Gore Vidal Reader - Hardcover

Vidal, Gore

 
9780679457466: Gore Vidal Reader

Synopsis

A definitive anthology of the writings of Gore Vidal combines a selection of his most famous essays, previously unpublished letters, short stories, all of Myra Breckenridge, and excerpts from such novels as Julian, Burr, Lincoln, and others. 25,000 first printing.

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About the Author

Gore Vidal was born in 1925 at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His first novel, Williwaw, appeared in the spring of 1946, when he was nineteen years old and just out of the Army. Since then he has written twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over two hundred essays, and a memoir.

Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His books include Thomas Carlyle: A Biography; Charles Dickens: A Biography; and Henry James: The Imagination of a Genius.

From the Inside Flap

d size of Gore Vidal's literary achievement is remarkable. He is a master of the historical novel, in which he has explored American history, ancient history, and the history of religion. He has developed his own style of science fiction combined with satire, and in the books he refers to as his "inventions" he writes cautionary tales about sex, politics, art, and philosophy. He is at once a contrarian, a wise man, and a romantic. He is also wickedly funny, and often outrageous. All of these qualities are evident in his essays, which deal with things about which he feels passionately.

He writes about other writers--Tennessee Williams, Henry James, Montaigne, Edmund Wilson--and about public life, and his own life, which has been complicated and rich. This collection (the only single volume that includes both Vidal's fiction and his essays) contains two complete long works--Myra Breckinridge, perhaps his most famous novel, and The Best Man, a play about the American presidency. Th

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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780349112671: The Essential Gore Vidal

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0349112673 ISBN 13:  9780349112671
Publisher: Abacus, 2000
Softcover