|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| biography |
classifications |
major works |
cross references |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
biography
| name: |
Vidal, (Eugene Luther) Gore
|
| |
pseudonym Edgar Box
|
pronunciation:
[vidal]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1925– )
|
| biography:
| Writer, born in West Point, New York, USA. He studied at Exeter Academy, and served in the army during World War 2. His novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), was one of the first serious works by an American to deal explicitly with homosexuals. He wrote a number of successful novels, plays, short stories, books of literary criticism, and essays, and, under his pseudonym, mystery novels. He ran unsuccessfully for the US House of Representatives (1960) and the US Senate (1982), an experience he drew on for his play, The Best Man (1960). Said to have originated the idea of the Peace Corps, he was an often vitriolic commentator on the American political and social scene. Such fictional works as Myra Breckenridge (1968) display his capacity for irreverent wit, while in a semi-fictional work such as Lincoln (1984), and in his prolific output of reviews and essays, he displays the vast range of his knowledge alongside his generally disaffected attitudes toward American society. Among his later novels are Live From Golgotha (1992) and The Smithsonian Institution (1999). |
|
|
|
|
