The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Vidal, Gore
1925–, American writer, b. West Point, N.Y. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where a formative influence was his witty and scholarly grandfather, Senator Thomas Gore of Oklahoma. Vidal is an acerbic observer of the contemporary American scene and an acute commentator on the nation’s history. His first novel, Williwaw (1946), was based on his experiences in World War II. The City and the Pillar (1948, rev. ed. 1965) was one of the first mainstream novels to deal frankly with homosexuality. His best-known novel, Myra Breckenridge (1968), is a witty satire about a man who dies and returns to life as a woman.
Vidal’s historical fiction includes an interlocking septet of American novels—consisting of Washington, D.C. (1967), Burr (1973), 1876 (1976), Lincoln (1984), Empire (1987), Hollywood (1990), and The Golden Age (2000)—as well as Julian (1964), Creation (1982), Live from Golgotha (1992), and The Smithsonian Institution (1998). Among his plays are Visit to a Small Planet (1955) and The Best Man (1960). Vidal’s sharply argued and often controversial essays have been collected in several volumes, including Reflections on a Sinking Ship (1969), The Second American Revolution (1982), Armageddon (1987), Screening History (1992), United States: Essays 1952–1992 (1993), and The Last Empire: Essays 1992–2000 (2001). He has also written murder mysteries under the name Edgar Box.
See his memoirs, Palimpsest (1995) and Point to Point Navigation (2006); R. J. Stanton and G. Vidal, ed., Views from a Window: Conversations with Gore Vidal (1980); R. Peabody and L. Ebersole, ed., Conversations with Gore Vidal (2005); biography by F. Kaplan (1999); studies by B. F. Dick (1974), R. F. Kiernan (1982), J. Parini, ed. (1992), S. Baker and C. S. Gibson (1997), and S. Harris (2005).
