Los Angeles: US novelist Gore Vidal, the author,
savvy analyst of American life, politician died
on Tuesday at age 86, his family has reportedly has said.
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| Gore Vidal who dies at the age of 86 on Tuesday [File Photo] |
According to media reports Vidal died at his home in the
Hollywood Hills at about 6.45 p.m. of complications from pneumonia.
Vidal had been living alone in his home and had been ill quite
from some days.
Vidal is survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and
half-brother Tommy Auchincloss.
Vidal was among the last generation of literary writers, who
were also genuine celebrities fixtures on talk shows and in gossip columns.
He wrote 25 novels, essays, Broadway hits, screenplays and
television dramas in a career that also included unsuccessful runs for
political office, celebrated talk show duels, and even an appearance as himself
in Fellini's "Roma."
"The City and the Pillar", the author's third novel dealt
unabashedly with homosexuality, scandalizing reviewers when it was published in
1948 but broke new ground in American literature.
Candidly claimed himself to be bi-sexual and contemptuous of
prudish mores, he returned to the subject of sexual identity 20 years later in
his transsexual satire "Myra Breckenridge."
Other novels dealt with US politics and history, tracing
what he saw as the rise of an American Empire in novels like "Burr"
(1973), 1876 (1976), "Lincoln" (1984), "Empire" (1987),
"Hollywood" (1990), and "The Golden Age" (2000).
Satires included "Kalki" (1978),
"Duluth" (1983) and "Live from Golgotha: the Gospel according to
Gore Vidal" (1992).
His politics often sparked controversy.
The son of a US army officer, Vidal was born October 3, 1925
at West Point, the US military academy, to a family rich in political and
social connections.