Gore Vidal

Guide Note:

During a career that has spanned over six decades, American author, dramatist, actor, social and political critic, Gore Vidal has produced countless influential novels, essays, and dramatic works for stage and screen. Opinionated, outspoken, unapologetic and witty, Vidal has been compared to historical Americans Henry James and Mark Twain, and has only one widely agreed-upon contemporary in Noam Chomsky.

Fast Facts:

1. Full name: Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
2. Birth date: October 3, 1925
3. Birth place: West Point, New York
4. Acted in the movies Bob Roberts, Gattaca, Shadow Conspiracy, and With Honors
5. Appeared as himself in The Simpsons and Family Guy

Literary Career:

Vidal's first novel, Williwaw, which enjoyed moderate success, was published when he was only nineteen. The City and the Pillar, published in 1948, came under fire from critics for being the first American novel to unabashedly portray homosexuality. Vidal has written two dozen novels under his own name, a handful more under pseudonyms, a collection of memoirs, eight stage plays, over a hundred essays for various publications including The Reporter, The New York Times Book Review, and Esquire, and has also collaborated on dozens of screenplays and television shows.

Political Career

A longtime critic of the American political system, Vidal sees himself as a "radical reformer" striving to return to the "pure republicanism" of early America. He hails from a prominent political family and twice ran for office. In 1960, he ran for Congress as a Democrat-Liberal in New York's 29th District, which he lost, but did manage to win more votes than the Democratic candidate, one John F. Kennedy. In 1982, Vidal ran in the Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate in California and finished second on a crowded ticket.

Quotes:

1. "I'm a born-again atheist."
2. "Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn."
3. "[T]here 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 than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently."
4. "The human race is divided into male and female. Many human beings enjoy the sexual relations with their own sex, many don't; many respond to both. The plurality is the fact of our nature and not worth fretting about...there are no homosexual people, only homosexual acts."
5. "But now, due to Terrorism, every one of us is stopped at airports and obliged to show an ID which must include a mug shot (something, as Allah knows, no terrorist would ever dare fake)."