Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal
by Jay Parini
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Description
"The life of Gore Vidal was an amazingly full one: full of colorful incident, famous people, and lasting achievements that calls out for careful evocation and examination. Jay Parini crafts Vidal's life into [a] ... story that puts the experience of one of the great American figures of the postwar era into context; introduces the author and his works to a generation who may not know him; and looks behind the scenes at the man and his work in ways never possible before his death"--Amazon.com.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Wonderful look into the life Gore Vidal, with passages told to the author by Vidal along with insight from others.
Very disappointed in this biography. Mostly about his sexual exploits. He was not a nice man.
Not as good as Parini's Frost bio.
Not as good as Parini's Frost bio.
Ratings
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Author Information
73+ Works 3,144 Members
Jay Parini was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania in 1948. In 1970 he graduated from Lafayette College and he received a doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 1975. Before becoming a professor of Engliah and Creative Writing at Vermont's Middlebury College in 1982, Parini taught at Dartmouth College. Parini writes poetry, novels, show more biographies, and criticism, and he has published numerous reviews and essays in major journals and newspapers. He co-founded the New England Review in 1976. In 1995, he was appointed literary executor for author Gore Vidal. A film version of The Last Station, his 1990 novel, was released in 2009. Parini's novel, One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Alternate titles
- Every time a friend succeeds something inside me dies
- Original publication date
- 2015
- People/Characters
- Gore Vidal
- Dedication
- For Devon, always
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PS3543 .I26 .Z85 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 142
- Popularity
- 229,733
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 2
