[CBS]] documentary ''[[CBS Reports: The Homosexuals]]'', in which he expressed his views on homosexuality in the arts.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=CBS/Mike Wallace |date=March 3, 1967 |title=The Homosexuals |medium=Television |language=en |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2UNcDHa5ao | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413115353/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2UNcDHa5ao&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=April 13, 2014 | url-status=dead|access-date=March 13, 2016}}</ref> Commenting on his life's work and his life, he described his style as "knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."<ref name=Freethinker0812/>

However, Vidal often rebutted the label of "gay," maintaining that it referred to sexual acts rather than innate sexuality. During the 1980s and 1990s, he did not express a public stance on the [[Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS|HIV/AIDS crisis]]. According to Vidal's close friend [[Jay Parini]], "Gore didn't think of himself as a gay guy. It makes him self-hating. How could he despise gays as much as he did? In my company he always used the term 'fags'. He was uncomfortable with being gay. Then again, he was wildly courageous." Biographer Fred Kaplan concluded: "He was not interested in making a difference for gay people, or being an advocate for gay rights. There was no such thing as 'straight' or 'gay' for him, just the body and sex."<ref name="gay">{{cite news|last=Teeman|first=Tim|date=July 31, 2013|title=How Gay Was Gore Vidal?|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gay-was-gore-vidal|work=The Daily Beast|access-date=July 14, 2020|archive-date=September 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927201215/https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gay-was-gore-vidal|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the September 1969 edition of ''Esquire'', Vidal wrote about [[innate bisexuality]]:<ref name="esquire_sept_1969">{{cite magazine |author=Gore Vidal|title=A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley Jr.|magazine=Esquire|date=September 1969|page=140}}</ref><ref name=Freethinker0812/>
{{blockquote|We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime&nbsp;... despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word "natural", not normal.}}

==Personal life==
[[File:Vidal, Gore (1925-viv.) - foto di Charles Van Vechten.jpg|thumb|upright|Vidal as a young man]]
In the multi-volume memoir ''[[The Diary of Anaïs Nin]]'' (1931–74), [[Anaïs Nin]] said she had a love affair with Vidal, who denied her claim in his memoir ''Palimpsest'' (1995). In the online article "Gore Vidal's Secret, Unpublished Love Letter to Anaïs Nin" (2013), author [[Kim Krizan]] said she found an unpublished love letter from Vidal to Nin, which contradicts his denial of a love affair with Nin. Krizan said she found the love letter while researching ''Mirages'', the latest volume of Nin's uncensored diary, to which Krizan wrote the foreword.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-krizan/gore-vidals-secret-unpubl_b_4004916.html|title=Gore Vidal's Secret, Unpublished Love Letter to Anaïs Nin|date=September 27, 2013|work=HuffPost|access-date=September 20, 2013|first=Kim|last=Krizan|archive-date=September 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927200327/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-krizan/gore-vidals-secret-unpubl_b_4004916.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Vidal would cruise the streets and bars of New York City and other locales and wrote in his memoir that by age twenty-five, he had had more than a thousand sexual encounters.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vidal |first=Gore |author-link=Gore Vidal |date=1995 |title=Palimpsest: A Memoir}}, p. 121.</ref> Vidal also said that he had an intermittent romance with actress [[Diana Lynn]], and alluded to possibly having fathered a daughter.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|290}}<ref>Joy Do Lico and Andrew Johnson, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080526082405/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-rumours-about-my-love-child-may-be-true-says-gore-vidal-834022.html "The Rumours About My Love Child May Be True, says Gore Vidal"], ''The Independent'', May 25, 2008.</ref> He was briefly engaged to actress [[Joanne Woodward]] before she married actor [[Paul Newman]]; after marrying, they briefly shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles.<ref name="balaban">{{cite magazine|last1=Balaban|first1=Judy|title=The Gore They Loved|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/02/gore-vidal-beloved-women-susan-sarandon|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=January 22, 2013|access-date=December 28, 2016|archive-date=April 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425005931/http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/02/gore-vidal-beloved-women-susan-sarandon|url-status=live}}</ref>

Vidal enjoyed telling his sexual exploits to friends. Vidal claimed to have slept with [[Fred Astaire]] when he first moved to Hollywood and also with a young [[Dennis Hopper]].<ref name="gay"/>

In 1950, Vidal met [[Howard Austen]], who became his romantic partner for the next 53 years, until Austen's death.<ref>"What I've Learned", ''Esquire'' magazine, June 2008, p. 132.</ref> He said that the secret to his long relationship with Austen was that they did not have sex with each other: "It's easy to sustain a relationship when sex plays no part, and impossible, I have observed, when it does."<ref name=Outtake>{{cite web|last=Robinson|first=Charlotte|title=Outtake Blog Author & Gay Icon Gore Vidal Dies|url=http://blog.outtakeonline.com/2012/08/author-gay-icon-gore-vidal-dies.html|publisher=Outtake Blog|access-date=August 1, 2012|archive-date=August 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804001232/http://blog.outtakeonline.com/2012/08/author-gay-icon-gore-vidal-dies.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''[[Celebrity: The Advocate Interviews]]'' (1995), by Judy Wiedner, Vidal said that he refused to call himself "gay" because he was not an adjective, adding that, "to be categorized is, simply, to be enslaved. Watch out. I have never thought of myself as a victim&nbsp;... I've said—a thousand times?—in print and on TV, that everyone is bisexual."<ref name="Wieder">{{cite book |title=Celebrity: The Advocate Interviews|last=Wieder|first=Judy|editor-last=Wieder|editor-first=Judy|year=2001|publisher=Advocate Books|location=New York City|isbn=1-55583-722-0|page=127}}</ref>

In the course of his life, Vidal lived at various times in Italy and in the United States. In 2003, as his health began to fail with age, he sold his Italian villa ''[[La Rondinaia]]'' (The Swallow's Nest) on the [[Ravello|Amalfi Coast]] in the [[province of Salerno]] and he and Austen returned to live in their 1929<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-gore-vidal-20151118-story.html Longtime Hollywood Hills estate of late writer Gore Vidal is for sale] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727030917/https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-gore-vidal-20151118-story.html |date=July 27, 2019 }} in ''LA Times'' on November 18, 2015.</ref> villa in [[Outpost Estates, Los Angeles]].<ref>''Time International'' (September 28, 1992) described the 5000 ft.<sup>2</sup> (460&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) property as "a massive villa—in every detail of location and layout, designed to enhance concentration." p. 44.</ref> Howard Austen died in November 2003 and in February 2005 his remains were re-buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, in Washington, D.C., in a joint grave plot that Vidal had purchased for himself and Austen.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 48809-48810). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Gore Vidal Grave 2023 Cropped.jpg|thumb|right|The grave of Gore Vidal in [[Rock Creek Cemetery]].]]
In 2010, Vidal began to suffer from [[Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome]], a neurological disorder caused by his years of alcohol abuse.<ref name="auto">{{cite news |first=Leo |last=Robson |title=Delusions of Candour |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/delusions-of-candor |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 26, 2015 |access-date=December 9, 2015 |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222085601/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/delusions-of-candor |url-status=live }}</ref> On July 31, 2012, Vidal died of [[pneumonia]] at his home in the [[Hollywood Hills]] at the age of 86.<ref name="auto"/><ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-08-01/gore-vidal-dies/56631952/1 "Gore Vidal, Celebrated Author, Playwright, Dies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229182618/http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-08-01/gore-vidal-dies/56631952/1 |date=February 29, 2016 }} by Tina Fineberg, USA Today, August 1, 2012</ref><ref>Hillel Italie and Andrew Dalton, [http://hosted2.ap.org/OREUG/topstories/Article_2012-08-01-Obit-Gore%20Vidal/id-575d29027cfe46e6a07b0a13eeb44516 "Gore Vidal, celebrated author, playwright, dies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110091342/http://hosted2.ap.org/OREUG/topstories/Article_2012-08-01-Obit-Gore%20Vidal/id-575d29027cfe46e6a07b0a13eeb44516 |date=November 10, 2012 }}, Associated Press, August 1, 2012.</ref> A memorial service was held for him at the [[Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre]] in New York City on August 23, 2012.<ref>'Memorial for Gore Vidal in Manhattan', ''The New York Times'', August 23, 2012.</ref> He was buried next to Howard Austen in [[Rock Creek Cemetery]], in Washington, D.C.<ref>'Gore Vidal's Grave', 'Huffington Post', August 1, 2012.</ref> Vidal said he chose his grave site because it is between the graves of two people who were important in his life: [[Henry Adams]], the historian and writer, whose work Vidal admired; and his boyhood friend Jimmie Trimble who was killed in World War II, a tragedy that haunted Vidal for the rest of his life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gore Vidal: Oct. 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012 |url=https://sites.pitt.edu/~kloman/death.html |access-date=October 7, 2023 |website=sites.pitt.edu}}</ref> Upon his death, Vidal bequeathed the entirety of his estate, valued at $37&nbsp;million,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Teeman |first=Tim |date=November 8, 2013 |title=For Gore Vidal, a Final Plot Twist |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/fashion/In-a-final-plot-twist-Gore-Vidal-leaves-his-estate-to-Harvard-Universtity.html |access-date=July 5, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> to [[Harvard University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gore Vidal's Multimillion Dollar Gift to the University Challenged by Half-Sister {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/13/gore-vidals-gift-challenged/ |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Postmortem opinions and assessments of Vidal as a writer varied. The ''New York Times'' described him as "an [[Augustan prose|Augustan]] figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right. Few American writers have been more versatile, or gotten more mileage from their talent."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=all|title=Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer|author=Charles McGrath|date=August 1, 2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 1, 2012|archive-date=August 1, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801051252/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''Los Angeles Times'' said that he was a literary juggernaut whose novels and essays were considered "among the most elegant in the English language".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-gore-vidal-20120801,0,4557667.story|title=Gore Vidal, Iconoclastic Author, Dies at 86|author=Elaine Woo|date=August 1, 2012|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 1, 2012|archive-date=August 1, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801063021/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-gore-vidal-20120801,0,4557667.story|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''Washington Post'' described him as a "major writer of the modern era&nbsp;... [an] astonishingly versatile man of letters".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/gore-vidal-dies-imperious-gadfly-and-prolific-graceful-writer-was-86/2012/08/01/gJQAFF7FOX_story.html?hpid=z2|title=Gore Vidal Dies; imperious gadfly and prolific, graceful writer was 86|author=Michael Dirda|date=August 1, 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=August 1, 2012|archive-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914120534/http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/gore-vidal-dies-imperious-gadfly-and-prolific-graceful-writer-was-86/2012/08/01/gJQAFF7FOX_story.html?hpid=z2|url-status=live}}</ref>

''The Guardian'' said that "Vidal's critics disparaged his tendency to formulate an aphorism, rather than to argue, finding in his work an underlying note of contempt for those who did not agree with him. His fans, on the other hand, delighted in his unflagging wit and elegant style."<ref>{{cite news|author=Jay Parini|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/01/gore-vidal-dies|title=Gore Vidal Obituary|newspaper=The Guardian|date=August 1, 2012|access-date=August 5, 2012|location=London|archive-date=November 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104210546/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/01/gore-vidal-dies|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''Daily Telegraph'' described the writer as "an icy iconoclast" who "delighted in chronicling what he perceived as the disintegration of civilisation around him".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9443260/Gore-Vidal.html |title=Gore Vidal |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=August 1, 2012 |access-date=August 5, 2012 |location=London |archive-date=August 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805070314/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9443260/Gore-Vidal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The BBC News said that he was "one of the finest post-war American writers&nbsp;... an indefatigable critic of the whole [[American imperialism|American system]]&nbsp;... Gore Vidal saw himself as the last of the breed of literary figures who became celebrities in their own right. Never a stranger to chat shows, his wry and witty opinions were sought after as much as his writing."<ref>{{cite news|author=Alastair Leithead|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19074231|title=Obituary: Gore Vidal|publisher=BBC|date=August 1, 2012|access-date=August 5, 2012|archive-date=August 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804003823/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19074231|url-status=live}}</ref> In "The Culture of the United States Laments the Death of Gore Vidal", the Spanish on-line magazine ''Ideal'' said that Vidal's death was a loss to the "culture of the United States" and described him as a "great American novelist and essayist".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ideal.es/granada/20120801/gente/cultura-estados-unidos-lamenta-muerte-gore-vidal-201208011741.html |title=La cultura de Estados Unidos lamenta la muerte de Gore Vidal |date=August 2012 |publisher=Ideal.es |access-date=August 2, 2012 |archive-date=October 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017190055/http://www.ideal.es/granada/20120801/gente/cultura-estados-unidos-lamenta-muerte-gore-vidal-201208011741.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In ''The Writer Gore Vidal is Dead in Los Angeles'', the online edition of the Italian newspaper ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'' described the novelist as "the ''enfant terrible'' of American culture" and that he was "one of the giants of American literature".<ref>{{cite web|author=Redazione online|url=http://www.corriere.it/cultura/12_agosto_01/morto-gore-vidal_ebc4132c-db97-11e1-83b0-3101995e52cb.shtml|title=Los Angeles, è morto lo scrittore Gore Vidal|work=Corriere della Sera|access-date=August 2, 2012|archive-date=August 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802004643/http://www.corriere.it/cultura/12_agosto_01/morto-gore-vidal_ebc4132c-db97-11e1-83b0-3101995e52cb.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''Gore Vidal: The Killjoy of America'', the French newspaper ''[[Le Figaro]]'' said that the public intellectual Vidal was "the killjoy of America" but that he also was an "outstanding polemicist" who used words "like high-precision weapons".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2012/08/01/03004-20120801ARTFIG00549-gore-vidal-le-trouble-fete-de-l-amerique.php |title=Gore Vidal: le trouble-fête de l'Amérique |trans-title=Gore Vidal: The Killjoy of America |work=Le Figaro |language=fr |date=January 8, 2012 |access-date=August 2, 2012 |archive-date=August 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801204605/http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2012/08/01/03004-20120801ARTFIG00549-gore-vidal-le-trouble-fete-de-l-amerique.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

On August 23, 2012, in the program a ''Memorial for Gore Vidal in Manhattan'', the life and works of the writer Gore Vidal were celebrated at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, with a revival of ''The Best Man: A Play About Politics'' (1960). The writer and comedian [[Dick Cavett]] was host of the Vidalian celebration, which featured personal reminiscences about and performances of excerpts from the works of Vidal by friends and colleagues, such as [[Elizabeth Ashley]], [[Candice Bergen]], [[Hillary Clinton]], [[Alan Cumming]], [[James Earl Jones]], [[Elaine May]], [[Michael Moore]], [[Susan Sarandon]], [[Cybill Shepherd]], and Liz Smith.<ref name="NYT08232012">{{cite news |first=Charles |last=McGrath |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/books/memorial-for-gore-vidal-in-manhattan.html |title=Vidal's Own Wit to Celebrate Him |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 23, 2012 |access-date=June 10, 2013 |archive-date=June 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130630194917/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/books/memorial-for-gore-vidal-in-manhattan.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1960s, Vidal selected the [[Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research]] at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] to archive his papers, given his early focus on film. In 2002, Vidal transferred his papers to [[Houghton Library]] at Harvard University where they are housed to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 14, 2002 |title=Gore Vidal donates papers to Houghton |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2002/02/gore-vidal-donates-papers-to-houghton/ |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref>

===In popular culture===
In the 1960s, the weekly American [[sketch comedy]] television program ''[[Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In]]'' featured a running-joke sketch about Vidal; the telephone operator Ernestine ([[Lily Tomlin]]) would call him, saying: "Mr.&nbsp;Veedul, this is the Phone Company calling! (snort! snort!)."<ref>StarNewsOnline.com (blog) – On "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", [http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/16317/gore-vidal-rip/ Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the telephone operator would often call "Mr. Veedle"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515182853/http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/16317/gore-vidal-rip/ |date=May 15, 2013 }}.</ref><ref>Ernestine the Operator – TV Acres [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20101206233347/http://www.tvacres.com/] – Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the Telephone Operator – ... a [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20121119080822/http://www.tvacres.com/comm_ernestine.htm conversation with writer Gore Vidal as Ernestine says "Mr. Veedle], you owe us ..."</ref> The sketch, titled "Mr.&nbsp;Veedle", also appeared in Tomlin's comedy record album ''[[This Is a Recording (Lily Tomlin album)|This Is a Recording]]'' (1972).<ref>Record album: This is a Recording, [http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/lily-tomlin/album/this-is-a-recording/track/mr-veedle by Lily Tomlin, title: "Mr. Veedle"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109004715/http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/lily-tomlin/album/this-is-a-recording/track/mr-veedle |date=January 9, 2015 }}. Rhapsody.</ref>

Vidal provided his own voice for the animated-cartoon version of himself in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Moe'N'a Lisa]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Simpsons (TV Series) Moe'N'a Lisa (2006) Full Cast & Crew|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0888356/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm |publisher=[[IMDb]] |access-date=January 19, 2023}}</ref> He also voiced his animated-cartoon version in ''[[Family Guy]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family Guy (TV Series) Mother Tucker (2006) Full Cast & Crew|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837966/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm |publisher=[[IMDb]] |access-date=January 19, 2023}}</ref> He was interviewed in the ''[[Da Ali&nbsp;G Show]]''; the Ali&nbsp;G character mistakes him for [[Vidal Sassoon]], a famous hairdresser.<ref>{{cite web |title=Da Ali G Show - Gore Vidal| date=August 28, 2013 |url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DBX123HJVLc |via=YouTube |access-date=January 19, 2023}}</ref>

The Buckley-Vidal debates, their aftermath and cultural significance, were the focus of a 2015 documentary film called ''[[Best of Enemies (2015 film)|Best of Enemies]]'', as well as a 2021 play by [[James Graham (playwright)|James Graham]], inspired by the film.<ref>{{cite news|last=Grynbaum|first=Michael M.|date=July 24, 2015|title=Buckley vs. Vidal: When Debate Became Bloodsport|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/movies/buckley-vs-vidal-when-debate-became-bloodsport.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 14, 2020|archive-date=August 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821084445/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/movies/buckley-vs-vidal-when-debate-became-bloodsport.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Best Of Enemies |url=https://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/best-of-enemies?sourceNumber=7903#close |website=[[Young Vic]] |access-date=May 12, 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In season eight, episode eight of ''[[The Office (American TV series)|The Office]]'' titled "Gettysburg", [[Oscar Martinez (The Office)|Oscar Martinez]] calls [[Dwight Schrute]] "Gore Vidal" when Dwight tries to explain his version of history naming the "Battle of Schrute Farms" as the northernmost battle in the Civil War. Dwight responds to Oscar that he doesn't "know who that is".

A [[Netflix]] biopic titled ''Gore'' was filmed in 2017. It was directed and co-written by [[Michael Hoffman (director)|Michael Hoffman]], and based on [[Jay Parini]]'s book ''Empire of Self, A Life of Gore Vidal''. The film, which starred [[Kevin Spacey]] in the title role, was cancelled and remains unreleased due to sexual misconduct allegations made against Spacey.<ref name="HR_Stanhope">{{cite magazine | last1 = Stanhope | first1 = Kate | last2 = McClintock | first2 = Pamela | url = https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-officially-severs-ties-kevin-spacey-1054981 |title = Netflix severs ties with Kevin Spacey, drops 'Gore' movie |magazine = [[The Hollywood Reporter]] | publisher = [[Eldridge Industries]] | location = Los Angeles, California| date = November 3, 2017 | access-date = November 4, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Variety_Nov3_Oldham">{{cite magazine | first = Stuart | last = Oldham | title = Kevin Spacey Suspended From 'House of Cards' | url = https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/netflix-fires-kevin-spacey-from-house-of-cards-1202607002/ | magazine = [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | publisher=[[Penske Media Corporation]]| location=Los Angeles, California| date = November 3, 2017 | access-date = November 4, 2017}}</ref>

==Selected list of works==
{{Main|List of works by Gore Vidal}}
* ''[[The City and the Pillar]]'' (1948)
* ''[[The Best Man (play)|The Best Man]]'' (1960)
* ''[[Julian (novel)|Julian]]'' (1964)
* ''[[Myra Breckinridge]]'' (1968)
* ''[[Kalki (novel)|Kalki]]'' (1978)
* ''[[Creation (novel)|Creation]]'' (1981)

The ''[[Narratives of Empire]]'' series (chronological order rather than release order):

# ''[[Burr (novel)|Burr]]'' (1973)
# ''[[Lincoln (novel)|Lincoln]]'' (1984)
# ''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976)
# ''[[Empire (Vidal novel)|Empire]]'' (1987)
# ''[[Hollywood (Vidal novel)|Hollywood]]'' (1990)
# ''[[Washington, D.C. (novel)|Washington, D.C.]]'' (1967)
# ''[[The Golden Age (Vidal novel)|The Golden Age]]'' (2000)

===Filmography===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1972
| ''[[Roma (1972 film)|Roma]]''
| Himself
| Uncredited
|-
| 1992
| ''[[Bob Roberts]]''
| Senator Brikley Paiste
|
|-
| 1994
| ''[[With Honors (film)|With Honors]]''
| Pitkannen
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1997
| ''[[Shadow Conspiracy]]''
| Congressman Page
|
|-
| ''[[Gattaca]]''
| Director Josef
|
|-
| 2002
| ''[[Igby Goes Down]]''
| First School Headmaster
| Uncredited
|-
| 2009
| ''[[Shrink (film)|Shrink]]''
| George Charles
|
|}

==See also==
* [[List of Venice Film Festival jury presidents]]
* [[Politics in fiction]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{External links|date=May 2024}}
{{Sister project links|b=no|n=no|v=no|wikt=no|author=yes|d=Q167821}}
* [http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/vidalframe.html Gore Vidal Index], by Harry Kloman
* [http://www.gorevidalpages.com/ Gore Vidal Pages]
* {{IMDb name}}
* {{IBDB name}}
* {{IOBDB name}}
* {{C-SPAN|1388}}
* Documentary, ''Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia'':
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20140302204150/http://www.gorevidaldocumentary.com/ Film web site]
** [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745710/ At Internet Movie Database]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20140413130646/http://subversities.blogspot.com/2013/07/gore-vidal-speaking-truth-to-power.html Interview with Director Nicholas Wrathall]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html?_r=0 Gore Vidal – Obituary, ''New York Times'']
* [https://achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/#interview Gore Vidal Biography and Interview] with [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]]
* [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gore-Vidal Gore Vidal] on [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]
* ''[https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/vidal_gore Gore Vidal]'', on ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''
* [https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2657944A/Gore_Vidal ''Gore Vidal''], on ''[[Open Library]]'', Internet Archive
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20060528174249/http://nysoundposse.com/2005/11/event-gore-vidal-and-professor-dennis.html?wikipedia Gore Vidal and Dennis Altman Speaking About Gore Vidal's 'America']'' on 11/07/05 at D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla, CA, 86 min, in mp3 format
* [https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5657 Gore Vidal] on [[Goodreads]]

{{Gore Vidal|state=expanded}}
{{Venice Film Festival jury presidents}}
{{Authority control}}

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