Over the past few days I have had the pleasure of being transported by the extraordinary literary craftmanship of Gore Vidal. His most recent memoir, Point to Point Navigation follows in the tradition of his early memoir, culling his memory for events in American and world history that he and his...
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the...
It is often remarked upon that the sixth century B.C. contained an overflow of major figures in the history of world religion and philosophy. But what if these disparate persons were all linked by one figure, like an ancient six degrees of Kevin Bacon? In his sumptuous historical novel Creation, ...
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in t...
Gore Vidal, 87 yaşında öldüğünde, geriye yalnızca romanlarıyla anımsanacak bir yazar imgesi bırakmadı bize, bıraktığı şey Amerikan kültür endüstrisinin bir insanın çevresinde nasıl biçimlendiğine dair izlenebilecek güçlü ve sıra dışı bir portre idi. Gore Vidal bir romancı olduğu kadar aynı zaman...
I just finished working my way through the late Gore Vidal’s magnificent series of political history novels spanning American history from the Revolutionary War through the Kennedy administration. Having sampled one, I was unable to stop until I reached the end.tThe seven well-researched and artf...
Once upon a time a friend of mine included Gore Vidal among his list of closeted anarchists. I have held Vidal in high regard ever since, despite having read precious little from him.The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 is simply the one volume of his two dozen plus books of essays and non-fiction...
Peggy Guggenheim led a rich and interesting life. Although, to her regret, her formal education did not extend beyond high school, she more than compensated for that deficiency by reading widely, traveling extensively, and immersing herself in a culture of writers and artists, many of whose care...
A través del relato de Ciro Espitama, nieto de Zoroastro y criado en la corte persa del rey Darío, y embajador de un imperio que se extiende desde el Mediterráneo hasta la India, sale a la luz uno de los períodos más espectaculares de la historia de la humanidad, el momento en que surgen en Orien...
Determined to reinvent himself and explore new territory in his work, Gore Vidal published a provocative satirical work destined to be on a collision course with social conventions in 1968. Written as a diary, Myra Breckinridge, someone determined not to be possessed by any man, recounts her day ...
The centennial of the United States was celebrated with great fanfare--fireworks, exhibitions, pious calls to patriotism, and perhaps the most underhanded political machination in the country's history: the theft of the presidency from Samuel Tilden in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes. This was the G...
A man, a monster, an Emperor ... he murdered his grandfather, slept with his sister, made a Senator of his horse ... he terrorised Rome, made a brothel of the Senate, altered the very nature of the Empire...A novel in the grand manner, sexy, colourful, memorable ... the 'hero' one of history's mo...
When John Cave, a mortician by trade, appears on television to declare that death is infinitely preferable to life, he sparks a religious movement that quickly leaves Christianity and most of Islam in the dust. Aided by a relentless public-relations campaign and supported by a "theology" whipped ...
New-planted trees were in somewhat mangy leaf on either side of the chocolate-colored steps. The old Worth House was now a muddy hole in the ground. But Hearst, with his usual flair—or was it good luck?—had managed to buy the townhouse of that most fastidious and fashionable—if not the only fasti...
“If it amuses you, Charlie, we shall go to the Heights of Weehawk and I shall act out for you the duel of the century, when the infamous Burr slew the noble Hamilton, from behind a thistle—obviously a disparaging allusion to my small stature. Yet Hamilton was less than an inch taller than I thoug...
Since the death of Plon, André was now Prince d’Agrigente. Ten years older than Blaise, he looked as if he could have been Blaise’s father. The hair was white. The face was white; only the black eyes seemed alive in all that arctic bleakness. Like Plon, he had married money; unlike Plon he had ma...
Half a hundred years ago, I lived with my grandparents on a wooded hill not far from the ford. On summer days, my grandmother and I would walk down to the creek, careful to avoid the poison ivy that grew so luxuriously amid the crowded laurel. We would then walk beside the creek, looking out for ...
Suddenly his muscles contracted in fear and he awoke, sweat cold on his body. It took him several moments to bring the room into focus. His head throbbed and an ache behind his eyes made the bright sunlight unbearable. The room was small. Strips of moldering yellow plaster hung from the lathes. T...
The box office reported that we had beaten all previous standing-room records for the Met and the audience was in a frantic mood, drowning out the music with almost continual applause for the stars who danced, I must say, with more skill than usual. If the audience was disappointed that the cable...
The heart and mind of a nation stopped. But how many recall when and how they first became aware that one or another of the Bill of Rights had expired? For me, it was sometime in 1960 at a party in Beverly Hills that I got the bad news from the constitutionally cheery actor Cary Grant. He had jus...
she said, taking off her blouse. “Neither have I,” I said, and I made sure that the door to the compartment was securely locked. “What innocents we are,” she sighed, then: “I wish I had a drink.” “I think you’re an alcoholic.” I was very severe because Ellen Rhodes is an alcoholic, or at least we...
He suspected Brexton was the murderer and he had enough circumstantial evidence to turn the whole thing over to the District Attorney’s office but he knew that many a good minion of the law has hung himself with circumstantial evidence which a bright defense has then used to embarrass the prosecu...