Gore Vidal
Page 109
UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS: Buckley/Vidal files at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett attorneys: depositions, suits, appeals, claims, counterclaims, rulings, letters, news releases, clippings; Harold Hayes Collection, University of Wake Forest: Hayes ms. account of events and letters between Hayes and Buckley and Hayes and Vidal.
ENDNOTES
p. 604: “Mon vieux, he began … my undertaking it … over Buckley’s”: Harold Hayes, unpub. ms., nd, WF, 1.
p. 605: “I told Buckley … what he writes”: Hayes, 17. WF; “He’s pretty rough”: Hayes/GV, 2/26/1969. W; “How does the word ‘injunction’ … we went on”: Hayes, 20. WF.
p. 607: “the man who in his essays”: Buckley, “On Experiencing Gore Vidal,” 571.
p. 609: “You understand, I hope”: Buckley/Hayes, 4/28/1969. WF; “Dear Harold, You ask”: Buckley/Hayes, 4/28/1969. WF.
p. 611: “Speaking as one publisher”: Hugh Hefner/Buckley, 5/15/1969. WF.
pp. 611–12: “I am sure there is”: Buckley/Hayes, 6/12/1969. WF; “Your Esquire piece”: John Kenneth Galbraith/Buckley, 8/12/1969. WF.
p. 615: “We have won”: Ed Weisl/GV, 7/11/1972. W.
p. 616: “We published that article”: Hayes, Esquire, 11/1972.
p. 617: “which is why I now”: Buckley, “On Experiencing Gore Vidal,” 571.
p. 618: “Newsweek quite incorrectly”: Arnold Gingrich/Osborn Elliot, 10/3/1972. W.
p. 619: “I do not propose … defamatory”: Buckley/Hayes, 10/25/1972. WF.
pp. 620–21: “a brilliant tour de force”: Fred Dupee/GV, nd/1967; “For the last few weeks”: GV/Andy Dupee, 1/20/1979.
p. 622: “shocked and furious”: Howard Austen/GV, 10/9/1969. W.
p. 623 “But what else do you do”: M, 300.
pp. 624–25: “I confess that”: GV/Dear Minister [Charles Haughey], 12/19/1969. W; “fascinating trip”: GV/Tom Driberg, 1/nd/1970. CC.
p. 627: “puzzled over the fact”: Gene Vidal/GV, fall/nd/1968. W.
p. 630: “I’m glad it ended”: GV/Katharine Vidal, 2/24/1969. WY; “not only fortunate but”: Katharine Vidal/GV, 2/nd/1969. W.
pp. 630–32: “Dearest Gore—You have been”: Lurene [Vidal] Jones/GV, 3/24/1969. W; “the solemn, pompous … entirely gone”: US, 1093. “for old times’ sake … the same”: TS 43.
p. 633: “First of all … grand seigneur”: Tennessee Williams/GV, nd/1970. W.
p. 633: “Tenn. was in town”: GV/Paul Bowles, 7/15/1970. D; “No actress has ever”: M, 155–56.
p. 635: “Death, summer, youth … Jimmie”: TS, 8–9; “Jimmie Trimble arrived”: M, 35.
p. 635: “Recently I dreamed”: TS, 219.
p. 637: “hard look … caricature”: US, 1149–50.
p. 644: “So this Sunday”: GV/Elaine Dundy, 12/10/1970.
p. 645: “in a sense you contradict”: GV/Louis Auchincloss, 1/nd/1971.
p. 645: “The sun has set behind”: TS, 211.
p. 646: “Whether you do or don’t”: Roger Stevens, 11/20/1970. W.
Chapter Seventeen
INTERVIEWS: Jason Epstein, 4/25/1995, 3/26/1997; Michael Hecht, 6/11/1997; Howard Austen, 1/20/1996, 7/9/1996, 7/11/1996, 7/12/1996, 7/24/1996; Claire Bloom, 2/23/1996; Ed Sherin, 9/19/1996; Donald Stewart, 11/24/1997; Judith Calvino, 11/25/1997; Ned Rorem, 12/3/1996; George Armstrong, 9/5/1994; John Saumurez Smith, 1/22/1996; John Bowen, 1/22/1996; David Cook, 1/22/1996; Antonia Fraser, 1/26/1996; John Galliher, 4/29/1996; Bob Dolci, 4/3/1996; Jay Allen, 4/2/1996; Nina Auchincloss, 11/2/1994; Tommy Auchincloss, 6/8/1995.
ENDNOTES
p. 653: “What about our new”: Ned Bradford/GV, 2/27/1969. W; “Is there a chance that”: Jason Epstein/Bradford, 3/24/1969. LB; “On the other hand we very much”: Epstein/Bradford, 5/7/1969. LB; “I must say that”: Epstein/GV, 5/20/1969. W.
p. 654: If you don’t think”: GV/Bradford, 5/nd/1970. LB; “damned good essay”: Roger Straus/GV, 6/15/1971. W; “My dear Gore, naturally”: Bradford/GV, 9/20/1971. W.
pp. 654–55: “I nearly dedicated”: GV/Bradford, 8/nd/1973. LB; “Clearly you’re getting”: Bradford/GV, 11/30/1973. W.
p. 657: “Here it is”: GV/Epstein, 10/14/1971. W.
pp. 661–62: “Sorry you didn’t see”: GV/Bradford, 3/nd/1972. LB; “the first night was one”: Claire Bloom/GV, 5/15/1972. W.
pp. 662–63: “My blood pressure nearly”: GV/Bloom, 5/23/1972; “Skin cancers fall”: GV/Bloom, 3/21/1975.
p. 664: “I think you know how much”: Bloom/GV, 3/nd/1974. W.
p. 664: “Recently I spent”: TS, 90–91; “half an hour”: GV/Epstein, 6/nd/1972. W.
p. 665: “waddled from great meal”: GV/Elizabeth Hardwick, summer/nd/1974. T; “70,000 words written”: GV/Epstein, 6/nd/1972. W.
pp. 666–67: “What do you think of the title”: GV/Epstein, 6/nd/1972. W; “I quit the People’s Party”: GV/John Mitzel, 2/5/1974.
pp. 667–68: “I sounded drunk”: GV/Mitzel, nd/1974; “I never do see much”: GV/Richard Poirier, 2/nd/1976; “I was only in town”: GV/Louis Auchincloss, 12/nd/1974; “I’m sometimes in Ireland”: GV/Tom Driberg, 12/nd/1972. CC.
pp. 668–69: “The house is perfect”: GV/Nini Auchincloss, 1/nd/1973; “Ireland has sort of fizzled”: Howard Austen/Bradford, 5/22/1973. LB; “We BOUGHT the right”: GV/Hardwick, spring/nd/1974. T.
p. 670: “I feel dreadful about”: Princess Margaret/GV, 12/2/1972. W; “Bad times”: GV/Driberg, 12/nd/1972. CC.
p. 670: “Gorino, why do you live?”: “Epilogue by Gore Vidal” from Roloff Beny in Italy, NY: 1974, 408.
p. 671: “Princess Margaret is in”: GV/Judith Halfpenny, 7/nd/1978.
p. 672: “Gore Vidal on the phone”: Ned Rorem, The Later Diaries of Ned Rorem, 1961–1972. San Francisco: 1983, 333–36, 341.
p. 675: “Thank you for everything”: Bloom/GV, 3/nd/1974. W.
p. 676: “I could not exorcise myself”: GV/Poirier, 9/nd/1974; “I couldn’t figure out”: Stanton, 110–11.
p. 681: “Most sad about Sofield”: GV/Auchincloss, 12/nd/1974: “He is in a tomb”: Penny Crocker/GV, 2/18/1974. W.
p. 681: “Maybe you would like”: John Armstrong/GV, 4/12/1973. W.
pp. 682–83: “Can it be that”: GV/Driberg, 5/28/1975. CC; “you can now stay”: GV/Driberg, 7/nd/1976. CC.
p. 685: “To Gore Vidal at Fifty”/Clive James, unpublished ms. W.
p. 685: “Will you be kind enough”: William Meredith/GV, 12/31/1975. W; “THE INSTITUTE DOES ITSELF”: GV/Meredith, 1/16/1976. W.
p. 686: “I note now”: GV/Poirier, 2/nd/1976; “I am sinking into”: GV/Poirier, 5/nd/1974; “holed up at Ravello”: GV/Driberg, 1/28/1975. CC.
p. 686: the “Book of the Month”: GV/Graham Watson, I/nd/1975. W.
p. 690: “Dearest, darling Gore”: Norman Lear/GV, 10/26/1976. W.
p. 691: “I thought that Tinto and I”: GV/Franco Rossellini, 6/7/1976. W; “The film is a hardcore”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1976.
p. 692: “you have an evening in Hollywood”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1978.
pp. 692–93: “Kalki can and should”: Epstein/GV, 2/15/1977. W; “Those who have read”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1975; “Kalki being re-done”: GV/Nigel Hollis, nd/1977. W; “powerful and upsetting”: Epstein/GV, 2/12/1977. W; “because of my friend”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1978.
p. 694: “our Tahiti”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1976; “We may be back”: GV/Joe O’Donohue, 7/5/1976.
p. 694: “I admire the essays”: Diana Phipps/GV, nd/1977. W.
pp. 695–96: “DOCTORS AT LACKLAND”: Robert Schnabel/GV, 3/4/1978. W; “How ridiculous”: Nina Gore/GV, 12/6/1975. W; “shocked and amazed”: Nina Gore/Nina Auchincloss, 6/3/1976. W.
p. 697: “Of course at the time it was”: Nina Gore/GV, 5/19/1974. W; “mother love … about me”: Nina Gore/Time, 3/8/1976. W.
p. 698: “Nice to see your mother’s”: GV/Nina Auchincloss, 3/nd/1976.
Chapter Eighteen
INTERVIEWS: Mickey Knox, 3/30/1996; Norman Mailer, 3/15/1996, 3/16/1996, 3/17/1996; Howard Aus
ten, 1/17/1996, 1/20/1996, 7/9/1996, 7/11/1996, 7/12/1996, 7/24/1996; Jason Epstein, 4/25/1995, 3/26/1997; Dick Cavett, 11/13/1996; Owen Laster, 2/25/1996, 3/5/1996, 3/22/1996; Lulli Corsini, 11/23/1997; Barbara Epstein, 7/15/1995, 7/26/1995; Jay Allen, 4/2/1996; Hugh Guilbeau, 4/13/1996; Jay Allen, 4/2/1996; Norman Podhoretz, 3/26/1998; Judith Calvino, 11/25/1997; Max Rabb, 5/29/1996; Claire Bloom, 2/23/1996; Judith Halfpenny, 11/5/1994.
ENDNOTES
p. 700: “Yes … Norman is every bit”: GV/Jim Tuck, 8/29/1975.
p. 700: “on what I thought”: Anthony Haden-Guest, “The Vidal-Capote Papers, A Tempest in Camelot,” New York, 6/11/1979, 54; “gossip … that is Capote’s field”: GV/Judith Halfpenny, 12/nd/1976.
p. 702: “It would seem”: GV/The Atlantic Monthly, 5/nd/1972.
p. 703: “was gathering affidavits”: Donald Windham, Lost Friendships, 119–20.
pp. 703–4: “sad and bitter”: GV/Halfpenny, 7/nd/1978; “had gotten him drunk”: Lost Friendships, 128; “but the letters are marvelous”: GV/Halfpenny, 7/nd/1968; “it’s all actionable … actionable”: Lost Friendships, 128; “encounter with Gore … just talk”: Lost Friendships, 119–20; “Mr. Capote never wrote … on TV”: GV/Halfpenny, 9/nd/1979.
p. 705: “Vidal’s enemies delightedly”: Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, Boston: 1978, 594; “were just two fags … upset”: GV/Halfpenny, 9/nd/1979.
pp. 705–6: “We are willing to settle”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1979; “No matter what”: GV/Halfpenny, 9/nd/1979.
pp. 706–7: “I apologize for any”: Truman Capote/GV, 10/31/1983. W; “T. seemed not to be drinking”: GV/Paul Bowles, 4/30/1984, D; “I knew he would be”: GV/Bowles, 9/nd/1984. D.
p. 707: “As someone said when”: GV/Bowles, 9/nd/1994. D.
p. 710: “Poor Norman”: GV/Ned Bradford, 1/nd/1977. LB.
pp. 711–12: “we won’t have a full”: Norman Mailer/GV, 11/20/1984. W; “Our feud, whatever … fond of you”: Mailer/GV, 11/20/1984. W; “If he had so much as . . . boredom”: GV/Bowles, 11/nd/1984. D.
p. 712: “Do you have someone”: Mailer/GV, 1/17/1985. W; “All right, fine”: Mailer/GV, 2/13/1985. W; “the example of”: Mailer/GV, 3/14/1985. W.
p. 713: “We may both be known”: Mailer quoted in Drew Featherston, “The Feud Is a Fizzle,” Newsday, 11/20/1995.
pp. 718–19: “I have made five”: GV/Halfpenny, 3/nd/1979; “It is apt, certainly … he is not”: GV/Halfpenny, 3/nd/1979; “you don’t need”: Jason Epstein/GV, 8/21/1979. W; “trudging up”: GV/Halfpenny, nd/1979.
p. 719: “The sindaco would like”: GV/Halfpenny, nd/1979.
p. 722: “I do value more”: GV/Richard Poirier, 8/nd/1982.
pp. 722–23: “Duluth emerges”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/9/1984; “to be”: Italo Calvino, 9/24/1983: as “Imagining Vidal” in Gore Vidal, Writer Against the Grain, ed. Jay Parini, NY: 1992, 31–36.
p. 725: “not existed in his”: US, 610.
pp. 727–28: “A fine American story”: GV/John Mitzel, 8/19/1978; “The New York Review turned down”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/nd/1981.
p. 728: “I would suggest”: US, 597, 611.
p. 729: “In the German concentration”: US, 597–98.
p. 732: “Does one want to win”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/nd/1981.
p. 733: “I am sauntering … contributions yet”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/nd/1981.
p. 733: “I’m now about to be”: GV/Mitzel, 2/16/1982.
p. 734: “This has to be worth”: Vidal Sassoon/GV, 4/12/1982. W.
pp. 736–37: “one morning last spring”: US, 1184; “Generally, I don’t care for”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/nd/1979.
pp. 737–38: “L. is our Bismarck”: GV/Halfpenny, 1/nd/1980; “First I must know”: GV/Peter Davison, 8/nd/1981. W.
p. 741: “You’ve led a very”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/nd/1986; “I boasted to Bowles”: GV/Auchincloss, 9/nd/1986.
p. 745: “Last days can be”: GV/Halfpenny, 6/nd/1977.
p. 746: “I must ask myself”: Italo Calvino/speech at Vidal’s honorary-citizenship ceremony in Ravello, 10/3/1983. W.
p. 747: “Do you notice”: GV/Bowles, 9/nd/1984. D; “all right for someone”: GV/Bowles, 8/nd/1978. D.
p. 749: “the Q. Mother had just”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/1/1983.
p. 751: “I can’t say I much”: GV/Wilcomb Washburn, 11/16/1982.
pp. 751–52: “He lay in a hospital … memory land”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/nd/1984; “How curious that”: GV/Bowles, 12/nd/1983. D.
pp. 752–53: “can’t say that the bird”: GV/Woods S. Gray, 7/21/1983; “has decided to be”: GV/Bowles, 10/nd/1984. D; “as he was dying”: GV, “Introduction,” Where Joy Resides, A Christopher Isherwood Reader, ed. Don Bachardy and James P. White, xviii–xviv.
pp. 753–54: “Have you been keeping up”: GV/Bowles, 8/31/1983. D; “I’m happy with the preface”: Bowles/GV, 4/13/1978. W; “The Rat continues to die”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/1/1983; “the size of a tennis ball … survive us”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/nd/1984.
p. 754: “He was having more trouble”: GV/David Herbert Donald, 12/15/1988. W.
p. 755: “witnessing his own”: US, 506.
Chapter Nineteen
INTERVIEWS: Jason Epstein, 4/25/1995, 3/26/1997; Tom Rosenthal, 1/21/1996; Owen Laster, 2/29/1996, 3/5/1996, 3/22/1996; Gary Fisketjon, 2/18/1997; Jay Parini, 1/14/1999; Judith Calvino, 11/25/1997; Wallace Ragan, 6/12/1995; John C. Davis, 6/13/1995; Barrett Prettyman, 11/2/1994; Ruth Sewell, 4/15/1997; Howard Austen, 1/17/1996, 1/20/1996, 7/9/1996, 7/11/1996, 7/12/1996, 7/24/1996; George Armstrong, 9/5/1994; Barbara Epstein, 7/15/1995, 7/26/1995; Andreas Brown, 10/18/1996
ENDNOTES
p. 756: “White frame houses”: GV/Judith Halfpenny, 8/9/1990.
p. 757: “sharp of eye”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/8/1990.
p. 758: “I did have an eerie”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/8/1990.
p. 759: “I’m not going to write”: GV/Halfpenny, 10/15/1985.
p. 760: “I’m getting very autobiographical”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/8/1985; “Most of May-June”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/nd/1984.
pp. 760–61: “It is a picture book”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/8/1985; “a lot of work”: GV/Halfpenny, 1/4/1984; “ready to be enslaved”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/8/1985.
pp. 761–62: “Cimino has made no”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/nd/1986; “Cimino sent me Shagan’s”: GV/Grace Reiner, Writers Guild of America, West, 10/16/1986. W.
p. 763: “Thanks to Chernobyl”: GV/Claire Bloom, 6/28/1986.
p. 764: “from a street in Moscow”: GV/Halfpenny, 4/nd/1987.
pp. 764–65: “the usual loyal party … if not with us”: GV/Halfpenny, 4/nd/1987.
p. 765: “All sorts of changes”: GV/Halfpenny, 4/nd/1988.
p. 766: “white slender with pale”: GV/Halfpenny, 4/nd/1988.
p. 771: “Obviously, I am not charmed”: GV/Owen Laster, 6/1/1990. W.
pp. 774–75: “As you know or do not”: GV/Richard Poirier, 6/5/1992; “I fear as fond as I am”: GV/Halfpenny, 10/nd/1991.
pp. 775–76: “My Barbara grows … does not”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/nd/1991.
p. 776: “a prize at Forte”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/9/1990.
p. 778: “I know what I’d like”: GV/David Herbert Donald, 10/1/1990.
p. 779: “Unaccustomed as I am”: GV/National Book Award, 11/nd/1993. W.
pp. 780–81: “Of course you’re worried”: Walter Clemons/GV, 12/6/1990. W; “After four years of meeting”: GV/Louis Auchincloss, 12/nd/1990; “The only revelation”: GV/William Phillips, 10/27/1993. W.
p. 781: “Walter maintains that he is”: GV/Halfpenny, 10/nd/1991; “Walter will present Little, Brown”: GV/Janet Caro, 9/nd/1993.
p. 783: “Bringing back my dreadful”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/20/1993; “I, too, explore the past”: GV/Ned Rorem, 9/11/1992.
p. 784: “The section on J.T.”: GV/John Davis, 11/3/1993.
p. 785: “Two unnerving first-hand”: GV/John Davis, 8/29/1993.
p. 786: “Disconcertingly, I had lunch”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/20/1993.
p. 787: “The pool is paradise”: G
V/Claire Bloom, 6/18/1986.
p. 789: “Last night I dreamed”: M, 73–74; “For nearly two years”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/6/1995.
p. 793: “Two close calls”: GV/Rorem, 10/10/1996; “There is no end”: GV/Fred Kaplan, 12/14/1996.
pp. 793–94: “I do mean to go on”: GV/Elizabeth Hardwick, 10/nd/1975. T; “I drank like a boy”: GV/Halfpenny, 10/nd/1991.
pp. 794–95: “One gets more done”: GV/Halfpenny, 8/9/1990; “for the first time”: GV/Halfpenny, 5/nd/1984; “still worked out”: GV/Halfpenny, 12/24/1992.
Additional interviews: Rhodes Allan, 9/7/1996; Owen Carle, 3/13/1997; John Dickinson, 2/10/1996; William Fitzgerald, 2/nd/1997; Miles Gore, 9/11/1996; John Hallowell, 8/9/1997; Nicholas Haslam, 1/24/1996; John Macrae, 3/19/1996; Sue Mengers, 3/29/1996; Jan Mostowski, 11/1/1996; Mike Shaw, 1/24/1996.
Plate Section
Gore Vidal’s paternal grandmother, Mrs. Felix Vidal, c. 1930.
(Courtesy of Margaret Sutton)
Thomas Pryor Gore as a young lawyer in Corsicana, Texas, c.1900.
(Wisconsin Center for film and Theater Research, Gore Vidal collection)
(Clockwise from top) Nina Kay Gore, Nina Gore, Thomas Notley Gore, and Senator Thomas P. Gore, c.1916.
(Courtesy of Gore Vidal)
Lieutenant Eugene Luther Vidal, c. 1920.
(Courtesy of Margaret Sutton)
The wedding of Nina Gore and Eugene Luther (Gene) Vidal, Washington, January 1922. (Courtesy of Gore Vidal)
Nina Gore and son at Rock Creek Park, c.1927.
(Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Gore Vidal Collection)
Gore Vidal, with his father, about to pilot a plane at the age of ten, Washington, May 1936.
(Courtesy of Gore Vidal)
Amelia Earhart and Gene Vidal, early 1930s.
(American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming)
Merrywood in the late 1930s.
(Courtesy of Gore Vidal)
Gore Vidal (left) and Jimmie Trimble at St. Albans School, c. 1937.
(Courtesy of Gore Vidal)