Gore Vidal Dies at 86: Remembering Gore Vidal vs William Buckley

Master Raconteur Gore Vidal: 1925-2012

Novelist, essayist, playwright, actor, activist, and would-be politician and lifelong rabblerouser Gore Vidal has died due to complications from pneumonia. He was 86 years old.

• Gore Vidal Dies at 86: L.A. Times
• The Gore Vidal Index
• The Writings of Gore Vidal
  

Gore Vidal's 1948 novel The City and the Pillar was perhaps the first major American novel to deal frankly with homosexuality. Gore Vidal is perhaps best remembered for his debates. Particulalry noteworthy: the 1968 debate with William F. Buckley, which degenerated into name-calling and verbal abuse. At one point, Buckley yelled, ""Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."

Not a tremendous amount has changed since then in terms of American political discourse. You can watch that pivotal moment in the Gore Vidal-William Buckley debate below.

Gore Vidal has appeared on shows ranging from BBC's Hardtalk to Fox's Family Guy.

Was Gore Vidal Gay?

Gore Vidal was openly bisexual. He was once engaged to Joanne Woodward (at least publicly) before she married Paul Newman. After Newman and Woodward were married, they shared a beach house along with Vidal and Howard Austen, who would be Gore Vidal's partner for the next 53 years, until Austen's death in 2003.

Videos

William Buckley Vs Gore Vidal

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