Gore Vidal

 

“The Narratives of Empire series is a heptalogy of historical novels by Gore Vidal, published between 1967 and 2000, which chronicle the dawn-to-decadence history of the American Empire; the narratives interweave the personal stories of two families with the personages and events of U.S. history. Despite the publisher's preference for the politically neutral series-title "American Chronicles", Vidal preferred the series title "Narratives of Empire". The seven novels can be read in either historical or publication order without losing narrative intelligibility.” – Wikipedia. I shall take them in historical order, using summations from Wikipedia, and adding personal notes now and then.

Burr. “Set during the politically contentious era of the Jackson administration, an elderly and active Aaron Burr recounts his experiences of the Revolutionary War and America's Founding Fathers to a young law clerk secretly working for the press.” A paperback copy bought at a garage sale first introduced me to this series and to Vidal in general, though I knew of him for years; he seemed to me then a producer of historical potboilers like Herman Wouk. The Revolution and early years of America was a good cheese to draw me in. I read more of the series in the public library and got Hardback copies when I could. Had a big influence on me when I finally came to write AGODP. (1973)

Lincoln. “Members of President Abraham Lincoln's government and household help to carry out his policy of preserving the Union through a dreadful and bloody Civil War.” After he published this book he had some controversies with what he called “squirrel-scholars” who disagreed with some of his conclusions, which have since been evaluated to be more or less correct. (1984)

1876. “After forty years abroad, an American writer returns to the US during the Reconstruction Era to find New York and Washington transformed by recession, extreme wealth and political corruption, all culminating in the theft of the 1876 United States presidential election.” Continues with the narrator from ‘Burr’. (1976)

Empire. “A circle of political intellectuals and enterprising newspaper editors learn of the power they wield as they both push for and chronicle the growth of the American Empire at the turn of the 20th Century.” (1987)

Hollywood. “From the perspectives of filmmakers, news publishers and political operatives, a burgeoning and experimental motion picture industry in Los Angeles (taken over as the propaganda arm of an authoritarian presidential administration) rises to wealth and international prominence in the First World War; all resulting in a political backlash of isolationism, prohibition, censorship and a second-rate presidency.” (1990)

Washington, D. C. “This is a story of political life in Washington among congressmen, the press and the social elites during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.” Ironically the very first of the books written, when Vidal had little or no idea of producing a series. (1967)

The Golden Age. “The US is maneuvered into the Second World War by President Roosevelt, whose successors pursue a fatal Cold War policy of military and economic domination just as the nation has become the center of western art and culture.” The summation of the series, into which Vidal injects himself as a character at one point. Something of another take on ‘Washington, DC’, with insights gained over 30 years of writing, and ending with the death of the first character he ever introduced, thus rounding things off in a glorious circle. (2000)

Ranking: Burr, Essential; the rest, Keepers.

File Code: Historical Novels. Hardbacks.

United States: Essays 1952 -1992, by Gore Vidal.

“From the age of Eisenhower to the dawning of the Clinton era, Gore Vidal’s United States offers an incomparably rich tapestry of American intellectual and political life in a tumultuous period. It also provides the best, most sustained exposure possible to the most wide-ranging, acute, and original literary intelligence of the post—World War II years. United States is an essential book in the canon of twentieth-century American literature and an endlessly fascinating work.” – Amazon. While I never completely agree with Vidal, he always has something insightful and interesting to say, especially about literature. He has proved not to be quite as prophetic as he likes to think.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Collected Essays. Hardback.

The Last Empire: Essays 1992 - 2000, by Gore Vidal.

A follow-up to “United States: Essays 1952 -1992”. More from the gadfly pen of Vidal as he gives his acerbic point of view of the nation and its pivotal characters.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Collected Essays. Softcover.

Palimpsest: A Memoir, and Point by Point Navigation, by Gore Vidal.

“This explosively entertaining memoir abounds in gossip, satire, historical apercus, and trenchant observations. Vidal’s compelling narrative weaves back and forth in time, providing a whole view of the author’s celebrated life, from his birth in 1925 to today, and features a cast of memorable characters - including the Kennedy family, Marlon Brando, Anais Nin, and Eleanor Roosevelt.” – Amazon, about Palimpsest. ‘Navigation’ is more of the same, sometimes the exact same, and is a little patchier, as he wanders through his past and brings things up to date since ‘Palimpsest’. Illustrated with photographs.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Autobiography. Hardbacks.