Gore Vidal, Elegant Author, Dies at 86
Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a
certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization,
died on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, where
he moved in 2003, after years of living in Ravello, Italy. He was 86.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, his nephew, Burr Steers, said by
telephone.
Mr. Vidal was, at the end of his life, an Augustan figure who believed himself
to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right. Few American writers have
been more versatile or gotten more mileage from their talent. He published some
25 novels, two memoirs and several volumes of stylish, magisterial essays. He
also wrote plays, television dramas and screenplays. For a while he was even a
contract writer at MGM. And he could always be counted on for a
spur-of-the-moment aphorism, putdown or sharply worded critique of American
foreign policy.
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