HomeGroupsTalkZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
Author photo. Gore Vidal at the Union Square Barnes & Noble to be interviewed by Leonard Lopate to discuss his life and his photographic memoir, Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare by David Shankbone

Gore Vidal at the Union Square Barnes & Noble to be interviewed by Leonard Lopate to discuss his life and his photographic memoir, Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare by David Shankbone

MembersReviewsPopularityRatingFavorited   Events   
29,835 (41,011)639636 (3.76)117
Gore Vidal was born Eugene Luther Gore Vidal Jr. on October 3, 1925 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He did not go to college but attended St. Albans School in Washington and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1943. He enlisted in the Army, where he became first mate on a freight supply ship in the Aleutian Islands. His first novel, Williwaw, was published in 1946 when he was twenty-one years old and working as an associate editor at the publishing company E. P. Dutton. The City and the Pillar was about a handsome, athletic young Virginia man who gradually discovers that he is homosexual, which caused controversy in the publishing world. The New York Times refused to advertise the novel and gave a negative review of it and future novels. He had such trouble getting subsequent novels reviewed that he turned to writing mysteries under the pseudonym Edgar Box and then gave up novel-writing altogether for a time. Once he moved to Hollywood, he wrote television dramas, screenplays, and plays. His films included I Accuse, Suddenly Last Summer with Tennessee Williams, Is Paris Burning? with Francis Ford Coppola, and Ben-Hur. His most successful play was The Best Man, which he also adapted into a film. He started writing novels again in the 1960's including Julian, Washington, D.C., Myra Breckenridge, Burr, Myron, 1876, Lincoln, Hollywood, Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal, and The Golden Age. He also published two collections of essays entitled The Second American Revolution, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism in 1982 and United States: Essays 1952-1992. In 2009, he received the National Book Awards lifetime achievement award. He died from complications of pneumonia on July 31, 2012 at the age of 86. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Lincoln… (more)
Lincoln 2,503 copies, 41 reviews
Burr 2,271 copies, 51 reviews
Julian 1,781 copies, 34 reviews
Creation 1,506 copies, 23 reviews
Empire 1,237 copies, 12 reviews
1876 1,220 copies, 16 reviews
Palimpsest: A Memoir 1,046 copies, 14 reviews
Myra Breckinridge 925 copies, 23 reviews
Washington, D.C. 858 copies, 10 reviews
Hollywood 801 copies, 9 reviews
The Golden Age 725 copies, 10 reviews
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace 700 copies, 7 reviews
United States: Essays 1952-1992 694 copies, 8 reviews
Kalki 604 copies, 9 reviews
The City and the Pillar {revised} 586 copies, 9 reviews
Messiah 467 copies, 9 reviews
Myra Breckinridge [and] Myron 449 copies, 4 reviews
The Smithsonian Institution 427 copies, 3 reviews
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 393 copies, 4 reviews
Duluth 380 copies, 8 reviews
Myron 246 copies, 6 reviews
The Judgment of Paris 216 copies, 6 reviews
The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal 196 copies, 3 reviews
A Search for the King 184 copies, 3 reviews
At Home: Essays 1982-1988 171 copies, 1 review
Williwaw 167 copies, 7 reviews
Two Sisters 150 copies, 3 reviews
Death in the Fifth Position (Author) 146 copies, 4 reviews
A Thirsty Evil 134 copies, 2 reviews
Screening History 126 copies, 1 review
The Impossible H. L. Mencken (Foreword) 121 copies, 1 review
Death Likes It Hot 104 copies, 3 reviews
Death Before Bedtime 99 copies, 4 reviews
Vidal in Venice 93 copies
The Best Man [Play] 88 copies, 2 reviews
Visit to a Small Planet 87 copies, 2 reviews
Deadly Sins (Contributor) 81 copies
Dark Green, Bright Red 78 copies, 2 reviews
Suddenly, Last Summer [1959 film] (Screenwriter) 71 copies, 3 reviews
Virgin Islands 66 copies
An Evening with Richard Nixon 66 copies, 1 review
Armageddon? Essays 1983-1987 65 copies, 1 review
In a Yellow Wood 52 copies, 1 review
Best Television Plays 44 copies, 1 review
Rocking the boat 26 copies, 1 review
Myra Breckinridge [1970 film] (Screenwriter) 22 copies
The Sicilian [1987 film] (Writer) 15 copies
Creación II 10 copies
Creación I 8 copies
Cry Shame! 8 copies
The Best Man [1964 film] (Screenwriter) 4 copies
Three Plays 2 copies
Lincoln T3 1 copy
Paolo 1 copy
The Robin {short story} 1 copy, 1 review
Tarzan of the Apes (Introduction, some editions) 4,670 copies, 116 reviews
The Golden Bowl (Foreword, some editions; Introduction, some editions) 2,620 copies, 29 reviews
The Art of the Personal Essay (Contributor) 1,307 copies, 8 reviews
Collected Stories (Introduction, some editions) 489 copies, 3 reviews
Collected Stories, 1939–1976 (Introduction) 343 copies, 2 reviews
Gattaca [1997 film] (Actor) 334 copies, 7 reviews
The Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction (Contributor) 318 copies
The Best American Essays 2002 (Contributor) 216 copies, 1 review
Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (Foreword, some editions) 209 copies, 2 reviews
Atheism: A Reader (Contributor) 179 copies, 3 reviews
Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (Foreword, some editions) 169 copies, 3 reviews
Selected Speeches and Writings (Introduction) 167 copies
XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits (Introduction) 154 copies
Granta 32: History (Contributor) 148 copies, 2 reviews
The Best American Essays 1992 (Contributor) 131 copies
The Christopher Street reader (Contributor) 117 copies
Confessions of an Art Addict (Foreword, some editions) 112 copies, 1 review
Caligula [1979 film] (Screenwriter) 86 copies, 1 review
The Celluloid Closet [1995 film] (Self) 86 copies, 4 reviews
Where Joy Resides: A Christopher Isherwood Reader (Introduction) 76 copies, 1 review
India in Mind (Contributor) 75 copies, 2 reviews
Roma [1972 film] 72 copies, 1 review
All Trivia: A Collection of Reflections & Aphorisms (Foreword, some editions) 68 copies, 1 review
The Best American Essays 1986 (Contributor) 68 copies, 1 review
The Edith Wharton omnibus (Introduction) 65 copies, 3 reviews
Gay Sunshine Interviews. Vol. 1 (Interviewee) 59 copies
10 Short Plays (Contributor) 59 copies
Angels on Toast / Wicked Pavilion / Golden Spur (Introduction, some editions) 54 copies
Why We Fight [2005 film] (Contributor) 52 copies, 2 reviews
With Honors [1994 film] (Actor) 50 copies
Best American Plays: Fifth Series, 1957-1963 (Contributor) 41 copies, 1 review
The Signet Book of Short Plays (Contributor) 27 copies
A Bush & Botox World (Foreword) 18 copies
The Left Handed Gun [1958 film] (Original play) 17 copies

Top members (books)

Member favorites

19th century (127) 20th century (407) adventure (326) Africa (133) American (405) American fiction (202) American history (288) American literature (751) anthology (312) autobiography (160) biography (380) classic (206) classics (204) DVD (135) essays (1,108) fantasy (264) fiction (4,400) first edition (133) gay (256) Gore Vidal (335) hardcover (140) historical (231) historical fiction (1,476) historical novel (178) history (825) literary criticism (142) literature (691) memoir (268) non-fiction (644) novel (962) politics (633) read (287) religion (145) science fiction (206) short stories (255) Tarzan (190) to-read (1,142) unread (239) USA (426) Vidal (149)

Member ratings

Average: (3.76)
0.5 18
1 89
1.5 15
2 340
2.5 111
3 1300
3.5 365
4 2061
4.5 199
5 1212

Author pictures (8)

  

(see all 8 author pictures)

Improve this author

Combine/separate works

Author division

Gore Vidal is currently considered a "single author." If one or more works are by a distinct, homonymous authors, go ahead and split the author.

Includes

Gore Vidal is composed of 27 names. You can examine and separate out names.

Combine with…

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 188,258,410 books! | Top bar: Always visible