Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

Empire of self, a life of Gore Vidal, Jay Parini

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Empire of self

electronic resource eBook

dictionariesbibliography

Jay Parini

a life of Gore Vidal

An authorized profile of the influential twentieth-century American novelist and cultural figure explores the private psychological and sexual aspects of his character behind his celebrity while examining his relationships and the secrets that shaped hisbeliefs

Introduction. Rock Creek ramble -- A silver-plated mug -- Capitol steps -- A wider world -- Truman and Gore at the Plaza -- Not a lovely war -- Two roads diverging -- Storm at sea -- Hearts of darkness -- Edgewater recalled -- Portrait of the artist as Balletomane -- Pillars of salt -- Stateside -- More dolce vita -- Finding Dutchess County -- Loving Howard -- Beverly Hills blues -- Detecting life -- The Spanish main -- Media as messages -- Silvery screens -- More visits to small planets -- Outlaws -- Ben-Hur -- A place at the round table -- At the Water's edge - Hyannis -- "You'll get more with Gore" -- Slouching towards Camelot -- Essaying the world -- Roman spring -- Julian rising -- Moravia and Gore on the Isola Tiberna -- Romanitas -- Capitol steps revisited -- The holy family -- Myra -- Busy weekends -- The Vidal-Buckley debates -- Furious visions -- Miss Sontag writes a novel -- A bad year -- Writing Richard Nixon -- Italian hours -- Patriotic Gore -- The swirl -- Myron unmanned -- The man who wouldn't fall to earth -- Half a century -- 1876 and all that -- Memories, dreams, self-reflections -- Apocalypse not quite yet -- Hollywood redux -- Grace and hope -- Gore and Isaiah Berlin in Oxford -- Acting president -- Running in place -- Duluth : love it or loathe it -- Honorary citizen -- Land of Lincoln -- Ah, Venice! -- The lesson of the master -- "It's a trade" -- "One disaster after another" -- Fear of flying -- Imperium -- Sailing the coast -- Adding wings to the mansion -- Lenny and gore -- "Our country's biographer" -- "The other side of the camera" -- Attacking the sky-God -- Thinking about sex -- Retreats, advances -- In the widening gyre -- At the Harvard Faculty Club -- Rethinking Washington -- Dreams of wholeness -- Elder statesman -- Reviewing the life -- The golden age -- Still the best man -- Songs in the Hollywood Hills -- The pamphleteer -- Finding founding fathers -- A death before bedtime -- Marching to the sea -- The last memoir -- Mopping-up operations -- Snapshots of the end -- Conclusion -- Postscript