Gore Vidal  (1925-2012)

Williwaw (Gore Vidal) - Panther Books Ltd. - (1946, 1965) - 191 pages

This first novel by Gore Vidal was written during World War II in 1944 when Vidal was 19 years old.  Vidal was serving as a warrant officer on a Dutch Harbor patrol boat in the Aleutian Islands.  The story is not about combat.  A "williwaw" is a sudden, hurricane-like storm that lasts for a short period (two days in the book) along the northern Pacific coast of Alaska.  The small patrol vessel is surprised by a williwaw during a two-day trip from Dutch Harbor to Arunga.  Although Vidal later explained that the story is complete fiction and that he never encountered a williwaw, his description of events puts the reader right in the middle of the storm.  The secondary story here is about one of the sad love triangles that occurred numerous times between members of the military and one woman during wartime.  Considering the shortage of available women in any port during WWII, these scenes must have played over and over again.  In this short novel, Vidal effectively develops the characters of many men he probably met during that time.  This first published effort fore-shadowed the works of Vidal who became one of the greatest American writers. [JAM 5/22/2019]

"Williwaw is well told, the picture of man and events is vividly engrossing." [Eleanor Roosevelt - New York World Telegram 1947]

In a Yellow Wood - E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc. - 1947 - 216 pages

Vidal went to work for a publisher after his time in service.  This novel is about a young man (Robert Holton) who is working in an office after his time in service.  The story is about one day in Mr. Holton's life.  But, it is a very important day.  It is the day when he makes a decision about the future of his life (Frost's "Yellow Wood").  For Vidal, the transition came early in his life.  He joined the army instead of going to college.  He had already had two novels published by the age of 22.  He thrived with one occupation: writer for his entire life.  He loved "the novel" and the written word.  He continued to write and publish for over 65 years.  There are many coincidences in this transition day for Holton.  But such is the essence of the novel when such themes can be pursued in a single volume.  This is a book about the lives of young men and women in the 1940s.  [JAM 1/20/2020]

The City and the Pillar - E.P. Dutton & Co./Ballantine Books - (1948/1979) - 199 pages

At a time when most of our homosexuals were "in the closet" and many others were being persecuted or prosecuted for their behavior, Vidal wrote this semi-autobiographical novel about a young, confused homosexual man and the people he knew in his early twenties.  Two of the characters (Jim & Sullivan) are based on Gore Vidal as a young man and as an established author, respectively.  A third character (Bob Ford) is certainly also based on Vidal's young friend, James Trimble who died in World War II (1945).  For all of its notoriety, there is really not much that happens in this story.  It is basically about the meanderings of a young man in search of meaning in his life.  He met people.  He left people.  And then he returned to many of them with unsatisfactory results.  In my opinion, the young Vidal felt that he had to write this story to be true to himself.  And, Gore Vidal was always a fearless truth-teller.  [JAM 2/14/2020]

The Season of Comfort - E.P. Dutton & Co. - 1949 - 253 pages

Eighteen years before his "Narratives of Empire" series, author Vidal wrote this book about the family of Vice-President "William Hawkins" who served from 1925 to 1929 with President Calvin Coolidge.  The actual VP was Charles G. Dawes but that did not matter in Vidal's first attempt at political fiction.  The story follows three generations of the Hawkins family that closely mirrors the actual experiences of the Gore family.  Substitute VP Hawkins with Vidal's actual maternal grandfather, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore and everything falls in line.  The protagonist (Grandson Bill Hawkins) was a painter (not a writer) who was attracted to a young man in prep school (Jimmie) and joined the military during World War II instead of going to college.  However, the primary conflict in the book is the interaction between Bill Hawkins and over-bearing mother, Charlotte.  Their disputes culminate in a 12-page parallel thought/dialog exchange that represents their final personality splits.  It was hard to tell where Vidal was going with this volume until the young Hawkins started to resemble a young Eugene Luthor (Gore) Vidal.  After reading the modern works of this great author, it is interesting to see how he got there.  Gore Vidal thought that he was one of the last great novelists.  I agree.  [JAM 3/20/2020]

A Search for the King - E.P. Dutton & Co./Ballantine Books - (1950/1978) - 196 pages

Author Vidal combined history with 12th century mythology to tell the story of King Richard I (Lionheart) on crusade through the eyes of his troubadour, Blondel.  The adventure includes kings, dukes, knights, robbers and creatures: dragons, unicorns, giants, werewolves, and vampires encountered during a perilous trip across feudal Europe.  During the mid-19th century it was common for publishers to gather favorable reviews of an author's previous book and place them on the dust jacket of his subsequent book.  [JAM 5/9/2020]  Following are reviews for this novel that were included with Dark Green, Bright Red:

"Here Mr. Vidal is at his best ... as projector of a myth as old as the Grail legend, the myth of the questing hero."  The Nation

"It is a little epic written in prose of crystal clarity."  N.Y. World-Telegram & Sun

"... in a chaste, spare, intelligent and essentially pictorial style which frequently achieves a vividness equal to that of the best of the imagist poets."  Edward Wagenknecht, Chucago Tribune

"Gore Vidal proves again that he is a master stylist."  Washington Star

"There are magnificent passages in the novel which recreate the medieval  world."  Boston Herald

"Blondel's mainstay in life is his overwhelming devotion to his king.  This devotion dominates the story and is repeated to some extent in the affectionate friendship between Blondel and his page, Karl.  The others - the silly courtiers and enraptured women - form a playful and grotesque frieze about this central reality.  Mr. Vidal's writing is lucid and pleasant and persuasive, as one might imagine one of Blondel's ballads would be,"  The New Yorker

"The result is a kind of dream fabric, and yet, thanks to Mr. Vidal's talent as a novelist and his marvelously simple, clear, direct and at times memorable prose, the narrative conveys a feeling of reality without benefits of archaisms ... he happens to be perhaps the most delicately sensitive of all our young writing men who have come out of the war."  Samuel Putnam, The Saturday Review of Literature

Dark Green, Bright Red - E.P. Dutton & Co. - 1950 - 307 pages

Viva la revolucion!  In this novel, Vidal takes us to an unnamed Central American country where the former dictator is mounting a revolution to return himself to power with the help of U.S. corporate money, some spiritual advisors, thousands of poor/unreliable native soldiers and one U.S. officer turned mercenary who acts as the protagonist of the story.  Author Vidal is fearless in choice of writing subjects as his talent forces him to jump from one genre to another with each book.  How could he possibly know what is happening in Third World Latin America at the age of 24 with only his brief naval history in WWII?  But somehow he makes it work.  He was a master at writing dialog between seemingly unrelated individuals.  Also, in this story he switches narrators at times to reveal the unspoken thoughts of major characters.  As this ragtag army advances upon the fictional cities of "Nadatenango" and "Tenango", the suspense grows and the reader cannot possibly guess the ending of a book that was written 70+ years ago.  The character development is excellent and the characters are believable.  Enjoy the ride.  [JAM 8/25/2020]

A Star's Progress - 1950 - 134 pages

This book was written with the pseudonym, "Katherine Everard" and later reprinted in paperback with the nonsensical title, Cry Shame!  The story is about the life of a movie star who could have been Marilyn Monroe if she had been born in Mexico.  Vidal and Monroe were the same age and he probably knew her during his screenwriting days.  It is a short novel that can easily be read in one day.  The eerie part of the book is that Vidal seems to predict the star's (Monroe?) ending that would not occur until 1962.  [JAM 8/26/2020]

The Judgment of Paris - E.P. Dutton & Co. - 1952 - 375 pages

Author Vidal had published six novels by the age of 24 (1946-1950) and had established himself as one of the greatest young American novelists of the day.  Then, he did not publish in 1951.  The protagonist (Philip Warren) of this novel is an American young man from New York with means (from his family?) who decides to take a vacation for a year in Europe (and North Africa) for no apparent reason.  Unlike Vidal, Warren is strictly heterosexual preferring the company married and childless women who also have the means to meander about the expensive cities of Europe whenever they desire.  However, Philip Warren finds himself in uncomfortable, homosexual situations over and over again.  It seems that this unique lifestyle was one with which the author was quite familiar.  Although Vidal had usually written his novels from one location, the footnote for Judgment reads; "Edgewater: 21 August 1950 -- Key West -- Berrytown, New York, 21 June 1951."  There seemed to be gaps in the story (written in three "parts") and it shows.  What is the story here?  There does not seem to be much conflict or intrigue to capture the reader.  It starts, continues and ends without resolution except for the decision to go back home.  From the distance of time (70 years), the novel seems to serve only as justification for a long European vacation and to keep the author's name active in book circles.  According to the dust jacket, the novel "has retold the ancient legend of the Golden Apple" but who would know or care about that?  The dust jacket also calls it: "a major novel" but biographers generally skip over this one when discussing Vidal's early works.  No matter the failings of the story, the wit, philosophy and writing skills of Gore Vidal are in full display as always.  If nothing else, the pages merely add to the history of a great writer.  Here are some of his observations: [JAM 9/9/2020]

"Both murder and grand larceny, if conducted on large enough scale, are universally applauded, blessed by all our institutions; while even the laws governing sexual behavior vary from time to time ..."

"... I believe in the fact of the universe, that we are part of a structure which never changes though its component parts continually change ... I resent the messiahs who try to rearrange the elements of each man's nature to conform with some particular private vision of excellence."

"... when he was a child, he'd often awakened alone and desperate in the impersonal night, trying to visualize what nothing must be like, what it would be like to no longer be himself ... the dream had changed very little over the years, the terror and the despair remained as he realized that one day he would die, that he would not be."

"The fiction of a partisan deity has become so transparent that even the most educated are able to see through it, to see the infinite impersonal void beyond this world ..."

"Communism is obviously impractical while Socialism is much too functional and, though inevitable, not a happy prospect: the world as a nursery."

Death in the Fifth Position - E.P. Dutton/Random House Vintage - 1952/1979 - 144 pqges

After establishing himself as a novelist, Vidal suddenly started to write pulp novels under various pseudonyms (Katherine Everard, Edgar Box, Cameron Kay).  This was the first of his "Edgar Box murder mysteries."  The prima ballerina, who everyone hated, was dramatically murdered during a performance causing all of the other characters to become suspects.  With Vidal's writing skill, any one of the characters could have been the murderer.  So, do not try to guess.  Just go with it.  Vidal may have used the pseudonyms because of the criticism he received for the controversial sexual descriptions in The City and the Pillar.  As a young homosexual, Vidal was more comfortable writing about the type of people he knew.  He tried to create "straight" characters as protagonists, but his heart was never in it.  This novel had to be quite racy for 1952.  His dialog and plot execution were excellent as always.  He was a pioneer of many genres.  [JAM 9/30/2020]

Thieves Fall Out - Gold Medal Original/Fawcett Publications (paperback) - 1953 - 153 pages

Vidal wrote this thriller/spy novel under the pseudonym, "Cameron Kay" in the same year that Ian Fleming wrote his first James Bond novel (Casino Royale).  However, Vidal was the much better writer.  Vidal could write like Fleming (and others) but Fleming could never write like Vidal.  The protagonist is a former smuggler, wildcatter, soldier and merchant marine who finds himself battered and broke in a seedy hotel room near Cairo, Egypt.  To earn his next meal, he falls in with a group of local smugglers but soon finds himself in a much larger scheme involving international thieves, a beautiful countess, the daughter of a Nazi officer, and the intrigues & political complications of crooked, post-war Egypt.  Vidal had visited North Africa in 1951 before writing The Judgment of Paris under his own name.  Apparently, he was also inspired to write this fast-moving pulp novel at the same time.  The "Gold Medal Originals" were the first to put the manuscripts of relatively unknown authors into paperback form.  Hundreds of these paperback originals were published in the 1950s and beyond.  [JAM 10/10/2020]

 

Death Before Bedtime - Dutton/Random House (reprinted in Three by Box) - 1953/1978 - 157 pages

This is the second of three "Edgar Box" murder mysteries.  The protagonist, publicist Peter Cutler Sargeant II is once again embroiled in the mystery surrounding an untimely death of a new client.  And this time, there is no doubt that the victim will be the old senator who plans to run for the presidency.  Senator Rhodes is conveniently murdered in his large home that is filled with friends and family members loaded with motives for the deed.  These mysteries are formulaic but author Vidal plows through them with competence.  Of course, the police detective assigned to the case is totally incompetent, causing amateur sleuth Sargeant to conduct the informal investigation with so many coincidences landing at his feet.  No reader could consistently guess the outcome of these murders because a writer as skilled as Vidal could easily turn the evidence toward anyone in the house, including the butler.  While reading these mysteries, I have wondered why Vidal would spend time on such drivel which certainly were beneath his abilities.  Was it for the money?  Or, was he trying to prove a point?  Among the volumes of respected works from him, his five pseudonymous novels are the most curious for me.  [JAM 10/21/2020]

Death Likes It Hot - Dutton/Random House - 1954/1978 - 147 pages

The final Edgar Box mystery is more of the same.  Once again our publicist is trapped in a large house full of strange people who keep dying left and right.  I suppose that Vidal could have kept cranking out these puzzles fictions for his entire writing career like Agatha Christie.  But, I am certainly glad that he did not.  There were better worlds to conquer.  [JAM 10/24/2020]

Messiah - Dutton/Ballantine - 1954 - 201 pages

Scholars who discuss novels about dark futures usually cite Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1931) and George Orwell's 1984 (1949).  A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess was added to the discussion after the shocking 1971 movie by Stanley Kubrick.  However, none of these novels came as close to a prediction of the future as Vidal's mostly forgotten book about a death-cult religion that surpasses Christianity in the USA, Europe and beyond.  The author started this book in 1947 after the fall of Adolf Hitler and rise of a new media (television).  Portions of the story remind me of the dysfunctional actions of the current Trump administration.  Consider the following passage:

"The Congressional Committee ... did not dare to even censure him ... partly from the fear of the vast crowd which waited in the Capitol plaza and partly from the larger, more cogent awareness that it was politically suicidal for any popularly elected Representative to outrage a minority of such strength."

There is also an eerie discussion about child separation that seems to be more realistic than the Huxley model:

"Nothing is good.  Nothing is right.  But though (he) is wrong, it is a new wrong and so it is better than the old; in any case, he will keep the people amused and boredom, finally, is the one monster the race will never conquer ... the monster which will devour us in time.  But now we're off the track.  Mother love exists because we believe it exists.  Believe it does not exist and it won't.  That, I fear, is the general condition of 'the unchanging human heart.'  Make these young girls feel that having babies is a patriotic duty as well as healthful therapy and they'll go through it blithely enough, without ever giving a second thought to the child they leave behind in the government nursery."

Vidal's protagonist is a writer named "Eugene Luther" which was his given name.  Toward the end, a major character summarizes the novel with three words: "Gene was right."  [JAM 12/11/2020]

 

Visit to a Small Planet - Little Brown & Company/Signet - 1956/1960 - 127 pages

After publishing 13 novels in less than ten years, Vidal decided to shift his attention to writing for the screen, small and large.  He often expressed his opinion that "the novel was dead" but would return to it in the decades to come.  Visit to a Small Planet was first designed as a teleplay in 1955 but then reworked in 1956 for a stage play directed and acted (Kreton) by Cyril Ritchard in 1957.  And then, the story was grabbed by Hal Wallis and reworked as a movie screenplay and a Jerry Lewis vehicle in 1960 (to Gore Vidal's dismay).  The text is Vidal's first attempt at political satire and science fiction at the same time.  The story is about an alien time-traveler who drops into 1957 by mistake and proceeds to start a major war just for the fun of it.  It is possible that this concept inspired author Robert Heinlein to write Stranger in a Strange Land in 1961; although Heinlein's alien takes a weird sexual turn as in most of his syfy works.  The characters in the play are well-developed with many pages of smart dialog for all.  Vidal offered subtle political opinions in this pleasant story that presaged his non-fiction works and commentary.  [JAM 1/29/2021]

[from Rocking the Boat (1962)] "I was obliged to protect an eighty-thousand-dollar investment, and I confess freely that I obscured meanings, softened blows, and humbly turned wrath aside, emerging with a successful play which represents me very little."

 

A Thirsty Evil - New American Library/Signet - 1958 - 143 pages

Vidal published 13 novels from 1946 to 1954 but then worked on screenplays and stage-plays until his 14th novel (Julian) was published in 1964.  This volume of seven short stories was written between 1948 and 1956; but they seem less like short stories and more like unfinished works to me.  The paperback cover (third printing) is identified as "A Signet Novel" but it certainly is not.  The book title and the cover drawing do not seem to apply to any of the stories within the book.  Vidal fans must have been disappointed at the time.  I believe that Vidal's writing career was in transition when he agreed to allow the publication of this collection of stories.  Buyer beware.  [JAM 1/7/21]

The Best Man - Little Brown/Signet - 1960/1964 - 128 pages

Vidal could write any style of fiction but his specialty was political novels.  He also became a prominent liberal commentator in print and on television.  This teleplay that became a screenplay is an early example of Vidal's talent for describing the insides of presidential campaigns through dialog.  The story describes the ending of the 1960 party primary between the two most prominent contenders just days before an open convention.  Neither of the candidates is John Kennedy or Richard Nixon but many of the actual political figures of the day are mentioned.  The candidates (Russell & Cantwell) are flawed in many ways but Vidal recognizes that all candidates are flawed.  The contest gets decided primarily by maneuvers that occur behind the scenes.  In his introduction, Vidal wrote: "If (candidate) had stolen money, got a girl pregnant, run away in battle, taken dope, been a Communist or a member of the Ku Klux Klan, (opponent) might be reluctant to bring the matter up, but he would certainly not hesitate to save himself, especially if he were convinced the charges were true."  Both candidates struggle with such moral decisions.  And, today these decisions seem trivial compared to the current state of political dirty tricks.  [JAM 2/8/2021]

[from Rocking the Boat (1962)] "Contrary to rumor, I was not writing about Adlai Stevenson, Richard Nixon and Harry Truman.  There were elements of these men in each of the characters but no more.  At a crucial moment in our history I wanted to present to an audience of voters a small essay in Presidential temperament."

 

Rocking the Boat - Little Brown/Dell - 1962/1963 - 330 pages

Gore Vidal had been making his living as a novelist and a playwright for 16 years when this first book of non-fiction was published.  As he was ever opinionated, Vidal found time to comment on politics, theater, books, etc.  His articulate and uncensored views found their way into magazines, newspapers and television.  By 1962 he had become a celebrity/novelist and a potential political candidate.  This first collection of his opinions shows his range at an early age.  At the back is an "Appendix" that clarifies some of the early reviews and how they were received.  The most significant essay is "Ladders to Heaven: Novelists and Critics of the 1940's" (New World Writing #4, 1953) wherein Vidal first released his take on the state of the novel and writers in the 1950's.  Following are some selected quotes from the collection:

[on John F. Kennedy 4/9/1961] "... he is very much what he seems.  He is withdrawn, observant, icily objective in crisis, aware of the precise value of every card dealt him.  Intellectually, he is dogged rather than brilliant."  [Note that Vidal was dead wrong about 1960's politics.  He predicted that JFK would be reelected in 1964 to be followed by his brother in 1968.  But he could not have anticipated the assassinations to come.]

[on J.D. Salinger] "I am sometimes charmed by the minor talent of J.D. Salinger, but when he puts on his Great Author suit I think one should point out that it doesn't fit."

[on Arthur Miller] "Arthur Miller ... writes of himself not seriously but solemnly.  With paralyzing pomp, splitting his infinitives and confusing number, he climbs the steps to the throne, with the enemy syntax crushed beneath his heavy boot ..."

[on Tennessee Williams] "Williams was really a slob, devoted to success, pretending to be a real artist while swinging with the Broadway set ..."

[on writers] "Carson McCullers, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams are, at this moment [1953] at least, the three most interesting writers in the United States.  Each is engaged in the task of truth-telling (as opposed to saying the truth, which is not possible this side of revelation)."

[on criticism] "Since Jerome Lawrence is an acquaintance of mine and a most amiable man, I suffered real discomfort in giving him such a bad notice.  And this, by the way, is the most difficult part of being a critic.  What do you do about people you like whose work is not good?"

[on literature] "... one must recall that the great times for literature and life were those of transition: from the Middle Ages to modern times by way of the Renaissance, from dying paganism to militant Christianity by way of the Antonines, and so on back to Greece."

[on the novel] "It is is a possibility perhaps even a probability, that as the novel moves toward a purer, more private expression it will cease altogether to be a popular medium, becoming, like poetry, a cloistered avocation -- in which case those who in earlier times might have written great public novels will be engaged to write good public movies, redressing the balance."

[on love in writing] "Yet while ours is a society where mass murder and violence are perfectly ordinary and their expression in the most popular novels and comic books is accepted with aplomb, any love between two people which does not conform is attacked."

[on Ayn Rand] "Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.  She has just published a book For the New Intellectual ... it is a collection of pensees and arias from her novels, and it must be read to be believed ... This odd little woman is attempting to give a moral sanction to greed and self-interest, and to pull it off she must at times indulge in pure Orwellian newspeak of 'freedom is slavery' sort ..."

[on dictatorship] "... if ever there was a people ripe for dictatorship it is the American people today [1958].  Should a homegrown Hitler appear, whose voice, amongst the public orders, would be raised against him in derision?"

There is so much more that could be quoted in this short volume.  Vidal always had much to say.  [JAM 2/20/2021]

Romulus - 1962 (play)

Julian - Little Brown/Vintage - 1964/1992 - 503 pages

This is the first great work of historical fiction by author Vidal.  The novel was started in 1959 and finished by Vidal in 1964 in Rome.  In my mind, this outstanding volume exceeds the entirety of the seven-volume "Narratives of Empire" published in 1967-2000.  This may have been his greatest accomplishment by recreating the biography of a 4th century Roman emperor from the accounts that exist.  I was especially taken by discussions of the Galileans (Christians) versus the Hellenists (worshipers of the old gods).  Although Julian was a Hellenist, he was the first to declare the freedom of religion within the empire.  Both beliefs were shown to be preposterous of course, but I suppose there has always been a need for some spiritual order.  Julian was a true leader who always led his armies into battle and usually against enemies with larger number of combatants.  Vidal brought the 4th century alive for 20th century readers.  [JAM 3/26/2021]

Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship - Little, Brown and Company - 1963-1968 - 255 pages

Vidal's essays and book reviews during the turbulent 1960s reveal a profound knowledge of the political landscape of the day.  These critiques were primarily written between the two Kennedy assassinations when the author was expecting RFK to be elected in 1968.  The signature essay of the collection is "The Holy Family" wherein Vidal expressed his unfiltered opinions about a political family (Kennedys) that he knew very well.  Vidal always wrote freely and honestly about subjects of consequence.  Many of his opinions are just as valid today as the day he wrote them.  Following are his comments are his comments about drug use from the preface of the book.  [JAM 4/21/2021]

"... the American attitude towards drugs is absurd.  There is no doubt in my mind that marijuana is less dangerous to the user than alcohol, and should be made legal.  In fact, all drugs should be made available (with due warning as to their effect), and those who want to kill themselves should be allowed to do so, the rest will soon get the point and not take them ... there cannot be many secret iodine drinkers in the land.  Of course the question still remains: is it a good thing deliberately to numb and derange the senses?  I suspect not.  But since most lives are bitterly boring, men crave the anodyne, and it is no business of the state to deny anyone his dreams or even death."

Washington, D.C. - Little, Brown and Company - 1967 - 377 pages

Vidal started this novel in 1962 while John F. Kennedy was president.  Vidal and JFK were good friends.  It appears that Vidal stopped work on the book when JFK was assassinated 1963.  Obviously, the time was not for a book about a politician (Clay Overbury) loosely based on the late president.  Vidal switched gears and finished Julian in Rome in 1964 and then returned to this novel.  [JAM 6/23/2021]

[Re-read] This is the first volume of Vidal's "Narratives of Empire" series set at the beginning in 1937 during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second term as President of the United States.

 One-I: The fictional Sanford family: Peter (16), Enid (19), Frederika (mother) and Blaise (father) are hosting a party to celebrate the defeat of FDR's plan to pack the Supreme Court with four additional justices.  Blaise is a wealthy heir to a clothing manufacturing fortune who has also invested in railroads and the semi-fictional Washington Tribune newspaper.  The guest of honor is fictional Senator James Borden Day (similar to actual Senator Henry F. Ashurst who blocked the plan in committee).  Senator Day comments that FDR's plan failed because real Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson (1872-1937) died before he could bring the bill to a vote.  Peter Sanford partially witnesses his sister's sexual encounter with a congressional aide in the poolhouse during the event.

 One-II: Senator Day ponders his political future.  Day and his aide, Clay discuss presidential fund-raising while preparing for a meeting with Vice President John Nance Garner (1868-1967).  Businessman Nillson repeats an offer to pay for the presidential campaign in exchange for an approval of a deal for the sale of Indian land.  Senator repeats his vow to not accept bribes.  Daughter, Diana Day likes Clay but Clay is dating Enid Sanford.  

 One -III: Clay has an encounter with Secretary Dolly from Senator Day's office.  Then, Clay goes to a party where he meets Harold Griffiths (poet/critic), Enid, Nillson and Blaise.  Nillson lobbies for the Indian land sale.  Blaise tells Clay to stay away from Enid.  (IV) Enid and Clay eloped to Maryland and then (V) they went home to see her mother and father.  Blaise offered Clay $100,000 to get the marriage annulled but rejected the offer because it would not look good on his resume.  (VI)  The marriage is announced at a luncheon.  Everybody is surprised.  Diana Day cries.  Nillson gives Senator Day a check for $250,000.  He tears it to pieces.

 Two-I: Sen. Day consults a fortune teller.  Dewey has not been invited to the state dinner.  Day and Clay discuss FDR and the 1940 presidential campaign  (II)  Peter visits Harold at the Tribune.  Helen Ashley Barbour, society editor is there.  FDR will meet King George VI.  Peter meets Diana and Billy Thorne who wants to start a socialist magazine.  (III)  Clay meets the Texans  One congressman makes Clay and offer re a land deal.  Clay calls Nillson.  (IV)  FDR holds a state dinner for King George with guests: VP, Sen. Day, Blaise et al.  Sen. Day contemplates a meeting with Hitler.  Discussions move from Hitler and war to the prospective land deal.  Day remembers other elections and the prices paid.

 Three-I: Business meeting - Day, Clay, Nillson & Judge Hooey.  FDR signs the Aid to the Democracies bill.  And, FDR will seek a third term and choose Wallace instead of Day as VP.  Clay will run for House (2nd district) to replace McClure.  Diana has married Thorne with wooden leg and no job.  (II) Enid tells Peter that she wants to divorce Clay.  Peter ponders his future while studying Burr in college.  Father and son discuss the Lend-Lease bill (approved March 1941).  (III) Senator Day votes "nay" on Lend-Lease but it passes 60-31.  Day meets with his mistress (Irene) after scolding Clay for having an affair.  The senator suffers a stroke.

 Four-I: Peter and Billy Thorne are working at the Tribune.  Hitler is ravaging Europe.  Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor (December 1941).  (II) Senator Day rushes to Congress but FDR will not consult with him.  Clay decides not to run for Congress but becomes a captain in the U.S. Army.  Nillson calls Judge Hooey to get a new candidate for the 2nd district. 

 Five-I: Peter and Diana meet at the home of Millicent Smith Carhart.  Thorne has testified against Nillson.  FDR starts his fourth term,  Clay's friend Scotty died in Saipan.  (II) Senator Day wins another six-year term.  Day meets with Blaise.  Clay is in Guam.  Blaise supported FDR and now the formation of the United Nations.  Nillson meets Day at his senate office where he tells Day to stop the attacks from Thorne.  Day will support UN.  Peter helps Thorne and Diana to get money from Irene Bloch for their socialist magazine.  Day tells Thorne to back off from the Nillson indictment or be exposed as a Communist.  (III) Day renounces isolationism [Vidal comments that "psychiatry is pseudoscience"] A party is held at Laurel House for financier Irene Bloch.  Blaise reads an article to the group (written by Harold Griffiths) about Clay to receive the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in the Pacific war.

 Six-I:  FDR is dead.  Clay returns from the war.  (II) Two issues of American Idea have been published.  Clay visits Peter, Diana and Thorne.  (III) Clay and Enid talk divotce.  Clay plans to run for the House seat.  Ar war's end, the U.S. is now "the last empire on earth."  Blaise suggests that Enid be declared insane.  (IV) Germany surrenders.  Truman is described as "mediocre."  Peter and Harold discuss the war and politics.  (V) Enid is home from the hospital and sober for now.  They argue and then Enid shoots at Blaise.

 Seven-I: Enid is back in the asylum.  Clay is reelected.  The bullet missed Blaise and hit the painting of Aaron Burr.  Clay is dating Elizabeth Watress, daughter of Schuyler Watress.  Peter visits Enid who is painting and planning her escape.  (II) Truman is reelected (1948).  Thorne is gone.  Day and Peter discuss the nuclear bomb.  (III) Harold is arrested by the vice squad.  Clay chases them away.  Clay meets Elizabeth in New York; then Truman, Thorne and Irene who tells Clay that Enid is dead.  (IV) Enid had stolen the doctor's car and sped toward Mexico while drinking when she hit a cow truck.  The funeral: her lawyer claims that Clay was not a hero.

 Eight-I: Clay announces his candidacy for the Senate in 1950.  The press asks him about the McCarthy hearings.  (II) Senator Day breaks his shoulder in a fall.  Day meets Clay who reminds him that Day took a bribe from Nillson.  (III) Thorne testifies to HUAC.  Day drops out of the 1950 Senate race. Peter is determined to cause Clay to lose by revealing that he is a false hero.  (IV) The Korean War begins.  Clay and Blaise discuss how to deflect Peter's story.  Clay narrowly wins the Senate seat by rejoining the army to fight the war in Korea.  Senator Day jumps to his death in the Potomac River.

 Nine-I: Laurel House has been sold to Irene (Bloch) and Ogden Watress.  Clay is married to Elizabeth.  They have an open marriage.  McCarthy has fallen.  Eisenhower is the president.  Peter and Clay have a long conversation as Clay tells him that he will write a book with the assistance of Peter's socialist magazine writer (Aeneas) who thinks Clay could be VP in 1956 with Adlai Stevenson, and later, president (1960?).  (II) Clay remembers that Enid had told him that she and Peter had an incestuous affair.  (III) Peter and Blaise discuss the alliance between Clay and Aeneas.  [JAM 6/23/2021]

Myra Breckenridge - Little, Brown & Company - 1968 - 277 pages

I know that I read this book when it was released in paperback but I could not remember the storyline until I restarted it.  I do not remember if I saw the 1970 movie with Raquel Welch.  I guess that there are no brain cells remaining from that period in my life.  This book was marketed as a racy novel or upscale pornography, but it is tame by comparison with novels that have followed.  The movie tried to be a comedy.  Vidal's literacy and sense of humor shine through everything he wrote.  A common complaint of his is repeated on page 2: "The novel being dead, there is no point to writing make-up stories."  By 1968 Vidal had concluded that he had to be outrageous and creative to sell fiction in the 1960s.  I had only read through ten chapters but had already tagged several of his brilliant insights.  For example, he seems to have predicted the rise of Reagan or that other guy in Chapter 10: "Not only are the male students drawn to violence (at second hand), they are quite totalitarian-minded, even for Americans, and I am convinced that any attractive television personality who wanted to become our dictator would have their full support."  After a promising beginning, this novel devolves into the sexual fantasies of a transgender rapist.  But Vidal was correct about the state of the novel at the time.  His book was number seven on the New York Times list of best-selling fiction for 1968.  However, the awful movie was a critical and box-office failure in 1970 in spite of the all-star cast that included Welch (1940- ), Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) and Mae West (1893-1980).  Although Vidal feared for the demise of the novel, we have many very good writers today.  But, Gore Vidal may have been our last "great" novelist.  [JAM 8/23/2021]

Weekend - Dramatists Play Service - 1968 - 87 pages

In the 1960s and beyond, Vidal was obsessed with the inner workings of U.S. politics.  He wrote several plays about the process.  In this one, he examines the Republican candidates for president in 1968 to replace Lyndon Johnson in real time.  Two fictional senators are vying to keep Richard Nixon off the Republican ticket.  The drama of the play surrounds the actions of the leading candidate after his son reveals that he plans to marry a black woman before the election.  Vidal does an excellent job of examining and revealing the racial prejudices of the day and how this one event could cause the downfall of one candidate.  In addition to the central issue, Vidal also makes amazing predictions about political corruption ("You would do anything to help him ... even steal records from the ... Democratic National Committee."), future presidents ("I can't believe that you want Ronald Reagan to be President?"), and futures wars ("The world knows that any President who attempted to commit this country to another Viet Nam would himself be promptly committed to a mad house ...").  [JAM 9/7/2021]

Sex, Death and Money - Bantam - 1968 - 269 pages

Bantam packaged this book to look like a sequel to the best-seller, Myra Breckenridge but it is anything but that.  It appears that Bantam just threw this odd collection together to cash in on the demand for the work of a popular author.  Certainly, most of the buyers were exposed to some essays and book reviews they had never seen; if they bothered to read through it.  Eleven of the 26 "chapters" are directly copied from Rocking the Boat published by Little Brown in 1962.  The only new material in the book is the five-page preface from which the title is taken.  The various essays in the book bear little connection to each other although each is well written and well worth the time spent to read them.  Following is a passage from the preface: "Sex, death and money are the essential interests of the naked ape.  Sex involves the race's continuation ... Death is the constant terror, while money provides not only food and shelter but also makes it possible to exercise power not only over our physical environment but over others, a high concern of primates who find hierarchy necessary and the indulgence of private will the greatest delight."  [JAM 9/22/2021]

Drawing Room Comedy - 1970 (play)

Two Sisters: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir - Little, Brown & Company - 1970 - 256 pages

While still basking in the success of Myra Breckenridge (and still contemplating the "death of the novel"), Vidal challenged himself to create his next novel from several unlikely components: the screenplay process, a Greek tragedy, bisexuality, incest, flashbacks inspired by a notebook, and placing himself as a major character in the story.  This is not what Vidal fans were expecting but it works.  This book flows easily and can be read in one day.  However, it was the genius of Vidal that made it work.  When he was grinding out a living by turning various works into screenplays, and hating it, he wrote this story about how difficult was the process while incorporating a completely invented screenplay (that could be a stage play) about three siblings vying for power in ancient Greece.  The novel is not as lurid as Myra but does deal with the controversial subject of incest and his bisexual love affair with the very talented identical twins, Eric & Erika.  Vidal always claimed that "everyone is bisexual" and he portrays himself as one in the novel.  But, I believe that Vidal always feared women and the complications and inconveniences that come with relationships with them such as children and domesticity.  It is not hard to see why the book is not regarded as one of his best, but I enjoyed his creation of a novel form like no other.  [JAM 10/21/2021]

(on American writers) "This unreality [the clumsy products of our meagre civilization as pardigms for all the world to admire and imitate] has had a bad affect on our writers who tend -- like everyone else -- to read less and less but when they do read are driven to the study of American writers ... (they) want to be not good but great; and so are neither."

(on Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.) "... would I like to adapt for the screen Slaughterhouse-Five ?  A nice irony. Vonnegut is, the press tells us, the current favorite of the young, supplanting Golding and Salinger and Tolkien.  I think I know why.  Though his style is easy to the point of being imbecilic, his creative imagination is -- what is the reviewer's phrase? -- first-rate and fills the need of the young for fantasy, for alternative worlds to this one.  Last year they were Tolkien elves, this year they can learn not to fear death because it is simply a violet light, as creatures from another planet assure us, since one is able to scan one's life at any point, if things are bad in the present simply go backward or forward in time."

An Evening With Richard Nixon - Vintage Books - 1972 - 157 pages

In his spare time, Vidal wrote this excellent play about the political life of Richard Nixon (pre-Watergate) mostly using actual quotes.  It is a brilliant summary.  In my mind, this is the definitive early biography of Nixon.  It it also a brief and accurate account of U.S. politics (1950-1970).  The post-1970 biography of Nixon is easier to write: Nixon wins second term by a landslide in 1972; the War in Vietnam rages; Agnew is forced to resign; Ford replaces Agnew; Nixon is forced to resign in 1974 as a result of his goons breaking into the Watergate offices of the DNC prior to the 1972 election; Ford replaces Nixon; Ford pardons Nixon; North Vietnam wins the war; Nixon writes books and walks on the beach in San Clemente.  [JAM 10/23/2021]

Homage to Daniel Shays: Collected Essays - Random House - 1972 - 449 pages

Daniel Shays (1747-1825) was a soldier and farmer who led the rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786 over taxation and debt-collection policies.  Shays was convicted and sentenced to death for his actions, but was pardoned in 1788.  The title essay is one of 44 in this collection that covers two decades (1952-1972) of book reviews and magazine articles by Vidal.  This last essay discusses the political landscape in 1972 as Richard Nixon ran for a second presidential term against George McGovern.  Vidal thought that McGovern had a good chance to win and that Nixon's "Southern Strategy" would not work.  He was wrong about both.  Nixon won and then the Watergate scandal raged for two years.  The most interesting (to me) essay in the collection is "Manifesto and Dialogue" wherein Vidal tackled the world problems of overpopulation, starvation and pollution.  His solutions to these problems were rather drastic: creating an "Authority" to control procreation, early education and food distribution.  In the 50 years since he published his manifesto, only China has taken such measures with their "one-child" policy.  With these essays, Vidal showed his fearless attitude toward truth and the authors & politicians of the day.  His popularity had peaked in an age when people still read books.  After twelve novels and several books of collected short stories, plays and essays, reviewers were already writing about his career even though he had 40 more years of writing to come.  Although many of these "essays" were previously printed in other volumes, it is good to see them preserved in chronological order.  [JAM 1/13/2022]

Burr - Random House - 1973 - 430 pages  [re-read]

About the creation of this novel, Burr wrote: "I had thought to give a bibliography but it would be endless, and political.  As a subject American history is a battleground today and I would prefer to stay out of range."  Certainly, there was an enormous amount of research invested into this work over "a good many years preparing and writing."  The result is a remarkable account of the formative years of the United States of America - roughly 1776 to 1836.  Most of the characters are based on actual people except for narrator "Charlie Schuyler" who is a clerk and journalist.  Vidal claimed that Schuyler was based on novelist, Charles Burdett.  But to me, Charlie is the young Gore himself dropped into history by some time-traveling device.  With his incredible wit and intellect, Vidal translated the post-Revolutionary days into modern English without losing the sense of the times.  When I first read this book almost 50 years ago, I thought it was an amazing and impossible adventure into the past.  While re-reading I discovered that I had forgotten most of it and I was able to thoroughly enjoy it again.  In my opinion, this is Gore Vidal's finest work of fiction and it may well be the greatest work of American historical fiction.  [JAM 7/20/2022]

Myron - Random House - 1974 - 244 pages

Myron who became Myra is now Myron again.  Is that even possible?  I am sure that there was a great deal of pressure on Vidal to cash in on a sequel to the best selling Myra Breckenridge and this is what we got.  Myron/Myra has somehow gotten trapped into a 1948 movie ("Siren of Babylon") inside of a black-and-white television.  This is actually Vidal's way of examining a seriously awful case of schizophrenia wherein Myron and Myra are constantly struggling to control the brain and the body.  The story makes no sense of all but it does allow Vidal to utilize his clever writing style to examine the 25-year span from 1948 to 1973.  My favorite parts of the book are the comments about 1973 politics mostly involving Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.  The worst parts of the book are the detailed descriptions of deviant sexual activities when Myra controls the brain.  In my opinion, Myron is the worst of the Gore Vidal novels. [JAM 9/28/2022]

Matters of Fact and of Fiction (Essays 1973-1976) - Random House - 1977 - 285 pages

In addition to his publication of numerous works of fiction, Vidal was a popular reviewer of books: fiction, biographies, memoirs.  He did not pull punches.  Although not college-educated, Gore Vidal had an incredible grasp of the English language.  And, he was quick to criticize those who corrupted the language.  The book reviews in this volume are thorough and informative.  The diversity of his knowledge is on display here with commentary on Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Thomas Pynchon, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and many others including a brief comment about a Woody Allen movie (Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex ...).  On page 21 the author reveals that "gore vidal" is a Russian phrase that means: "he has seen grief."   However, Vidal saved the best for the last.  His essay ("Political Melodramas") combines his standard speech to college students with commentary about political issues.  His warning about the dangers of fascism in the United States of America is just as valid today as it was the mid-1970s.  Vidal could not have known that Trumpism was coming but, he had lived through the crimes of the Nixon administration.  For someone who lived in Italy most of his adult life, he was a wise chronicler of the many problems that faced Americans and the world, then and now.  [JAM 11/3/2022]

1876 - Random House - 1976 - 364 pages  [re-read]

This is the sequel to Burr  (1973).  In the Afterword, Vidal explains that 1876 is the second book of a trilogy with Washington DC, published in 1967 being the third.  The novel follows the journalist, Charles Schuyler who has returned to the U.S. with his daughter after living in France for 40 years.  Schuyler is also the illegitimate and fictional son of Aaron Burr. 

I had read this book over 40 years ago but found that I did not remember much of it.  The parallels between 1876 and 2020 are remarkable.  Grant, Hayes and the Republicans conspired to steal the election from Tilden and the Democrats by bribing election officials in Louisiana, Florida and Oregon to reverse the results and submit second sets of electors.  Trump tried to do the same with seven states.  Because of disputed results in 1876, the election was sent to Congress.  Grant and both houses of Congress quickly acted to pass a law forming a 15-man commission to resolve the matter.  While 14 of the commissioners were partisans, it remained for one Supreme Court justice to decide.  This is reminiscent of the 2000 election when Sandra Day O'Connor gave the presidency to George W. Bush.  Tilden had clearly won the election but Grant and others would not allow it.  Tilden had no means of protest short of a second civil war.  The Democrats were kept quiet with promises of Reconstruction concessions including the removal of Union troops from the South.  It seems that the country has not learned much in the past 145-150 years.  Vidal did a better job of delivering a history lesson than any of my high school texts. [JAM 12/6/2022]

Kalki - Random House/Ballantine - 1978 - 278 pages

Gore Vidal always was one interested in novelistic experimentation.  In this book, the narrator is an inexperienced writer who was obviously based on aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1939?).  Throughout the telling of the story, Amelia/Teddy makes reference to fictional ghost-writer, "Herman V. Weiss" and the various descriptive methods used by Weiss in Teddy's first book, "Beyond Motherhood."  Kalki is Vidal's second novel about a religious death-cult (after Messiah - 1954).  However, this one takes the subject into an extremely different direction.  As usual, the author introduces actual and fictional political figures into the plot.  At one point he concludes that the current president (Jimmy Carter) would discard his VP (Walter Mondale) and replace him with Ted Kennedy for his 1980 reelection bid.  Mr. Vidal was often incorrect with his political predictions.  He also continues his warning about the dangers of overpopulation in the world; stating that the population would double in 32 years (2010).  It did not happen.  The population grew from 4.28 billion in 1978 to 6.92 billion, increasing by 61%. 

Kalki (aka Vishnu, Siva, etc.) uses the sales of illegal drugs to build his religious cult into an international phenomenon with the promise of "The End" on April 3, 1978.  He does it all with only only four "Perfect Masters" including our skeptical narrator/aviator.  There are many flaws in the science and the execution of the plot, but Vidal knew that.  This book is just his exercise in speculation.  But it also constitutes his second warning about the danger of cults.  Those of us who have lived through the Trump years (2017-2020) can certainly understand Vidal's message.  [JAM 12/23/2022]

Sex is Politics and Vice Versa (1979)

Creation - Random House/Ballantine - 1981 - 591 pages

Who else but Gore Vidal could create a historical novel set in the 5th century B.C. that includes the actual leaders of the time.  The book is the culmination of a massive amount of research of the period.  Vidal's story involves Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Xerxes and the numerous dukes, earls, kings & the powerful women of Persia, Greece, India and Cathay.  The book is narrated to Democritus by Cyrus Spitama, the grandson of Zoroaster.  Although we are following Cyrus throughout, Vidal deftly delivers the sense of wonder and peril of those years of competing kingdoms.  For most readers it will take a high degree of discipline to get through the volume, but this is a better history lesson than you could get from any college text.  [JAM 2/15/2023] 

Views from a Window: Conversations With Gore Vidal (Edited by Robert J. Stanton) - Lyle Stuart Inc. - 1980 - 319 pages

I have been reading the published works of Gore Vidal (1925-2012) who was probably the greatest of all American authors.  He was a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, historian and essayist.  He wrote the first World War II novel (Williwaw), published in 1946.  He researched and wrote historical novels (world & U.S. history) to teach himself the real history of our country, He moved to Italy in 1968 to protest the war in Vietnam.  I have reached the 1980 period in the readings which is about the halfway point of his published works.  This book contains published interviews with Vidal arranged by subject with duplications deleted. Here are some quotes from the collection.  [JAM 3/7/2023]

(1965) "... if one does not understand how Christian absolutists behave ... in this hemisphere, with Jews everywhere, with Africans and Asians, as both conquers and missionaries, then one will find mystifying the fact that we are so much hated in so many parts of the world ..."

(1968) "If I didn't want to make changes I don't think I would write and I certainly would not be politically active.  Particularly in a country like the United States where 25 per cent of the people are madly disturbed and all have guns.  It is not a safe thing to be in politics there.  You should read my mail."

(1968) "I've been in that happy position [writing what he wants to write] for the last ten years, so I will just go right on doing whatever it is that I do.  I daresay that as my talents decline, my popularity will soar."

(1975) "The only thing I disliked about all this nonsense (re William F. Buckley) was that it put me at his level.  He's not a writer.  He is not anything except a right-wing TV entertainer."

(1975) "I like Jack Kennedy personally to the end ... He was a wonderful gossip, great fun.  But ... to say that he was a great President ..." 

(1977) "I couldn't imagine an actor as president.  I could imagine a director.  After all, he's a hustler, a liar, a cheat - plainly presidential."

(1977) "... Puritanism is the enemy of art (life, too; as opposed to paradise or hell predestined ...)"
(1977) "We're a strange society in that we have no sense of the past.  That's why I wrote my American trilogy ... I wanted to tell myself the story of the history of the country because I found history as boring in school as everybody else did, and I knew the national story could not have been that dull, and it wasn't.  But we're a society forever trying to erase yesterday.  Because of this we got the Nixons ... We Nixon-viewers knew he was a criminal years ago, but we couldn't tell anybody ... A society without a recollected history is also peculiarly vulnerable to any one who wants to take it over ... After all, the average person watches six hours of television a day.  How can they defend their liberties when they're busy watching 'The Gong Show'?"

 

The Second American Revolution And Other Essays - Random House - 1982 - 278 pages

By 1980, Gore Vidal was calling for a "Second Constitutional Convention" for the formation of the "Fourth Republic."  His concern was that the parties were the same and the presidential candidates were inconsequential.  In one of the essays in this volume, he said that this had to happen by 1984.  It did not happen, of course.  Vidal did not vote in 1980.  The Republican candidate (Ronald Reagan) was an actor who was not qualified to lead the country.  The incumbent Democrat (Jimmy Carter) was a "twice-born" peanut farmer who was too religious.  A third candidate (John Anderson) ran as an independent but was actually just a wishy-washy Republican.  Although he did not vote, Vidal endorsed Carter as the least bad of the three.  At the time, I was also dismayed by these choices.  As a sort of minor protest, I voted for Anderson.  This was the only time I voted for a non-Democrat for president.

This publication contains many book reports, biographical profiles and political essays.  As always, Vidal offers some honest analysis of the short era: 1976-1982.  For such a collection of his spare-time writings, it is best for a reviewer to simply cite examples of his articulations.

 "(Doris) Lessing's affinity for the Old Testament combined with the woolliness of modern day Sufism has got her into something of a philosophical muddle.  Without the idea a free will, the human race is of no interest at all; certainly, without the idea of free will there can be no literature."

"I rather suspect that (Thomas Love) Peacock, in a certain mood, felt exactly at Dr. Folliott did (re education).  He also possessed negative capability to a high degree.  In this instance, he may well be saying what he thinks at the moment, perfectly aware that he will think its opposite in relation to a different formulation on the order, say, of certain observations in Jefferson's memoirs which he reviewed in 1830.  Peacock was absolutely bowled over by the mellifluous old faker's announcement that between 'a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government' he would choose the latter.  This is, surely, one of the silliest statements ever made by a politician; yet it is perennially attractive to -- yes, journalists.  In any case, Jefferson was sufficiently sly to add, immediately, a line that is seldom quoted by those who love the sentiment.  'But I should mean that every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading them.'  The last phrase nicely cancels all that has gone before.  Jefferson was no leveler."

"The movie-goer is passive unlike the reader; and one does not hear a creator's voice while watching a movie.  Yes, curiously enough, the kind of satire that was practiced by Aristophanes might just find its way onto the screen.  As I watched Airplane, I kept hoping that its three auteurs (bright show-biz kids) would open up the farce.  Include President Carter and his dread family; show how each would respond to the near-disaster.  Add Reagan, Cronkite, the Polish Pope.  But the auteurs stuck to the only thing that show-biz people ever know about -- other movies and television commercials.  Although the result is highly enjoyable, a chance was missed to send up a whole society in a satire of the Old Comedy sort."

"Since the talking movie is closest in form to the novel ... it strikes me that the rising literary generation might think of the movies as, peculiarly, their kind of novel, to be created by them in collaboration with technicians but without the interference of The Director, that hustler plagiarist who has for twenty years (occasionally) enhanced an art form still in search of its true authors."

"Brooding on the Old Testament's dislike of women, Freud theorized that an original patriarchal tribe was for a time replaced by a matriarchal tribe that was them overthrown by the patriarrchal Jews: the consequent 're-establishment of the primal father in his historic rights was a great step forward.'  This speculative nonsense is highly indicative of the way that a mind as shrewd and as original as Freud's could not conceive of a good (virtuous?) society that was not dominated by man the father."

"As for Vietnam, if we learned anything from our defeat so far from home, it was that we have no right to intervene militarily in the affairs of another nation."

"Millions of men, women, and children are financially exploited in order to support one percent of the population in opulence and the rest in sufficient discomfort to keep them working at jobs that they dislike in order to buy things that they do not need in order to create jobs to make money to be able to buy, etc,  This is not a just society.  It may not last much longer.  But for the present, the children of the rich are as carefully conditioned to the world as it is as are those of the poor."

"During the 1960 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon referred to John Kennedy's Catholicism six times in practically a single breath; he then said piously, that he did not think religion ought to play any part in any political election -- unless, maybe, the candidate had no religion ... As the First Criminal knew only too well, religion is the most important force not only in American politics but in world politics, too."

"What to do (re 1980)?  A vote for Carter, Reagan or Anderson is a vote against the actual interests of the country.  But for those who like to vote against their interests, I would pass over the intelligent but unadventurous Anderson as well as the old actor who knows nothing of economics ... foreign affairs ,,, geography ,,, history ,,, and return to office the incoherent incumbent on the ground that he cannot get it together sufficiently to start a war or a Lincoln- Douglas debate ..."

"The Framers did not want political parties -- or factions, to use their word.  So what has evolved over the years are two pieces of electoral machinery devoted to the acquiring of office -- and money.  Since neither party represents anything but the interests of those who own and administer the country, there is not apt to be much 'choice' in any election."

"... for eight years Johnson and Nixon prosecuted the longest and least popular war in American history by executive order.  Congress' sacred and exclusive right to declare war was ignored ... while the Supreme Court serenely fiddled as Southeast Asis burned."

"Lincoln felt that if the United States was ever destroyed it would be by the hordes of people who wanted to be office holders and to live for nothing at government expense -- a vice, he added dryly, 'from which I myself am not free.' "

Duluth - Random House - 1983 - 214 pages

This may have been Vidal's most creative novel as he took a multi-level look at the ultimate power of the novelist over the "lives" of his characters.  According to Vidal, the fiction writer will use the same character many times in various fictive writings although that character may have been eliminated at some point.  Characters bounce from book to television, and from past to present.  An example here is the return of the Myra Breckenridge persona into the character of Duluth PD Detective Darlene Ecks.  This novel also mixes science fiction and speculative politics into a story that examines the power structure within a medium-sized U.S. city in the Midwest.  The racial stereotypes and deviant sexual practices promoted by the Duluth PD represent fictional devices that are less tolerated today than in Vidal's post-Myra period.  If not for the unnecessary graphic descriptions of his homosexual fantasies, Duluth might have been viewed as one of Vidal's best.  Instead, this one will remained buried with Myra and Myron below his better-known works of historical fiction.  [JAM 3/19/2023]

 

Lincoln - Random House -1984 - 657 pages

Wikipedia tells us that Gore Vidal wrote seven books in a series that was called "Narratives of Empire,"  The first three: Washington DC, Burr and 1876 were known as a "trilogy" until Lincoln was published.  However, the actual trilogy (if there was one) was: Burr, Lincoln and 1876 with Washington DC being unconnected at the time.  In the final chapter of this novel, Vidal connects it to the events of 1876 with the fictional introduction of Abe Lincoln's secretary, John Hay to fictional characters Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler and his daughter, Emma Schuyler in France.  Without this chapter, Vidal's novel of the 16th U.S. President could stand alone as nonfiction with only some conversations being created by him.  Vidal accurately presents a president whose entire term of office was consumed by the secession and the war.  He was never free of it.  To his credit, Vidal explains in the Afterword the minor historical revisions he made to allow this epic story to flow.  I believe that the reader is not deceived at all by this novelization of the times.  In addition to Abe and his family (Mary, Robert, Willie, Tad, Eddie) and secretaries (Nicolay & Hay), Vidal develops the personalities and prejudices of numerous cabinet members, generals, congressmen, editors and their families.  Although the primary narrator is John Hay, the opinions of Salmon Chase and William Seward are prominently mentioned to illustrate the conflicts of Lincoln's presidency regarding preservation of the Union, abolishment of slavery, and the significant challenges our young country faced.  If you are a student of United States history, this volume should be read and reread for one to fully comprehend how we got here.  [JAM 9/29/2023]  

 

Empire - Random House - 1987 - 487 pages

[Re-read]  This was the fifth of seven novels now know as "Narratives of Empire" that were published in a seemingly random chronological order.  The covered the administrations of Presidents McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt.  Both employed John Hay (1838-1905) as Secretary of State.  Since Hay had been an assistant to Abraham Lincoln, the book seems like a sequel to Lincoln, although the third book in the series (1876) covered events between Lincoln and Empire.  However, the main thrust of Empire is the newspaper publishing business led by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) who created political narratives to make and break various political figures of the day.   Four of the five novels (including Burr) are linked by fictional character, Caroline Sanford within one short section in Chapter 15 as follows:  [JAM 11/20/2023]

"Caroline sat at the large marquetry table, said to have been the very one that the Duke had used when he was the controller of the royal revenues, and opened the two letter-boxes.  The first contained fragments of Aaron Burr's autobiography, with a commentary by his law-clerk Charles Schemerhorn Schuyler.  She glanced through the pages, and decided that Henry Adams, if no one else, would be fascinated.  She skipped to the end of the book, written years after Burr's death, and read what she already knew, of her grandfather's accidental discovery that he was one of Burr's numerous illegitimate children.  The second leather box was a final journal by her grandfather, covering the year 1876.  He had returned to New York for the first time since 1836, with his daughter, Emma, the Princess d'Agrigente.  This was the volume she intended to read carefully."

 

At Home: Essays 1982-1988 - Random House - 1988 - 303 pages

Gore Vidal always claimed that he had no interest in autobiography.  However, his essays collections are an excellent substitute for it.  His father, Gene Vidal was an aviation pioneer and FDR's first assistant director for Air Regulation.  His son, Gore (nee Eugene Luther Jr.) was first child to be on a transcontinental flight at age four.  He was the youngest solo pilot at age eleven.  His grandfather was Senator Thomas Gore.  When the senator became blind, Gore was his personal reader.  Gore Vidal knew Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway, Anthony Burgess, Paul Newman, etc. 

This volume of essays is separated into two sections.  Part I could certainly be considered autobiographical as it covers flying, travel, writing and political opinions.  In 1939 Vidal was a teenager (13) in Paris as Hitler was ravaging Europe.  He relates his crossing from France to Italy and a meeting with author Frederic Prokosch.  In 1942 Vidal volunteered for the U.S. Army at age 17 during WW II.  He wrote his first novel (Williwaw) during the war.

Part II primarily covers essays and book reviews about literary figures: Henry James, William Dean Howells, Logan Pearsall Smith, Oscar Wilde, Paul Bowles, Italo Calvino, Burgess and Dawn Powell.  The final essay ("How I Do What I Do If Not Why") is a thorough rebuttal to those critics of his historical novel about Abraham Lincoln.  As always, a volume of essays by Gore Vidal contains numerous astute comments about politics, novels and religion.  Here are a few of those.  [JAM 12/20/2023]

(Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon) "... Johnson, far surpassed Nixon when it came to mendacity and corruption.  But the national myth requires, periodically, a scapegoat, hence Nixon's turn in the barrel."

(Ronald Reagan) "Of all our presidents, Reagan most resembles Warren Harding.  He is handsome, amiable, ignorant; he has an ambitious wife ..."

(Empire) "... our modern empire was carefully thought out by four men ... U.S. Navy captain, Alfred Thayer Mahan ... historian-geopolitician, Brooks Adams ... President Theodore Roosevelt ... [and] Senator Henry Cabot Lodge ..."

(teachers/novels) "As most of our novelists now teach school, they tend to tell us what it is like to be a schoolteacher, and since schoolteachers have been taught to teach others to write only about what they know, they tell us about what they know, too, which is next to nothing about the way the rest of the population of the Republic lives."

(reading) "[per John Gardner] In nearly all good fiction, the basic ... plot is this: a central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition ... and so arrives at a win, lose or draw."

(atheism) "To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions.  But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all."

(monotheism) "Now, at the risk of hurting more feelings, I must tell you that I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race.  I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam - good people, yes, but any religion based on a single ... frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion, but an ethical and educational system that has worked pretty well for 2500 years.  So you see I am ecumenical in my dislike for the Book.  But, like it or not, the Book is there, and because of it people die; and the world is in danger."

 

Hollywood - Random House - 1990 - 437 pages

Vidal's "trilogy" became a series of four, five and now six historical novels with one more to come.  This novel spans the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding through the eyes of fictional characters Caroline Sanford (aka "Emma Traxler") and James Burden Day.  Author Vidal effectively weaves the events of the 1917-1924 period with the lives of newspaper publishers and the rise of the movie ("photo-play") industry in Southern California.  This eventful period included the late entry of the United States into World War I, the deadly Spanish Flu, Prohibition, and the failed League of Nations concept.  Vidal digs deeper than our high school history books to probe the truth about what was really happening.  He also found room for his actual grandfather (Senator Gore) and future presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.  The wives and mistresses of the male leaders are given equal billing in Vidal/s historical novels.  While every page is a work of articulate genius, here are a few observations of Gore Vidal, historical scholar. [JAM 1/21/2024]

(war} "If ever anyone benefited from an American war it was the trusts, the cartels, the Wall Street speculators ..." [and] "... if the war should be a long one, and we be weakened, there is the true enemy waiting for us in the West.  The yellow races, leg by Japan, ready to overwhelm us through sheer numbers."

(movies) "They were insidious.  They were like waking dreams that then, in sleep, usurped proper dreams."

(World War I) "Thw war had been fraudulent.  It had never been of the slightest concern to the United States whether or not Germany commanded Europe, indeed, most Americans believed , as a matter of course, that the entire point to their country was that it provided a safe refuge for those Europeans who could no longer endure the old continent's confusions and cruelties."

(unknown soldiers) "... a current fetish all round the world as the world's leaders interred the odd set of unidentified bones, thus honoring, as they liked to put it, the anonymous multitudes that they had sacrificed for nothing at all."

(Hearst) "What we invent others reflect, if we're ingenious enough, of course.  Hearst showed us how to invent news, which we do, some of the time, for the best of reasons."

 

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir (Paul Newman) - Alfred A, Knopf - 2022 - 297 pages

Gore Vidal was mentioned four times in this autobiography of Paul Newman that was recorded from 1986 to 1991.

"When I read Schopenhauer in school, I didn't remember it, and I didn't even remember what I didn't get.  Years later when Joanne and I became good friends with Gore Vidal, it was difficult for me to be around a man who could speak so intelligently about so many things: American writers, the Greeks, the Romans, French playwrights, while I was just an illiterate."

"It is probably no coincidence that as I entered the 1960s, my political awareness and activities were increasing.  Perhaps it began with Gore Vidal.  We'd met in 1955 when I played the lead in his The Death of Billy the Kid. When Joanne and I were on our honeymoon in Europe, Gore and his partner, Howard Austen, had a wonderful celebratory dinner for us; when we settled back in LA afterwards, we actually shared a rented house with the for a time ... Gore, of course, was very politically astute and active.  We'd stay up late and drink formidable amounts of liquor, wine, and beer.  It didn't matter if Gore went to bed at four a.m., he'd be at his typewriter working at nine in the morning ... Joanne and I were impressed by Gore's liberalism ..."

"By the mid-sixties, Gore and Howard had pretty much moved full-time to Italy.  Long-distance relationships can be hard to maintain, so when Gore invited Joanne and me to take a sailing cruise together around Greece, it seemed like a wonderful chance to escape our hectic home lives and be reunited with one of our long-time friends ... I've always been impressed with Gore; he even reminds me of myself in some ways -- he's a real inner-outer guy, different layers of personalities for different situations ... Gore had a rather inflated sense of where he stood in the literary world.  He has a sense of being truly powerful, but while he is a power, he was never truly powerful ...when my courtship of Joanne was still secret, there was the occasional gossip-column item that said Joanne and Gore (who, of course was gay), who occasionally dined or went to the theater together, were a couple."

"Gore Vidal always justified his attachment to alcohol on that basis: creative benefits."