History Creator / GoreVidal

* ''Literature/{{Creation}}'' (1981) - Now with its own page.

* ''Film/{{The Best Man|1964}}'' (1964)(screenplay)

!!''The Best Man'' (1964)
* DarkHorseVictory: In the play (and subsequent film) ''The Best Man'', a bitterly contested fight for a party's Presidential nomination ends when [[spoiler:one of the candidates withdraws and throws his support behind a previously-ignored third man]].
%%* TheFettered: William Russell.
* KingmakerScenario: Inverted in the ending of ''The Best Man'', in which two presidential candidates, (Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson) are tied in their race for the nomination. [[spoiler:Fonda's idealist, unwilling to falsely smear Robertson's crooked politico as a homosexual in order to win -- yet also unwilling to let Robertson claim victory by twisting some facts related Fonda's medical history -- throws his support to the dark horse candidate who has been mired in third place throughout the balloting, who goes on to win]].
%%* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Joe Cantwell.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Vidal always denied basing his characters off actual people, but most viewers tend to identify Cantwell as UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, Russell as UsefulNotes/AdlaiStevensonII, and Art Hockstader as UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman. According to Vidal, when he asked UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy to read a draft of the script and offer technical advice, Kennedy was concerned that the womanizing Russell was based on ''him''.
* {{Realpolitik}}: The title of the play is ironic. Cantwell is implied to be the 'best man' because he's more devious, whereas Russell is a well-meaning schnook who can't hold onto power. And, in the end, the nomination -- which is widely viewed as tantamount to the election itself -- goes to [[spoiler:some guy no one knows anything about at all]].
* SleazyPolitician: A conversed trope. Hockstader is of the opinion that only someone willing to be utterly ruthless is truly qualified to handle the responsibilities of the presidency, while Russell counters that such a person can't be trusted to do what's right if it might be unpopular.
%%* ToBeLawfulOrGood

* IncestIsRelative: Peter and Enid in ''Washington D.C.'' The novel is a semi-biographical account of Vidal's early life, with Enid as an avatar of Nina Gore, his mother. [[{{Squick}} So, yeah]]. Considering his vocal dislike of [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian]] analyses, this might be LampshadeHanging on the author's part.
* LadyDrunk: Enid.

%% * EveryoneIsBi: Vidal strongly believed that there was no such thing as 'homosexuals', just homosexual behaviour that almost everyone took part in to a greater or lesser extent, he himself being on the 'greater' end of the scale. This was one of the reasons for his hatred of homophobia; he didn't think that who you went to bed should be allowed to define who you were. %% Tropes are about works, not creators. Please explain how Vidal's beliefs are reflected in Vidal's works.

* TheFettered: William Russell.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Joe Cantwell.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Vidal always denied this, but most viewers tend to identify Cantwell as UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, Russell as UsefulNotes/AdlaiStevensonII, and Art Hockstader as UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman. (According to Vidal, when he asked UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy to read a draft of the script and offer technical advice, Kennedy was concerned that the womanizing Russell was based on ''him''.)[[note]]Cantwell's possibly a portmanteau of Nixon ''and'' the Kennedys. He mirrors not only Nixon's devious persona but [[UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy Bobby Kennedy's]] rise to prominence prosecuting organized crime. Coincidentally or not, the film adaptation casts Cliff Robertson — who'd played Jack Kennedy in ''PT-109'' a year earlier — as Cantwell.[[/note]]

* ToBeLawfulOrGood

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale

* RefugeInAudacity
* UnusualEuphemism: ''Myron'', the follow-up book ''Myra Breckinridge''. In the original version of the book, Vidal replaces all the swear words with the names of Supreme Court Justices who had just voted in favour of some pro-censorship measure or other. So we have Burger = bugger, Father Hill = tit, Rehnquist = dick and so on (This was done to avert the book's censorship.)

* ChekhovsSkill: Teddy's piloting.

* DoNotCallMePaul: Kalki and his wife have separated themselves from their old Anglo names.

* AcheyScars: Jess Smith's appendectomy scar. It aches whenever somebody is sniffing around his operations.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Sanfords.
* BusCrash: [[spoiler:Clay Overbury]] in ''The Golden Age''.
* TheCasanova: John Hay, Lincoln's aide and confidante, is a self-styled one. Aaron Burr in ''Burr'' is presented as another one, considered to have fathered more than a few illegitimate children, with future president UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren cited as one as per rumor, [[spoiler: and the other one being the protagonist Charles Schuyler.]]

* DaEditor: Caroline Sanford and her brother, Blaise.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Burden]], after Overbury throws him under the proverbial bus.

* FallenHero: Warren Harding, the fallen President who might have been great.

* GeneralFailure: Aaron Burr regards George Washington as this, comparing his military record unfavorably to Horatio Clinton, Charles Lee and even Benedict Arnold.

* PassiveAggressiveKombat: The Roosevelts are blackbelts.

* SanitySlippage: Mary Todd Lincoln.
* SiblingRivalry: Blaise keeps hoping (indeed, praying) for his sister to fail at something.

* TragicHero: Sen. James Burden Day.

** Since little is known about John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator David Herold, he's depicted in ''Lincoln'' as one of these.

[[caption-width-right:350:Kissed more boys than [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Lisa Simpson]] ever will.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Vidal always denied this, but most viewers tend to identify Cantwell as UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, Russell as Adlai Stevenson, and Art Hockstader as UsefulNotes/HarryTruman. (According to Vidal, when he asked UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy to read a draft of the script and offer technical advice, Kennedy was concerned that the womanizing Russell was based on ''him''.)
** Cantwell's possibly a portmanteau of Nixon ''and'' the Kennedys. He mirrors not only Nixon's devious persona but [[UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy Bobby Kennedy's]] rise to prominence prosecuting organized crime. Coincidentally or not, the movie casts Cliff Robertson — who'd played Jack Kennedy in ''PT-109'' a year earlier — as Cantwell.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The Senate Majority Leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, is shattered when he learns of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding's death. When asked if they were close, Lodge says of course not; he's upset that UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge is now President.

** Gore Vidal intended Messala in his screenplay of 1959's ''Literature/BenHur'' to be Judah Ben-Hur's spurned [[HoYay lover]], thus explaining his hatred for him later on. Creator/StephenBoyd (the actor who played Messala) was let in on the secret, but Creator/CharltonHeston was deliberately kept in the dark.

** Cantwell's possibly a portmanteau of Nixon ''and'' the Kennedys. He mirrors not only Nixon's devious persona but [[UsefulNote/RobertFKennedy Bobby Kennedy's]] rise to prominence prosecuting organized crime. Coincidentally or not, the movie casts Cliff Robertson — who'd played Jack Kennedy in ''PT-109'' a year earlier — as Cantwell.

** Cantwell's possibly a portmanteau of Nixon ''and'' the Kennedys. He mirrors not only Nixon's devious persona but Bobby Kennedy's rise to prominence prosecuting organized crime. Coincidentally or not, the movie casts Cliff Robertson — who'd played Jack Kennedy in ''PT-109'' a year earlier — as Cantwell.

* TheCasanova: John Hay, Lincoln's aide and confidante, is a self-styled one. Aaron Burr in ''Burr'' is presented as another one, considered to have fathered more than a few illegitmate children, with future president UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren cited as one as per rumor, [[spoiler: and the other one being the protagonist Charles Schuyler.]]

* IncestIsRelative: Peter and Enid in ''Washington D.C''. The novel is a semi-biographical account of Vidal's early life, with Enid as an avatar of Nina Gore, his mother. [[{{Squick}} So, yeah]]. Considering his vocal dislike of [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian]] analyses, this might be LampshadeHanging on the author's part.

* MostWritersAreWriters: Peter Sanford in ''Washington D.C'', and ''The Golden Age''.

* RealPersonFic: The books loosely follow the Sanfords, a clan of [[BeenThereShapedHistory Gumps]] who mix with Washington society. A secondary protagonist, James Burden Day, is introduced in ''Washington, D.C''.

* SleazyPolitician: Clay Overbury in ''Washington D.C'' is portrayed as a [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy Kennedy]]-esque [[TheCharmer charmer]] whose cutthroat true nature is mostly hidden.
* StageNames: Movie mogul Caroline Sanford goes undercover as "Emma Traxler."

* VerbalTic: Jess Smith's "Whaddaya know?" He also can't stop whistling a folk tune, "My God, How the Money Rolls In", a hint to his role as Harding's bag-man.

** Jess Smith, another shadowy figure in history; here he is portrayed as a lumbering, slow-witted grocery clerk who somehow lucked out and befriended a future advisor to Warren Harding, himself an obscure newspaper man whose star was on the rise. In that sense, Jess is a tragic figure because he does what he's (implicitly) told to do, and scapegoated when his masters are caught with their hands in the till. The end of the novel strongly suggests he was assassinated as part of the cover-up, even though Jess' nature has been established as the sort unlikely to flip on his "friends."

Gore died at his home in California on 31 July 2012 at the age of 86 from complications of pneumonia. His death has largely been considered a loss to the literary and actual world.

* AmbitionIsEvil: A major subversion. Vidal believed that ambition was a natural and worthy quality and that nobody, including heroes like UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, and [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Franklin Roosevelt]], made it far without wanting to get there. That said, his works aren't blind celebrations of achievement, either, and he has himself described and spoken of his own political and artistic ambitions without any qualifications.

** Gore Vidal intended Messala in his screenplay of ''Film/BenHur1959'' to be Ben-Hur's spurned [[HoYay lover]], thus explaining his hatred for him later on. Stephen Boyd (the actor who played Messala) was let in on the secret, but Charlton Heston was deliberately kept in the dark.

Vidal was politically active throughout TheFifties and [[TheSixties Sixties]], appearing on television as a spokesman for the "New Left" and sharing a panel with his [[{{Archenemy}} ideological opposite]] Creator/WilliamFBuckleyJr This arrangement didn't last long, as their exchanges became [[BloodOnTheDebateFloor increasingly heated]] until Buckley threatened to punch him in the face on-air. Vidal was also an outspoken critic of monotheism, believing it to be the most dysfunctional of all belief systems. Buckley was a Catholic who gained national recognition with ''God and Men at Yale'', a critique of secularism in academia. The debate series is depicted in the well received documentary, ''Best of Enemies''.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:[[invoked]] ''The Left-handed Gun'', an InNameOnly rewrite of Vidal's television play about Billy the Kid. It did pretty well in France for its "bold experimentation" and {{deconstruction}} of the legendary gunfighter; but Vidal can't take credit for any of that, so he grouchily produced another movie (for television this time) starring Creator/ValKilmer.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:[[invoked]] ''The Left-handed Gun'', an InNameOnly rewrite of Vidal's television play about Billy the Kid. It did pretty well in France for its "bold experimentation" and {{deconstruction}} of the legendary gunfighter; but Vidal [[MedalOfDishonor can't take credit for any of that]], so he grouchily produced another movie, this time starring Val Kilmer.

Vidal was politically active throughout TheFifties and [[TheSixties Sixties]], appearing on television as a spokesman for the "New Left" and sharing a panel with his [[{{Archenemy}} ideological opposite]] WilliamFBuckleyJr This arrangement didn't last long, as their exchanges became [[BloodOnTheDebateFloor increasingly heated]] until Buckley threatened to punch him in the face on-air. Vidal was also an outspoken critic of monotheism, believing it to be the most dysfunctional of all belief systems. Buckley was a Catholic who gained national recognition with ''God and Men at Yale'', a critique of secularism in academia. The debate series is depicted in the well received documentary, ''Best of Enemies''.

Vidal was politically active throughout TheFifties and [[TheSixties Sixties]], appearing on television as a spokesman for the "New Left" and sharing a panel with his [[{{Archenemy}} ideological opposite]] William F. Buckley Jr. This arrangement didn't last long, as their exchanges became [[BloodOnTheDebateFloor increasingly heated]] until Buckley threatened to punch him in the face on-air. Vidal was also an outspoken critic of monotheism, believing it to be the most dysfunctional of all belief systems. Buckley was a Catholic who gained national recognition with ''God and Men at Yale'', a critique of secularism in academia. The debate series is depicted in the well received documentary, ''Best of Enemies''.

* AmbitionIsEvil: A major subversion. Vidal believed that ambition was a natural and worthy quality and that nobody, including heroes like UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, and [[Creator/FranklinDRoosevelt Franklin Roosevelt]], made it far without wanting to get there. That said, his works aren't blind celebrations of achievement, either, and he has himself described and spoken of his own political and artistic ambitions without any qualifications.

Eugene Louis "Gore" Vidal (October 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012) was an American novelist, essayist, and playwright whose career spanned sixty years, beginning immediately after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and continuing into the early phase of the [[TurnOfTheMillennium new millennium]].

Eugene Louis "Gore" Vidal (October 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012) was a novelist, essayist, and playwright whose career spanned sixty years, beginning immediately after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and continuing into the early phase of the [[TurnOfTheMillennium new millennium]]. In the world of literature, he was best known for his breakthrough work ''The City and the Pillar'', the first post-war novel to feature a [[{{UsefulNotes/Homosexual}} homosexual]] protagonist who isn't [[BuryYourGays bumped off]] at the end of the story. A quarter-century later, Vidal began penning a series of historical novels based on the formulative years of the United States, including a third-person account of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln President Lincoln]] which met with high accolades.

[[caption-width-right:350:Kissed more boys than\\
[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Lisa Simpson]] ever will.]]

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gorevidal_924.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:320:Kissed more boys than\\

* {{Realpolitik}}: A stated theme in his books, especially his book on Lincoln was to show how politics actually worked and what kind of person you have to be to last in the arena, even if you are a "good" politician.

* AmbitionIsEvil: A major subversion. Vidal believed that ambition was a natural and worthy quality and nobody, including heroes like UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and Franklin Roosevelt made it far without wanting to get there. That said, his works aren't blind celebrations of achievement, either, and he has himself described and spoken of his own political and artistic ambitions without any qualifications.

** Cantwell's possibly a portmanteau of Nixon ''and'' the Kennedys. He mirrors not only Nixon's devious persona but Bobby Kennedy's rise to prominence prosecuting organized crime. Coincidentally or not, the movie casts Cliff Robertson as Cantwell - who'd played Jack Kennedy in PT-109.