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  Gore Vidal: Pleased to Leave You
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ContributorHikikomori Blitzkrieg! 
Last EditedHikikomori Blitzkrieg!  Aug 01, 2012 11:21pm
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CategoryObituary
AuthorTaki Theodoracopulos
News DateWednesday, August 1, 2012 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionGore Vidal was as good as it gets where writing is concerned. I can’t think of a single awkward sentence he ever wrote, and he wrote a hell of a lot for someone from a very privileged background who could do more enjoyable things than sit behind a typewriter. He wrote twenty-six novels, among which were Williwaw, The City and the Pillar, Washington, D.C., Myra Breckinridge, 1876, and his zinger, Julian, a novel about homosexuality that had his chic friends and his patrician family heading for the hills. That was in 1964. Vidal’s essays were his forte and his most successful play was The Best Man, which had a recent revival on Broadway.

But you know all this. I want to tell you about a Gore Vidal few people knew, because he was an expert in hiding his feelings behind a cold and cynical mask. The first time I met him in London more than forty years ago, his opening line was, “Oh hello, I read with great interest the lies you wrote about me.” He then shook my hand and smiled.

“If only I could say the same,” I answered, as no one had ever heard of me at that point except for my parents and a few close friends. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, however seldom our paths crossed. Gore wrote me short notes, mostly urging me to keep on writing and always saying bravo when some rude remark about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians had readers asking for me to be sacked.
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