Gore Vidal

American playwright, critic, novelist and essayist, one of the great stylists of contemporary American prose. He made his debut as a novelist with "Williwaw" at the age of 19. His books include "Myra Breckenridge," "Washington D.C." and "Blood Kin." He adapted several plays for film, including two for friend Tennessee Williams. An extremely prolific author, he has written 22 novels, at least 200 essays, five plays, a memoir, various screenplays and numerous short stories. As he is perceptive with an inventive wit, he is an iconoclast in each of his professions. The grandson of U.S. Senator from Oklahoma Thomas P. Gore, and cousin of U.S. Vice President Al Gore, he is active in politics. He was an intimate of U.S. President Jack and wife Jackie Kennedy. In 1960 he unsuccessfully ran for Congress, and in 1982 he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate. Gore Vidal was born at the military academy in West Point, New York, where his father was an instructor. He grew up near Washington, D.C., in his grandfather’s house. As a teenager, Vidal adopted the first name of Gore. Vidal learned about political and social life among notables. He also spent time on the Virginia estate of his stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he served in the Army. When he was discharged, he worked for six months for the publishing firm of E. P. Dutton. From 1947 to 1949 he lived in Antigua, Guatemala. A basically self-taught writer (he has no college degree), his first novel, "Williwaw," was based on his youthful wartime experiences. In his autobiography, Vidal admitted to being a selfish lover because he likes to receive pleasure rather than give it. So he concluded long ago that sex is an urge, that love is an impossibility, and that you should never have sex with someone you might actually like, which led him to literally thousands of anonymous trysts throughout the years. The sole exception was Jim Trimble, his boyhood friend and lover, who died at Iwo Jima in 1945, and whose death Vidal never forgot. Perhaps his most startling and intimate confession was that his relationship with Howard Austen was never sexual, though they lived together for 44 years. "The City and The Pillar," 1948 shocked the public with its homosexual main character. He became known as a serious writer by the age of 21. After several of his novels did not receive acclaim, he began writing plays for television, motion pictures and stage. Among the best known of these works from the 1950s is "Visit to a Small Planet," first produced for television in 1955. "Myra Breckenridge," 1968 was a transsexual comedy parodying the cult of a Hollywood film star. "Myron," 1974, its sequel, is about the alternate self of Myra. As an essayist, Vidal has dealt with a variety of topics. His family and social contacts have provided him with a wealth of material, including his grandparents and his relation to Jackie Kennedy through his mother’s marriage to Hugh Auchincloss (who was also married to Jackie’s mother at one time). He has often been pointedly controversial, as when he supported legalization of street drugs. In politics, Vidal’s leanings are liberal. In 1960 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York. Between 1970 and 1972 he was co-chairman of the People’s Party. In 1982 he ran for U.S. Senate from California and came in second of nine candidates. In 1998, he published "The Smithsonian Institution." His series of historical novels that make up a biography of the nation, including "Washington, D.C.," will be complete with the seventh, "The Golden Age." On 03/22/1999 he was hospitalized in Italy for rectal hemorrhage. Glaucoma has slowed Vidal down somewhat in the ‘90s. He and male companion of more than 30 years, Howard Austin, split their time between the U.S. and a villa on the Amalfi coast in Italy. Vidal died on 31 July 2012, Hollywood Hills, California, of complications from pneumonia. Link to Wikipedia biography