Empire of Self: a Life of Gore Vidal

Publisher Marketing: An intimate, authorized, yet frank biography of Gore Vidal (1925 2012), one of the most accomplished, visible, and controversial American novelists and cultural figures of the past century. The product of thirty years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini s "Empire of Self" probes behind the glittering surface of Gore Vidal s colorful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well a virtual "Who s Who of the American Century," from Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart through the Kennedys, Princess Margaret, and the creme de la creme of Hollywood. The life of Gore Vidal was an amazingly full one full of colorful incident, famous people, and lasting achievements that calls out for careful evocation and examination. Jay Parini crafts Vidal s life into an accessible, entertaining story that puts the experience of one of the great American figures of the postwar era into context, introduces the author and his works to a generation who may not know him, and looks behind the scenes at the man and his work in ways never possible before his death. Provided with unique access to Vidal s life and his papers, he excavates many buried skeletons yet never loses sight of his deep respect for Vidal and his astounding gifts. This is the biography Gore Vidal has long needed. Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2015 pg. 74 (EAN 9780385537568, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2015 (EAN 9780385537568, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Booklist 08/01/2015 pg. 21 (EAN 9780385537568, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Publishers Weekly 08/10/2015 (EAN 9780385537568, Hardcover) Library Journal 09/01/2015 pg. 101 (EAN 9780385537568, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Parini, Jay Jay Parini is a poet, novelist, and biographer, author of The Last Station, which was made into an Academy Award-nominated film in 2009. His novels and biographies (Steinbeck, Frost, Faulkner) have been translated into over thirty languages. He is Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College. He has edited many books, including the Norton Anthology of American Autobiography, The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. He is a regular contributor to "The Chronicle of Higher Education, CNN, The New York Times", and "The Guardian". He has also written for GQ, "The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post", and "Salon.com".