Gore Vidal--novelist, playwright, critic, screenwriter, memoirist, indefatigable political commentator, and controversialist--is America's premier man of letters. No other living writer brings more sparkling wit, vast learning, indelible personality, and provocative mirth to the job of writing an essay.This long-needed volume comprises some twenty-four of his best-loved pieces of criticism, political commentary, memoir, portraiture, and, occasionally, unfettered score settling. It will stand as one of the most enjoyable and durable works from the hand and mind of this vastly accomplished and entertaining immortal of American literature.

Reviews

"Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age." --"The Washington Post Book World""Vidal is the best all-around American man of letters since Edmund Wilson." --"Newsweek" "Wonderfully selected. . . . All classic Vidal essays are here. . . . [They] confirm Vidal's stature." --"The""Buffalo News""Gore Vidal, essayist; so good that we cannot do without him. He is a treasure of the state." --R.W.B. Lewis, "The New York Times Book Review""Fearlessness and independence of mind are the strengths in this author's arms, but his heart's love is language and the richness of language."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review"