Gore Vidal: A Biography - Hardcover

Kaplan, Fred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385477031 ISBN 13: 9780385477031

Publisher: Doubleday, 1999

Synopsis

A compelling new biography of one of America's most enigmatic writers recalls a controversial life lived in the literary arts, and on the cusp of social acceptability, as an outspoken novelist, culture critic, essayist, historian, comic, satirist, actor, homosexual, and a vocal critic of American foreign and domestic policy. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Veteran biographer Fred Kaplan, praised for his evocative portraits of 19th-century masters like Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle, turns with aplomb to a contemporary writer in this lengthy yet cogent work. Indeed, the multi-faceted Gore Vidal, born in 1925 but positively Victorian in the breadth of his interests and achievements, is fortunate to have a biographer as wide- ranging as Kaplan. He traces the familial roots of Vidal's lifelong political engagement (his maternal grandfather was a US senator) and lucidly assesses his non-fiction as well as best-selling novels like Washington DC and Burr. This reminds readers that Vidal has been for decades an astute, sardonic observer of the American scene. His personal relations are depicted frankly but briskly, as befits a staunch defender of homosexual rights, open about his own orientation and who refuses to be pigeonholed as a gay writer. The famous feuds with William Buckley, Norman Mailer and Truman Capote get enjoyably full treatment, properly situated in the context of larger issues. If the inner workings of Vidal's psyche remain ultimately elusive despite Kaplan's access as authorised biographer to thousands of unpublished letters that too seems right for someone of whom a friend once remarked, "I've always thought that Gore is a man without an unconscious." --Wendy Smith

Review:

"Fascinating--. Vidal's life is so full of incident and celebrity, so much at the center of power and glamour, Kaplan's book is a pageant of entertaining stories."--"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" "Kaplan must be commended...a splendid job."--"San Francisco Chronicle" "An invaluable font of research."--"The Washington Post"

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385477031
• ISBN 13: 9780385477031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 850