Gore Vidal

Unsold script: Wrote the script for a TV movie, "The Magical Monarch of Mo", based on the novel by L. Frank Baum , which was to star Groucho Marx in the title role.

Wrote under the literary pseudonyms of Edgar Box, Katherine Everard, and Cameron Kay.

Born at 10:00 A.M. (EST) on a Saturday morning in the hospital of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His pregnant mother was attending a football game when she went into labor. The child was delivered by Major Howard Snyder who happened to be officer of the day at the hospital. Later, Snyder became Surgeon General of the Army and Physician to the President for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

His maternal grandfather Thomas Gore helped create the State of Oklahoma and was the first senator elected to represent the state. During his youth, Thomas Gore had lost sight in both eyes in two separate accidents and was completely blind for the remainder of his life. His blindness, however, didnt deter his political ambitions, and he was dubbed "The Blind Cowboy" by the U.S. political press.

Co-Founded the U.S. Peace Party with Benjamin Spock on June 23, 1967. Much like Gore Vidal himself, Spock was an outspoken activist in the anti-Vietnam War movement during the 1960s and early 1970s. This third party still exists today as the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP).

His father, Eugene Luther Vidal, helped start three different airlines and had a lengthy romantic relationship with aviator Amelia Earhart. With Earharts recommendation to Eleanor Roosevelt , Vidal was named Director of Aeronautics in Franklin D. Roosevelts administration. He then appeared on the cover of Time magazine (December 18, 1933). In his youth, Eugene had been a football star at West Point and competed in the decathlon in the Antwerp Olympic Games of 1920.

He has been cited as a relative of Tennessee senator and Vice President Al Gore ("Gore" was Gore Vidals mothers maiden name). However, Gore Vidal and Al Gore share no common "Gore" ancestors going back to at least the early 1700s.

He shared a stepfather with Jacqueline Kennedy. Her mother Janet Norton Lee married his former stepfather Hugh Auchincloss. Jacqueline was given Gores former bedroom on the Auchincloss estate. Reportedly, Gore and John F. Kennedy were good friends who bonded over their mutual dislike of various family relatives.

Won a National Book Award for his non-fiction collection "United States: Essays, 1952-1992".

Uncle of Burr Steers , who is related on his mothers side to Thomas Jeffersons infamous vice president Aaron Burr, the subject of Vidals best-selling novel "Burr" in 1973.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 395-409. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Is uncredited as a screenwriter on Ben-Hur , although producer Sam Zimbalist had promised Vidal and Christopher Fry , who worked on the script independently from Vidal, screen credit. Karl Tunberg , who wrote the original screenplay before many rewrites by Vidal and Fry produced the final shooting script, claimed the credit. Zimbalist died before the movie ended, and thus could not testify at the Writers Guild arbitration hearing. Tunberg won the credit, but failed to win the Oscar. The film had been nominated for 12 Oscars, and won a record 11, a record that has since been tied. The movies sole loss was for best writing-screenplay based on material from another medium. The loss is usually attributed to the fallout over the credit dispute, which Vidal made widely known.

Was briefly engaged to actress Joanne Woodward. She broke their engagement to pledge herself to eventual husband Paul Newman. The new couple remained close friends with Vidal and briefly cohabited with him on a Los Angeles estate.

Was upset with the choice of Jerry Lewis as the lead in the movie version of Visit to a Small Planet .

Was nominated for Broadways 1960 Tony Award as author of Best Play for "The Best Man".

Had diabetes.

In 1976, he accepted the Oscar for best writing-original screenplay on behalf of Frank Pierson , who wasnt present at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Uncle of Eric Vidal.

Gore is his mothers maiden surname and was assumed in homage to his maternal grandfather Thomas Gore.

When asked why he was running for governor of California against incumbent governor Jerry Brown , he replied that "the chance to compete against a Zen space cadet is too good to pass up.".

In the early 1970s, a Washington, D.C. television station named the host of their weekly horror movie slot Gore Dival.

Lived in Hollywood Hills, California.

In 1936, as a 10-year-old boy, he appeared in a Path Newsreel landing his fathers light aircraft.

He met his long-term partner Howard Austen in 1950. They were together until Austens death in November 2003.

He was an intimate friend of playwright Tennessee Williams. They lived together in Italy for many years. Whenever Gore was asked to name his favorite movie, he facetiously named Marriage Is a Private Affair , a mediocre film starring Lana Turner. Vidal knew that Tennessee Williams had contributed to its screenplay without credit, and he was embarrassed whenever anyone mentioned the film.

A 1995 BBC documentary on him, "Omnibus" {Gore Vidals Gore Vidal Part 1 (#33.6)} , features The Night of the Generals among a montage of posters for films he is known to have contributed to as a writer, although, as with Ben-Hur , he is not credited.

Gores paternal grandfather, Felix Luther Vidal, was born in Wisconsin, to an Austrian immigrant father, Eugen Fidel Vidal, of Romansh heritage, and a Swiss immigrant mother, Emma de Traxler Hartmann, of Swiss-German descent. Gores other ancestry was German, Scottish, English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and Irish.

Had four goddaughters via the family of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman : Elinor Newman, born April 8, 1959; Melissa Newman, born September 27, 1961; Claire Newman, born April 21, 1965; Eva Amurri, born March 15; 1985. Remarking upon his numerous goddaughters, Gore reportedly quipped: "Always a godfather, never a god.".

[1976] It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to,articulate human relationships.

[1998] The [United States] empire is going to strike back at the,Internet in the interest of protecting our children from porn, drugs,and terrorism - all of which the U. S. government will claim is being,peddled by the Internet.

[asked to describe himself in one word] Realist.

[1981] A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head.

More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any other,name in the history of the world.

The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and,eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are,terrified of death.

[1988] 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, well, 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.

Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and,"tics," which are bloodsucking insects.

[on the United States] It is a pointless empire, which gives a satirist,like me great pleasure, the fact that nothing makes any sense.

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a,damn.

To write a script today means working for a committee of people who know,nothing about movies, as opposed, say, to real estate or the higher art,of bookkeeping.

[in 1956] I am at heart a propagandist, a tremendous hater, a tiresome,nag, complacently positive that there is no human problem which could,not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

Homophobia is fed into every child in the United States at birth. It is,unrelenting, it never lets up. They asked a whole raft of high school,boys across the country a couple years ago, one of those polls about,what they would most like to be in life, and what they would hate to,be, and so forth, and what they would most hate to be was homosexual.

[1979] There is no such thing as a homosexual person, any more than,there is such a thing as a heterosexual person. The words are,adjectives describing sexual acts, not people. The sexual acts are,entirely normal.

Gore, always said: "This whole country is based on only one thing: due,process of law, involving Habeas Corpus. " The only good thing England,gave us was the Magna Carta, which he regarded as sacred.

The best thing about being Anglophone is that you have two countries.

[1973] Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

Shit has its own integrity.

[commenting on the vast Jerusalem set for Ben-Hur (1959) ] This,Jerusalem is the Jerusalem of Jesus Christ. He could move through the,city and feel that he was absolutely at home. He would know where to go,to order a pizza.

Those presidential ninnies should stick to throwing out baseballs and,leave the important matters to serious people.

[on his role at a christening] Always a godfather, never a god.

[1973] The bad movies we made twenty years ago are now regarded in,altogether too many circles as important aspects of what the new,illiterates want to believe is the only significant art form of the,twentieth century. An entire generation has been brought up to admire,the products of that era. Like so many dinosaur droppings, the old,Hollywood films have petrified into something rich, strange,numinous-golden.

The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place.

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art.

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place,I’ve always said, ‘I have nothing to say, only to add. ’ And it’s with each addition that the writing gets done. The first draft of anything is really just a track.

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.

Ideally, of course, a relationship is best, but then how many people are capable of deep feeling? Practically none.

Prepare yourself for some bad news: Ronald Reagan’s library just burned down. Both books were destroyed. But the real horror: He hadn’t finished coloring either one of them.

As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

Foreigners are mystified by the whole business while thoughtful Americans – there are several of us – are equally mystified that the ruling establishment of the country has proved to be so mindlessly vindictive that it is willing, to be blunt, to overthrow the lawful government of the United States – that is, a president elected in 1992 and reelected in 1995 by We the People, that sole source of all political legitimacy, which takes precedence over the Constitution and the common law and God himself.

Even a child could see the division between what the Galileans [i. e.

Christians] say they believe and what, in fact, they do believe, as demonstrated by their actions. A religion of brotherhood and mildness which daily murders those who disagree with its doctrines can only be thought hypocrite, or worse.

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, well, 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.

With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a republic based roughly onthe original Roman model is that it cannot allow true political parties to share in government. What then is a true political party: one that is based firmly in the interest of a class be it workers or fox hunters. Officially we have two parties which are in fact wings of a common party of property with two right wings. Corporate wealth finances each. Since the property party controls every aspect of media they have had decades to create a false reality for a citizenry largely uneducated by public schools that teach conformity with an occasional advanced degree in consumerism.

It is of no consequence what others think of you. What matters is what you think of them. That is how you live your life.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.

Never have children, only grandchildren.

Capote I truly loathed. The way you might loathe an animal. A filthy animal that has found its way into the house.

Although Americans justify their self-interest in moral terms, their true interest is never itself moral.

I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.

presidents, when not outright telling lies, feel obliged to shade the truth most of the time. This is called politics; when a president lies successfully, he is called a statesman.

Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.

We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

We do not want to old to be sharper than we. It is bad enough that they were there first, and got the best things.

It is curious how little interested we are in the sexual desires of those who do not attract us.

I am afraid that as people grow old there is a tendency for them to believe that what the past *ought* to have been it was.

. . . is not all philosophy but preparation for a serene dying?,A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume.

I have never been an eavesdropper, even in childhood. Not from any sense of virtue but because I really do not want to know what people think of me or, to be precise, what they say of me - often a different matter. I can usually imagine the unpleasant judgements, for we are what others needs us to be. That is why our reputations change so often and so drastically, reflecting no particular change in us, merely a change in the mood of those who observe us.

I’m not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don’t. Move on and move out.

A court is the most depressing place on earth. Wherever there is a throne, one may observe in rich detail every folly and wickedness of which man is capable, enameled with manners and gilded with hypocrisy.

Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

. . . Leggett feels that to be excitingly right in general is better than to be dully accurate in particular. That is why he is such an effective journalist.

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing but is an ability to articulate human relationships.

We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

Overcrowding in the cities is producing a collective madness in which irrational violence flourishes because man needs more space in which to be than the modern city allows.

I was the most famous kid in the United States. That was 1936.

I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.

What the Kinseyites and I had in common so long ago was the knowledge that homosexual and heterosexual behavior are natural to all mammals, and that what differs from individual to individual is the balance between these two complementary but not necessarily conflicted drives.

We are the United States of Amnesia, which is encouraged by a media that has no desire to tell us the truth about anything, serving their corporate masters who have other plans to dominate us.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

The greatest pleasure when I started making money was not buying cars or yachts but finding myself able to have as many freshly typed drafts as possible.

Each youth betrays considerable anxiety about the wedding night ahead. .