Gore Vidal

A literary cause célèbre when first published in 1948, Gore Vidal’s now-classic The City and the Pillar stands as a landmark novel of the gay experience.
Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defying his parents’ expectations,...

The character of President Lincoln, unremittingly tested by the trials of the war years, is reflected through the eyes of the diverse and colorful denizens of Washington, including his wife Mary and his political rivals and disciples.

The Federation of American Scientists has catalogued nearly two hundred incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been the aggressor. In these essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed too controversial to be published in the United States until now), the author challenges the comforting consensus following both September 11th and Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma city:...

Gore Vidal, winner of the National Book Award, once again proves himself a provocative contemporary American critic. In this far-ranging collection of essays, he brings his keen intellect to a wide range of subjects--from profiles of Clare Boothe Luce and Charles Lindbergh, to provocative analyses of literary icons John Updike and Mark Twain.

In 1939 Washington, a 13-year-old math genius is summoned to the Smithsonian Institution to help scientists build a weapon to win the coming war. The institution's wax effigies come alive and he meets historical figures. A comic fantasy.