Gore Vidal was an American author, screenwriter, and public intellectual known for his biting wit and iconoclastic views. He wrote extensively about sex, sexuality, politics, and religion.
Vidal was a man of many talents. A prolific nonfiction author, novelist, and essayist; a public intellectual, debater, and television personality; a political operative and two-time political candidate; a socialite and cultural icon; and an accomplished screenwriter and actor.
As a fiction author, Vidal penned 29 novels, including The City and the Pillar (1948), which caused controversy for its groundbreaking depiction of a same-sex male relationship, and Myra Breckinridge (1968), the first novel to include gender-affirmation surgery. He also wrote 30 nonfiction books, including Palimpsest: A Memoir (1995), The Last Empire: Essays (2001), and United States: Essays 1952–1992 (1993), for which he won a National Book Award. His short-form writing appeared in dozens of publications including the New York Review of Books, Esquire, The Nation, and the New Statesman. Vidal also published three short story collections. His work earned him the 1986 George Polk Award for Journalism and Harvard University’s Centennial Medal in 1998.
Vidal wrote, co-wrote, or had scripts adapted from his literary works for 48 films, shows, miniseries, and shorts, including the iconic Ben-Hur (1959), the raucously debauched Caligula (1979), and Dress Gray (1986), for which he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination. Vidal also wrote eight stage plays, including The Best Man (1960), which was nominated for Best Play at the Tonys. In 1985, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America.
Gore Vidal was more than just a writer. He performed in, voice acted for, narrated, or hosted 18 films, shows, and television specials, and appeared as himself in over 130 shows, programs, and broadcasts. Vidal was a frequent guest on political panel shows and took part in a number of high-profile political debates. As an outspoken advocate for sexual freedom and a fierce critic of American foreign policy during both the Cold War and later the War on Terror, Vidal often found himself in heated clashes with other pundits and writers, including famous feuds with William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer. Vidal also clashed with literary figures purely on grounds of ego and personal rivalry, such as his public quarrel with Truman Capote.
In his personal life, Vidal was a mainstay in high society circles, known for his wit, refined taste, and sexual fluidity. Vidal said repeatedly that he believed that everyone is bisexual, and was described by William F. Buckley as an “evangelist for bisexuality”. In a 1969 Esquire piece, Vidal wrote:
We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime ... despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word "natural", not normal.
Vidal was very open about the fact that he had relationships with men and women, including Howard Austen and the actress Joanne Woodward, however he was primarily viewed in the public eye as a gay man, which did not sit well with him.
His friend, Scotty Bowers, author of Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars (2013), has been very open about the fact that Vidal certainly had many sexual relationships with men.
Jason Epstein, Vidal's editor, said:
He wasn't unhappy about being gay. He was unhappy about being wrongly classified, pigeonholed. I think his main interest was men, but of course he slept with women — why wouldn't he? He'd sleep with anything. He was horny. For him, sex was like having lunch. He was certainly quick about it. He didn't linger.[1]
Vidal died at his home in Hollywood Hills at the age of 86. He was buried next to his long-time partner Howard Austen in Washington, DC.