Gore Vidal, an American Original (1925-2012)

The prolific and pugnacious author of Myra Breckinridge, Burr, 1876, and Lincoln, among many other books died Tuesday night of pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.

During a wide-ranging career that spanned the second half of the 20th century, Vidal wrote twenty-four novels as well as plays, screenplays, hundreds of essays, and a critically lauded memoir, Palimpsest. In 1993 he won the National Book Award for his collection, United States (Essays 1952-92).

A contemporary of William F. Buckley Jr., Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer, with whom he famously feuded and finally reconciled, Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American original. His powerful voice will be missed.

“Gore Vidal was the last surviving giant of a postwar crop of American literary giants,” Vidal's longtime editor, Gerald Howard, Executive Editor and Vice President at Doubleday, said in a statement. “He was also that rare American writer who spoke not just to his countrymen but to the entire world, which listened closely to what he had to say ... The world just became a duller place.”

>Read newspaper obituaries and reactions to Vidal's death on his website, GoreVidalNow.com