![]() ![]() His perspective is always that of the lofty intellectual. His essays, as gathered in United States: Essays 1952-1992, make up more than 1,000 pages of vivid writing about books and ideas – perhaps his main contribution to the republic of letters. His seven novels about American history form an elegant and entertaining interlocking series that runs from the Jeffersonian years through the mid-20th century, and which puts his vast erudition on display in palatable ways. And his wide knowledge of the world informed his work – the brilliant historical novels, especially Burr (about Aaron Burr, a founding father) and Julian, about the fourth-century Roman emperor. He entered that stream and swam vigorously, often against the current. ![]() Vidal would dwell at length on his feuds and fixed on the idea, which he took from Goethe, that talent is formed in stillness but character “in the stream of the world”. The public mask didn’t fit the private man very well, and I was always much relieved when he took it off. It took an effort, strenuous at times, to remain a close friend but it seemed to me worth putting in the time, allowing him to relax into his deeper self, which was actually quite shy, even solitary. ![]() Needless to say he was a complicated and often combative man. I came to know Gore Vidal in the mid 1980s, when I was living in southern Italy, virtually a neighbour, and our friendship lasted until his death in 2012. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |