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At Home: Essays 1982-1988
Written by 'America's finest essayist' (New Statesman, At Home
303 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Gore Vidal
240 books1,930 followersGore Vidal was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, playwright and political commentator known for his sharp wit, provocative opinions and criticism of American society. Raised in Washington, D.C., he attended several preparatory schools before graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, a Democratic senator from Oklahoma, profoundly influenced his early interest in politics. During World War II, Vidal served in the United States Army and worked aboard a supply ship in the Aleutian Islands. His experiences inspired his first novel, Williwaw (1946), published shortly after his military service.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 25, 2012
I had been looking for another Gore Vidal book to read ever since we saw him at the 2006 L.A. Festival of Books. A friend of mine read Lincoln and thought I would like it. But when I saw the size of it, I said no way. I can read ten books in the time it would take me to read Lincoln; it would take me five months to read Lincoln. I will never read that book. I’ll go watch the documentary instead. At Home is short, sweet and he writes affectionately about Tennessee Williams who I absolutely love.
December 17, 2020
Some say Vidal was at his best as a reviewer and essayist. I agree. Reading these is rather like sitting down to comfortable dinner with a very interesting person, who knows everybody, and read everything, and listening to them dish the dirt. It's great fun, and dare I say educational.
June 12, 2013
The only thing I've read by Vidal, and I'm anxious to get some more of his essays -- which I hear are superior to his novels. In any case, he is a great stylist and an exuberant satirist: "[Calvino] knew perfectly well what a mephitic kindergarten our English departments have become..." --'Mephitic kindergarten'!
I skipped three or four of the essays that didn't interest me, and this book lends itself well to selective reading. There is no "numinous theme", as Vidal puts it.
I especially liked the literary criticism and political essays, the latter enumerating and proposing sensible solutions (i.e. an eight-week limit on presidential campaigns) to national problems that, incredibly, prevail today almost exactly as he described them thirty years ago.
I skipped three or four of the essays that didn't interest me, and this book lends itself well to selective reading. There is no "numinous theme", as Vidal puts it.
I especially liked the literary criticism and political essays, the latter enumerating and proposing sensible solutions (i.e. an eight-week limit on presidential campaigns) to national problems that, incredibly, prevail today almost exactly as he described them thirty years ago.
August 29, 2011
If Alan Hollinghurst's queasy, biographer character (The Stranger's Child) was given a body of work, it might be this. Vidal is more anxious than sure -- I wish he didn't invoke Edmund Wilson so often. I'm grateful for the EW quotes but it makes Vidal unreadable in comparison. But, fine, read Vidal for his rants. I love him most on Henry James, education ("when we were all Greek and Latined") and the teacherly peril modern American novelists teeter on in terms of subject.
October 21, 2012
A book to pick up and sample rather than read in one sitting. He certainly comes out with memorable lines. About Reagan, 'He's not stupid at all.He's ignorant, which is another thing.' Vidal delights with pithy phrases on many subjects, but his mannered style is beginning to feel dated. Could it be about to belong to that vast body of literature which is often prescribed but seldom read? But he is highly opinionated, which is fun, and I will enjoy dipping into these essays for years to come
June 24, 2014
Gore Vidal's essays provoke and inform. This book is worth its price for the essay on Nixon's foreign policy alone. The two essays on Henry James are also jewels, especially the one on "The Golden Bowl." Like Voltaire, Vidal taught with wit, rather than a sledgehammer.
June 11, 2008
I can't say I liked all of his essays, but he writes so beautifully that it's almost beside the point.
August 21, 2011
Insightful, hilarious, occasionally bordering on condescension.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews