Celebrated US writer, Gore Vidal, dies at 86

09:24 • 01.08.12



Gore Vidal, 86, a celebrated writer, cultural gadfly and occasional political candidate, died of pneumonia Tuesday at his Hollywood Hills home, a nephew has confirmed .


Known for his urbanity and wit — “Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little” — Vidal’s literary career spanned more than 60 years, and he once said that he hoped to be remembered as “the person who wrote the best sentences of his time,” The Washington Post reported.


Vidal was born Oct. 3, 1925, at West Point, N.Y., where his father, Eugene Vidal, was teaching aeronautics at the military academy. His mother, Nina, was the socialite daughter of Sen. T.P. Gore of Oklahoma. Christened Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, the writer later lopped off the first two names “for political as well as for aesthetic reasons.” He said that “this often has been gleefully interpreted as a rejection of my father, whom I liked, in order to become my mother, whom I disliked.”


In fact, so great was his antagonism toward his mother that Vidal stopped seeing her during the last 25 years of her life. He hero-worshipped his father, a former Olympic athlete in the decathlon.


Young Vidal spent much of his childhood in Washington and was particularly attached to his grandfather. The senator was blind, so the boy spent many hours reading to him aloud, thus inaugurating his lifelong passion for learning and books.


In his childhood, Vidal loved L. Frank Baum’s stories about Oz, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan adventures, the fantasies of E. Nesbit, and every sort of history: “The first grown-up book that I read on my own was a nineteenth-century edition of Tales from Livy that I’d found in my grandfather’s library.” By the age of 14, he wrote, “I wanted to know the entire history of the entire world.”


Vidal attended St Albans School, where he fell in love with a fellow student named Jimmie Trimble, who was killed in combat on Iwo Jima during World War II. In his memoirs “Palimpsest” (1995) and “Point to Point Navigation” (2006), Vidal makes clear that this youthful passion, cut short by Trimble’s death, marked his entire life: He never truly loved anyone again, although he would enjoy hundreds of sexual encounters, most of them with anonymous strangers, in which he took pleasure but, as he repeatedly insisted, never gave any except inadvertently.
 

Armenian News - Tert.am





LATEST NEWSAll Today news

22:17 • 23/05

Armenian students offered remote access to US nuclear reactor

21:51 • 23/05

PSY look-alike fools Cannes

21:33 • 23/05

Iranian gas pipeline offers no alternative, says energy minister

20:48 • 23/05

Soldier Lee Rigby killed in London attack

20:27 • 23/05

Karabakh issue discussed in Azerbaijan

19:42 • 23/05

Woman in Armenia’s Vanadzor attempts self-immolation

19:15 • 23/05

Britain's Tate museum sets $34m record for Constable painting

18:39 • 23/05

London terror suspects faced security investigation

18:23 • 23/05

Gas price hike plan spurs protest in Armenia’s capital (updated, photos)

18:10 • 23/05

Armenian rescuers conduct test flights at 800m altitude (video)

17:56 • 23/05

Georges Moustaki, composer of Edith Piaf hit song, dies

17:31 • 23/05

Public attitudes to opinions perceived unpatriotic were hostile in Armenia - Amnesty International

17:25 • 23/05

Ex deputy head of Nubarashen penitentiary arrested for bribery

17:18 • 23/05

Armenia’s central bank launches hotline for villager loans

17:01 • 23/05

Georgian clergymen charged over disrupting gay parade

16:39 • 23/05

Armenian catholicos meets Swiss envoy

16:24 • 23/05

Istanbul tops the list with most rape cases in Turkey

16:22 • 23/05

Gas price rise to scale up poverty in Armenia

16:19 • 23/05

Google acquires kite-power generator

16:00 • 23/05

Iran election: Rafsanjani criticises leaders' 'ignorance'

15:35 • 23/05

‘You are nothing’ – ruling party MP to opposition

15:35 • 23/05

‘You will enjoy the upcoming 4-5 years, we will work hard’ – PM

14:58 • 23/05

Global stocks markets hit after Chinese data and Fed comments

14:29 • 23/05

‘Chechnya’s consular agent to Turkey’ murdered in Ankara

14:24 • 23/05

Government to allocate 62.9 million drams for completing construction of building for insecure people

14:19 • 23/05

Energy, gas price revision shows rise – official

14:07 • 23/05

Armenia’s NA chairman calls for reconciliation

13:27 • 23/05

Parliament approves Armenia’s government program

13:24 • 23/05

Armenian National Congress to vote against government program

13:22 • 23/05

Armenia’s minister of urban development visits Yerevan’s covered market

13:19 • 23/05

Last bell to ring for graduates on May 24

12:31 • 23/05

Georgia’s Vano Merabishvili sent to prison

12:25 • 23/05

Hail-stricken villagers dissatisfied with Armenia’s government

12:24 • 23/05

NGO head calls for boycotting gas charges

12:21 • 23/05

Farmers of hail-stricken villages to be freed of water, land taxes

11:29 • 23/05

Prince Charles to visit Armenia

11:27 • 23/05

Trade conditions unlikely to change – CBA

11:22 • 23/05

Lennon lyrics donated to British Library for tax relief

11:11 • 23/05

Women suffer more mental health problems than men due to stress of juggling many roles, according to study

10:55 • 23/05

Nissan to recall more than 800,000 cars

10:44 • 23/05

Eddie Ahern and Neil Clement receive lengthy BHA bans

10:39 • 23/05

Aleppo-Armenian intellectual kidnapped by extremist rebel group

10:19 • 23/05

Carrefour to divest 25 pct stake in Middle East venture

09:52 • 23/05

168 Zham: Moscow’s second message

09:51 • 23/05

Zhoghovurd: Opposition rep reached agreement with Armenia’s prosecutor general?

09:32 • 23/05

Ford plans to shut all Australian production by 2016

09:26 • 23/05

Japanese 80-year-old claims Everest record

09:15 • 23/05

US confirms four American citizens killed by drones

09:10 • 23/05

Woolwich machete attack: Cameron to lead Cobra meeting

08:57 • 23/05

‘Turkey shows little progress in freedom’- Amnesty International

08:38 • 23/05

Zhoghovurd: Opposition MP, Armenian premier meet?



ArmeniaRegionPress digestWorldBusinessEventScience/techCultureSportsLifestyle