Gore Vidal Dead at 86

Outspoken man of letters dies after long illness
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2012 12:09 AM CDT
Updated Aug 1, 2012 4:00 AM CDT
Gore Vidal Dead at 86
Author Gore Vidal tosses barbs in all directions as he discusses Hollywood unions, politics, lecturing and publicizing books in a 1974 interview.   (AP File Photo)

Celebrated American man of letters Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86 after a long illness. Vidal—a novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and political commentator—died of complications from pneumonia at his home in the Hollywood Hills, reports AP. In his long career, he penned 25 novels, including historical works like Lincoln and Burr and satires like Myra Breckenridge, and more than 200 widely acclaimed essays on subjects including politics, sexuality, and religion.

Vidal, a political pundit who twice ran for office as a Democrat, was a fixture on talk shows in the 1960s and '70s, and famously nearly came to blows with conservative commentator William F. Buckley at a TV debate during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. "I never thought about myself as a 'personality,'" he told Entertainment Weekly in 2006. "To go around in a purple suit or something just to get attention—that’s not my style. But you’ve got to amuse yourself somehow, you know? And I find that being on TV is a lot more amusing than actually watching it." (More Gore Vidal stories.)

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