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Gore Vidal: A Biography
Novelist, cultural critic, essayist, historian, comic satirist, image maker, provocateur, actor, homosexual, bisexual...controversial, brilliant, confrontational, unflinching, cynical, idealistic...finding words to describe Gore Vidal is never difficult. And yet, an accurate picture of this multifaceted chameleon has eluded us until now. Here, at last, is a vastly entertaining biography of an American icon.
From his Washington childhood, a world of high political and social connections and domestic turmoil, to his Exeter education and U.S. Army experiences; from his Hollywood and television career to his literary life as a novelist, playwright, and essayist; from his friendships and feuds with Tennessee Williams, Anaïs Nin, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and William Buckley to his exploration of homosexuality and celebration of bisexuality; from his cool satirical analyses of "the rich, the famous and the powerful" to his projection of himself onto the national stage of television talk shows and political ambition, Gore Vidal has been both participant in and spectator at the centers of American power. No other twentieth-century figure has moved so easily and confidently, and had such a profound effect, in the disparate worlds of literature, drama, film, politics, historical debate, and the culture wars.
Fred Kaplan enjoyed complete access to Vidal's papers, letters, and private photographs, as well as television and newsreel footage, but was guaranteed a free hand by Vidal to write as he saw fit. The result is a lively, witty, and textured life of a literary colossus.
From his Washington childhood, a world of high political and social connections and domestic turmoil, to his Exeter education and U.S. Army experiences; from his Hollywood and television career to his literary life as a novelist, playwright, and essayist; from his friendships and feuds with Tennessee Williams, Anaïs Nin, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and William Buckley to his exploration of homosexuality and celebration of bisexuality; from his cool satirical analyses of "the rich, the famous and the powerful" to his projection of himself onto the national stage of television talk shows and political ambition, Gore Vidal has been both participant in and spectator at the centers of American power. No other twentieth-century figure has moved so easily and confidently, and had such a profound effect, in the disparate worlds of literature, drama, film, politics, historical debate, and the culture wars.
Fred Kaplan enjoyed complete access to Vidal's papers, letters, and private photographs, as well as television and newsreel footage, but was guaranteed a free hand by Vidal to write as he saw fit. The result is a lively, witty, and textured life of a literary colossus.
864 pages, Hardcover
Published October 12, 1999
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264 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 2, 2010
On the back cover of Fred Kaplan's biography of Gore Vidal, there is a photo of Vidal standing with Tennessee Williams and John F. Kennedy. This is worth noting because it illustrates the two sides of the controversial man: literary icon and keen observer of political power. Vidal was and is a very difficult person to write about because he has so many sides: political idealist and bitter cynic, literary elitist and celebrity novelist, a peace activist with a highly pugnacious personality. Kaplan does an excellent job of showing Vidal as all these things and more. This is simply one of the best biographies I've ever read. Highly detailed, but never boring, it touches on all the major friendships and feuds (Capote, Mailer, Buckley) that even people only casually familiar with Vidal know about. Kaplan deserves praise for not vilifying those people with whom Vidal feuded; many biographers would simply have said that Vidal was completely in the right, whereas Kaplan gives us balanced portraits of complicated people and situations. One of the reasons this biography is such a joy is it gives the reader ample demonstration of Vidal's scintillating wit and always illuminating social observation/criticism. Even those who disagree strongly with Vidal can find much to like here; as Martin Amis once said of Vidal, "Even his blind spots are illuminating." Overall, this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the man often considered America's greatest living man of letters.
March 2, 2020
A quote from The Observer, an interview with Vidal in 2007 – I am using it as a potted review of this book.
““The catalogue raisonné of Vidal's remarkable meetings is a mini-history of Anglo-American literature and politics, from EM Forster and Eleanor Roosevelt to Rupert Everett and Hillary Clinton. 'The best thing about being Anglophone,' he observes, elegiacally, 'is that you have two countries.' As a young man, he encountered Harold Acton, Samuel Barber, Cecil Beaton, Albert Camus, Chips Channon, James Dean, William Faulkner, Federico Fellini, Greta Garbo, Evelyn Waugh (whom he describes as 'a drunken social climber') and George Santayana. The enfant terrible of the transatlantic literary scene, he partied with Isherwood, slept with Kerouac, dined with Auden, travelled with Tennessee Williams ('the Bird') and enjoyed a strange, platonic friendship with Anais Nin.
The Man Who Knew Everyone was especially successful in postwar London. Vidal's English connection, a source of pride and gratification, and well-represented by the signed photographs surrounding him in Hollywood, included Princess Margaret, Kenneth Tynan, Alec Guinness and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne. It is a mark of his ease at this altitude, possibly as the perfect guest and also as a formidably entertaining wit, that he is emphatically neither a name dropper nor a snob. What people liked about Vidal, I suspect, was his exquisite manners, his contrarian mind and the exhilarating range of his gifts. The attraction was mutual: they were as much drawn to him as he to them.””
As someone who reads one biography which leads to another biography and so on, many of the names above are familiar to me as I have read biographies of Hillary Clinton, Harold Acton, Cecil Beaton, Chips Channon, James Dean, Kenneth Tynan, Alec Guinness, Duke and Duchess of Windsor and, of course, the diaries of Anais Nin. He also knew Amelia Earhart and so very many others I have read. It was a pleasure to meet them all again gathered together passing through Gore Vidal’s life like a cat’s cradle. The book was 850 pages of tiny print and slow going. Not boring but also not exciting, just interesting enough to keep going but dull enough to keep putting it down time after time to go off and do things like dishes. This is a major, very very detailed, not at all salacious look at Gore Vidal’s life and a must read for any true fan.
““The catalogue raisonné of Vidal's remarkable meetings is a mini-history of Anglo-American literature and politics, from EM Forster and Eleanor Roosevelt to Rupert Everett and Hillary Clinton. 'The best thing about being Anglophone,' he observes, elegiacally, 'is that you have two countries.' As a young man, he encountered Harold Acton, Samuel Barber, Cecil Beaton, Albert Camus, Chips Channon, James Dean, William Faulkner, Federico Fellini, Greta Garbo, Evelyn Waugh (whom he describes as 'a drunken social climber') and George Santayana. The enfant terrible of the transatlantic literary scene, he partied with Isherwood, slept with Kerouac, dined with Auden, travelled with Tennessee Williams ('the Bird') and enjoyed a strange, platonic friendship with Anais Nin.
The Man Who Knew Everyone was especially successful in postwar London. Vidal's English connection, a source of pride and gratification, and well-represented by the signed photographs surrounding him in Hollywood, included Princess Margaret, Kenneth Tynan, Alec Guinness and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne. It is a mark of his ease at this altitude, possibly as the perfect guest and also as a formidably entertaining wit, that he is emphatically neither a name dropper nor a snob. What people liked about Vidal, I suspect, was his exquisite manners, his contrarian mind and the exhilarating range of his gifts. The attraction was mutual: they were as much drawn to him as he to them.””
As someone who reads one biography which leads to another biography and so on, many of the names above are familiar to me as I have read biographies of Hillary Clinton, Harold Acton, Cecil Beaton, Chips Channon, James Dean, Kenneth Tynan, Alec Guinness, Duke and Duchess of Windsor and, of course, the diaries of Anais Nin. He also knew Amelia Earhart and so very many others I have read. It was a pleasure to meet them all again gathered together passing through Gore Vidal’s life like a cat’s cradle. The book was 850 pages of tiny print and slow going. Not boring but also not exciting, just interesting enough to keep going but dull enough to keep putting it down time after time to go off and do things like dishes. This is a major, very very detailed, not at all salacious look at Gore Vidal’s life and a must read for any true fan.
July 2, 2024
Dull biography of an interesting man. You can dislike Vidal (and a lot of people did) or think he was a bit of a liar and fake, but he was never dull. But somehow Kaplan makes him so.
Partly its because Kaplan fawns over Vidal, takes his side in everything, and never points out the obvious: Namely that Vidal never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Or shrink from "shading the truth" when attacking someone he was feuding with. You'd never know from reading Kaplan that Vidal lied about Mailer, Buckley, Capote, Reagan, Nixon, Heston, Jackie O, JFK, etc. etc.
To me that was part of Vidal's charm. But Kaplan just tells the story "straight". The other problem is that Kaplan's isn't an exciting writer and has no real style. Its a boring vanilla bio of someone who was the exact opposite.
Partly its because Kaplan fawns over Vidal, takes his side in everything, and never points out the obvious: Namely that Vidal never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Or shrink from "shading the truth" when attacking someone he was feuding with. You'd never know from reading Kaplan that Vidal lied about Mailer, Buckley, Capote, Reagan, Nixon, Heston, Jackie O, JFK, etc. etc.
To me that was part of Vidal's charm. But Kaplan just tells the story "straight". The other problem is that Kaplan's isn't an exciting writer and has no real style. Its a boring vanilla bio of someone who was the exact opposite.
October 12, 2015
This fascinating lengthy account of the famous fiction and essay writer is compelling for its coverage of Vidal's family history, his own early success as a writer while enduring an abusive alcoholic mother; his contradictory views on homosexuality, including his own, his contentious battles with colleagues turned nemeses (authors Truman Capote and Norman Mailer), and his legal battles with the odious William F. Buckley. Vidal's private and public lives are given a thorough accounting up to his later years in Italy.
March 4, 2009
Gore Vidal is one of my favorite authors. His historical novels should be mandatory reading for all high schoolers. For that reason alone, I would be fascinated with this book, but also we have an inside look into the enfant terribles of the 50s, who came out of the war years and took the literary establishment by the horns. It's worth reading for the politics and social history of of the 60s and 70s.
November 14, 2018
Very well written and researched.
I came to the book from the "Best of Enemies" documentary where the book's author is interviewed.
I came to the book from the "Best of Enemies" documentary where the book's author is interviewed.
March 3, 2020
I loved this book. Gore Vidal was a very interesting man. Now I'm reading The Essential Gore Vidal also by Fred Kaplan.
August 29, 2021
Vidal knew everybody and had sex with many of them.
July 25, 2023
At around 800 pages, it's somewhat heavy on detail and gossip. I don't need to know what Vidal paid for an apartment in the 1950s. But if you're a Vidal enthusiast, as I am, it's essential reading.
May 28, 2013
Well-written book and definitely very interesting as the life of Gore Vidal is wonderfully full of people who have left or leave a mark on the world. In addition, the writer has been able to capture several facets of both the political scientist and the writer; for me also has been very interesting the historical event that this book allowed me to discover as there were many things that I did not know about the history of the fifties, sixties and seventies especially regarding the United States of America.
Libro ben scritto e decisamente molto interessante in quanto la vita di Gore Vidal é meravigliosamente piena di gente che ha lasciato o lascia un segno nel mondo. Inoltre lo scrittore é stato in grado di cogliere parecchie sfaccettature sia dello scrittore che del politologo ed é stata molto interessante la ricostruzione storica che mi ha permesso di scoprire molte cose che non sapevo della storia degli anni cinquanta, sessanta e settanta specialmente per quanto riguarda gli Stati Uniti d'America.
Libro ben scritto e decisamente molto interessante in quanto la vita di Gore Vidal é meravigliosamente piena di gente che ha lasciato o lascia un segno nel mondo. Inoltre lo scrittore é stato in grado di cogliere parecchie sfaccettature sia dello scrittore che del politologo ed é stata molto interessante la ricostruzione storica che mi ha permesso di scoprire molte cose che non sapevo della storia degli anni cinquanta, sessanta e settanta specialmente per quanto riguarda gli Stati Uniti d'America.
February 19, 2014
As good a biography as we are ever likely to get on this novelist-essayist-provocateur-historian-gadfly-raconteur-pundit. Kaplan straightened me out on a few details: for instance, I'd always assumed Vidal wrote his excellent play The Best Man after his unsuccessful congressional bid, when it actually came after. I would have preferred a little more analysis of the novels, but Kaplan's strong suit is winnowing out interesting details and giving persuasive thumbnail portraits of the people and situations that formed Vidal's dazzling, hugely productive life. It'd be nice if other writers went on from here, but Kaplan's meticulous, highly readable chronicle is an excellent start.
June 6, 2013
One of my favorite authors-and such an amazing biography! In depth, unapologetic, fascinating and an effortless read. He was such an amazing man-in all aspects of his careers and life.
April 11, 2017
Gore Vidal was many things: novelist, playwright, movie screenwriter in Hollywood, political commentator, lover, and good friend. He wrote historical fiction as well as literary "inventions," co-wrote the movie "Ben-Hur," wrote Broadway plays, and was a frequent guest on television talk shows like the Dick Cavett show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This is one of the best biographies I've ever read. I wanted specifically to hear about Gore's novels, but he was much, much more, and very intelligent.
He was brave, openly gay, and he insisted that he be treated well, despite the prejudices during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Called a "queer" on national television by William F. Buckley, he faced that slur and others, always bouncing back, even when hurt, always very clear-minded and courageous. Friends included Tennessee Williams, Princess Margaret, Lady Montagu, Johnny Carson, Paul Newman, Christopher Isherwood, Anais Nin, Joanne Woodward, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and President John F. Kennedy. Enemies included Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. But even these people he was always fair-minded towards. What a great reading experience, five stars!
He was brave, openly gay, and he insisted that he be treated well, despite the prejudices during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Called a "queer" on national television by William F. Buckley, he faced that slur and others, always bouncing back, even when hurt, always very clear-minded and courageous. Friends included Tennessee Williams, Princess Margaret, Lady Montagu, Johnny Carson, Paul Newman, Christopher Isherwood, Anais Nin, Joanne Woodward, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and President John F. Kennedy. Enemies included Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. But even these people he was always fair-minded towards. What a great reading experience, five stars!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews