Lincoln is the cornerstone of Gore Vidal's fictional American chronicle, which includes Burr, 1876, Washington, D.C., Empire, and Hollywood. It opens early on a frozen winter morning in 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln slips into Washington, flanked by two bodyguards. The future president is in disguise, for there is talk of a plot to murder him. During the next four years there will be numerous plots to murder this man who has sworn to unite a disintegrating nation. Isolated in ...

This New York Times bestseller offers "an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all" ( New York Review of Books).In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal's splendid prose, ...

Gore Vidal—novelist, playwright, critic, screenwriter, memoirist, indefatigable political commentator, and controversialist—is America's premier man of letters. No other living writer brings more sparkling wit, vast learning, indelible personality, and provocative mirth to the job of writing an essay.This long-needed volume comprises some twenty-four of his best-loved pieces of criticism, political commentary, memoir, portraiture, and, occasionally, unfettered score settling. It will stand...

The novel is set in the harsh and unforgiving environment of the Aleutian Islands, a remote and windswept chain off the coast of Alaska. Against this backdrop, Vidal weaves a tale of suspense, survival, and human drama.The story follows a small crew aboard the U.S. Army freighter "Williwaw" as they navigate the treacherous waters of the North Pacific Ocean. As they sail through the fog-shrouded channels and icy seas of the Aleutians, they are pursued by a mysterious and deadly enemy—the wi...

When a mortician appears on television to declare that death is infinitely preferable to life, he sparks a religious movement that quickly leaves Christianity and most of Islam in the dust.Gore Vidal's deft and daring blend of satire and prophecy, first published in 1954, eerily anticipates the excesses of Jim Jones, David Koresh, and the Heaven's Gate suicide cult.-Print ed.

Someone turned on the radio in the wheelhouse. A loud and sentimental song awakened him. He lay there for a moment in his bunk and stared at the square window in the wall opposite him. A sea gull flew lazily by the window. He watched it glide back and forth until it was out of sight. He yawned and became conscious of an ache behind his eyes. There had been a party, he remembered. He felt sick. The radio became louder as the door to his cabin opened. A brown Indian face looked in at him. “H...

Robert Holton removed several dark hairs from his comb and wondered if his hairline was receding. He squinted for a moment at himself in the mirror and decided that he was not losing his hair, not yet anyway. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and put on his shoes. He started to tie the laces of the left shoe when he began to think of his dream. He had many dreams: of flying through the air, of walking in empty rooms, of all the standard things that psychiatrists like to hear about. U...

For readers who can’t get enough of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Gore Vidal’s stunning novel about Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel—and who served as a successful, if often feared, statesman of our fledgling nation.Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated—and misunderstood—figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis...

Master storyteller Gore Vidal's 1947 classic.Robert Holton has returned from Europe and settled into a solitary existence working for a New York stockbroker. He suppresses memories of nights of love in Florence as he tries to succeed in the city, but when Carla turns up he has to choose between conventionality and the fraught path of love.

Julian the Apostate was the nephew of Emperor Constantine the Great. Julian ascended to the throne in A.D. 361, at the age of twenty-nine, and was murdered four years later after an unsuccessful attempt to rebuke Christianity and restore the worship of the old gods. Now this historical tapestry is brought to vibrant life by the dazzling talent of Gore Vidal.

When a mortician appears on television to declare that death is infinitely preferable to life, he sparks a new religion which goes global and eerily anticipates the excesses of Jim Jones, David Koresh, and the Heaven's Gate suicide cult.

In "In a Yellow Wood," readers are likely introduced to the protagonist, who may be facing a pivotal moment in their life. The title itself suggests a sense of transition or uncertainty, as the phrase "yellow wood" evokes images of autumn, change, and reflection.Central to the narrative could be themes of self-discovery and personal growth. The protagonist may find themselves at a crossroads, grappling with questions of purpose, fulfillment, and the pursuit of happiness. As they navigate t...