Gore Vidal: Literary feuds, his 'vicious' mother and rumours of a secret love child
He slept with Kerouac, hung out with Jackie O and feuded with Mailer. He's the last surviving giant of American literature's golden age. So why is Gore Vidal still so sensitive about his reputation?
Interview by Robert Chalmers
Sunday, 25 May 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/gore-vidal-literary-feuds-his-vicious-mother-and-rumours-of-a-secret-love-child-832525.htmlHe was never a man plagued by self-doubt. A writer of supreme invention and poetic sensibility, his 24 novels include classics such as his transsexual satire Myra Breckenridge, and the innovative and surreal comedy Duluth. He wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play Suddenly Last Summer, starring Elizabeth Taylor; other scripts include Ben Hur and his underrated adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's novel, The Scapegoat.