author
Gore Vidal
1925–2012
A sharp, stylish voice in American letters, he moved easily between novels, essays, plays, and screenwriting while taking aim at politics, history, and the myths the United States tells about itself. His work is known for its wit, candor, and refusal to play polite.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born at West Point, New York, in 1925, Gore Vidal became one of the best-known American writers and public intellectuals of the postwar era. He wrote across genres with unusual ease, publishing novels, essay collections, plays, and screenplays, and he built a reputation for elegant prose and a cool, cutting sense of humor.
His fiction ranged widely, from early novels to the historical work that made him especially famous, including Julian, Burr, Lincoln, and 1876. He also drew major attention for essays on American politics and culture, and for his frequent appearances in public debate, where his wit and combative style made him a memorable commentator as well as a literary figure.
Vidal died in Los Angeles in 2012 at age 86. He remains an important and often provocative presence in modern American writing, admired for the breadth of his work and for the fearless way he challenged convention.