Gore Vidal (140 page)

I have collected about two thousand of Vidal's letters, most of them unpublished. These letters and oral interviews provide the evidentiary backbone of the narrative. The letters have been obtained from individuals, usually the recipients, except for those in libraries, particularly the Wisconsin State Historical Society, the University of Wisconsin, Madison (abbreviated as W); Princeton University Library (P); Columbia University Library (C); University of California at Los Angeles (UC); University of Texas Library (T); Carl Albert Congressional Research Center, University of Oklahoma (O); the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University (WF); University of Delaware Library (D); the Houghton Library at Harvard University (H); Beinecke Library, Yale University (Y); Christ Church College Library, Oxford University (CC); and The American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming (WY). LB refers to the Little, Brown archives. A selection of Vidal's letters to Christopher Isherwood has been published in
The Times Literary Supplement
, 12/20/1996, 14–15, to Louis Auchincloss in
The New Yorker
, 6/9/1997, 76–77. My citations from the letters are endnoted by the names of the correspondents and the date; faxes
are treated as letters; the library source of letters and other unpublished material is indicated by the appropriate abbreviation. In all instances Gore Vidal has been abbreviated as “GV.” Since Vidal rarely dates his letters, I have had in most cases to establish a date (often approximate; “nd” stands for “no date”) through whatever means available. Unpublished memoirs and diaries are endnoted simply as “unpublished diary of” and any other pertinent information. Published sources are documented in the conventional citation form. The direct citations for all published and unpublished materials (with the exception of oral interviews) are presented in endnotes that are grouped by chapter and keyed to the page in the book on which the quotation or paraphrase appears. Only books from which I have quoted are cited in the endnotes.

Approximately 250 interviews with the subject have produced about 2,000 pages of transcription. I have interviewed about 150 others. Oral sources for the exposition are listed chapter by chapter in a paragraph at the beginning of each chapter division that precedes the endnotes. An oral source is simply stated as “interview with” and the date of the interview provided. In all cases I am the person doing the interviewing. Since the reader cannot check my quotations and paraphrases for accuracy except against my transcriptions and tapes, it seems senseless to add pages by attaching the interview note directly (by whatever method) to the quote or paraphrase and keying it by page number. In most cases the person whose words I quote is identified by name in the exposition. I have not stated at the beginning of each chapter that material in this chapter is drawn from interviews with Gore Vidal. That would take up space with the obvious and provide a list of dates that cannot be of any use to the reader. The tapes, transcriptions, and photocopies of letters eventually will be deposited in the Gore Vidal Archive at the Wisconsin State Historical Society at the University of Wisconsin.

Chapters One through Three draw extensively on Gore-family documents held privately by Bill and Lois Gore of Natchez, Mississippi; the Gore Vidal collection of Gore family documents, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison; and the Eugene Luther Vidal Papers, at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. The Natchez Gores provided assistance with Gore-family genealogy and expert guidance at the various Gore-family sites in Webster and Calhoun counties. The Vidal Collection in Wisconsin contains originals and copies of Gore-family and Vidal-family
documents, which include genealogical narratives; letters between family members about genealogical issues; birth, baptism, marriage, and census records; documents from Spanish, Swiss, and Italian archives in regard to the Traxler and Vidal families; and newspaper clippings. The most prominent documents are: T. P. Gore,
Autobiographical Fragment
, 31 pages, nd; Mary Gore Cooper,
Gore Family
, 15 pages, nd, and
History of the Gores in Webster County
, nd, unpaginated;
Feldkircher Anzeiger
, “The Farewell to the Old Building of the Chamber of Commerce on the Schlossergasse,” 16 pages, 6/19/1954. The following published material on Gore and Vidal family history has either been quoted or drawn from: Monroe Lee Billington,
Thomas Gore, The Blind Senator from Oklahoma
. Lawrence: Kansas, 1967;
Kay-Quarterly, Newsletter of the Kay Family Association
, 24 (summer 1994) and various genealogical documents provided by the Kay Family Association; Robert Cicero Latham,
The Dirt Farmers in Politics: A Study of Webster County, Mississippi, During the Rise of Democratic Factionalism, 1880–1910
. Phd. dissertation. Mitchell Memorial Library, Mississippi State University; T. T. Montgomery,
The Growth of Oklahoma
. Oklahoma City, 1933; Ken Nail,
History of Calhoun County
, Calhoun County School District, 1975;
Schweizerisches Geschlechterbuch Almanach Genealogique Suisse
, XII, Zurich, 1965; Webster County History Association,
The History of Webster County
. Curtis Media Corporation, 1985. Gore Vidal's memoir,
Palimpsest
(abbreviated
M)
, New York, 1995; his
Screening History (SH)
, Cambridge, 1991;
Two Sisters, A Memoir in the Form of a Novel (TS)
, Boston, 1970; and his essays, most collected in
United States, Essays 1952–1992 (US)
, New York, 1993, are important biographical sources in Chapter's One through Three and throughout.

Chapter One

INTERVIEWS: Katharine Smith (Mrs. Katharine Vidal), 2/15/1996; Margaret (Vidal) Sutton, 3/29/1996, 3/31/1996; Sally Vidal (Mrs. Felix Vidal), 3/28/1996; Susan Milstead, 3/29/1996, 3/31/1996.

ENDNOTES

p. 3
:
Certificate of Holy Baptism
, Washington Cathedral, 2/5/1939. W.

p. 5
:
“If a snake”
: Mary Gore Cooper, “History of the Gores in Webster County, Mississippi,” unpub. typescript, 7. W.

p. 6
:
“The next day”
: Mary Gore Cooper, “History of the Gores in Webster County, Mississippi,” unpub. typescript, 4. W.

p. 7
:
“as far as he knew”
: BBC Omnibus, 1995.

p. 8
:
“That in order”
:
The History of Webster County
, 23.

p. 8
–
9
:
“Somebody who loved”
: T. P. Gore, unpub.
Autobiographical Fragment
, nd. 2; “I dreamed I was blind”: Gore,
Autobiographical Fragment
, 4. W.

p. 10
:
“A good many evenings”
:
Autobiographical Fragment
, 16. W.

p. 11
:
“until and unless”
:
Autobiographical Fragment
, 23. W.

p. 12
:
“I fell in love”
:
Autobiographical Fragment
, 31. W.

p. 15
:
“Jewish origin”
: Professor Samuel G. Armistead (Department of Spanish, University of California, Davis) concludes his detailed three-page scholarly survey of the history of the name Vidal and of Gore Vidal's Vidal-family ancestors: “There is, I believe, a very, very good chance that the Vidals were originally Jewish. With such a name and such an ancestor (Casper Vidall), in such a time and place, it would be very strange indeed if they were not.”

p. 15
:
“sold Vidalhaus”
:
Feldkircher Anzeiger
, “The Farewell to the Old Building of the Chamber of Commerce on the Schlossergasse.” W.

pp. 22
–
23
:
“engineer's college course”
:
The Coyote
[University of South Dakota yearbook], “The College of Engineering,” 1917; “the best all round”: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1916.

pp. 23
–
24
:
“Local boy”
: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1914; “vigorous plea”: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1916; “demon on the gridiron”: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1916; “largest crowd”: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1916; “some technical school”: unidentified newspaper clipping, 1916. WY.

p. 25
:
“attended by four”
: unidentified newspaper clipping, Washington, January 1922. W; “Mr. Gore and”: unidentified newspaper clipping, Washington, January 1922. W; “severe bruises”:
Sioux Falls Press
, 1/12/1992. W; “where Lieut. Vidal”: unidentified newspaper clipping, Washington, January 1922. W.

p. 26
:
“She wants to be”
: reported by Gore Vidal as a remark made about Nina to him.

Chapter Two

INTERVIEWS: Roy Thompson, 11/28/1995, 1/8/1996, 3/26/1996; Wilson Hurley, 12/13/1995; James Tuck, 5/27/1997; Janet Bingham, 10/28/1995; Robert Taylor, 3/1/1997; Katharine Smith (Mrs. Katharine Vidal), 2/15/1996; Margaret (Vidal) Sutton, 3/29/1996, 3/31/1996; Sally Vidal (Mrs. Felix Vidal), 3/28/1996; Susan Milstead, 3/29/1996, 3/31/1996.

ENDNOTES

p. 30
:
“recurrent dreams”
:
M
, 42–43; “The child”:
The Season of Comfort
(New York, 1949), 24.

p. 32
:
“After I nominated”
:
US, 723–24
.

p. 33
:
“alleged attack”
: Billington, 65–66; various Washington and Oklahoma newspaper accounts. W; “Senator Gore and his wife”:
Oklahoma State Sentinel
, 2/19/1914. W.

p. 37
:
“in a very loud voice”
:
SH
, 6.

p. 37
:
“the lurid flames”
:
US
, 1061.

pp. 40
–
41
:
“in the bathroom”
:
TS
, 241–43; “never have”:
TS
, 241–43; “central to”: Robert J. Stanton and Gore Vidal,
Views from a Window: Conversations with Gore Vidal
, 1980, 60; “Milton's daughters”: GV/from unpub. draft of “On Rereading the Oz books.” W; “amusing tyrant”: ibid.

p. 41
:
“I can still remember”
: GV/from unpub. draft of “On Rereading the Oz books.” W; “Baby Gene”:
Capital Capers
by George Abell,
Washington Post
, 5/5/1931. W; “passionate sightseer”:
US
, 1057.

p. 42
:
“sick to his stomach”
:
Season
, 82; “as we came downstairs,” GV/Fred Kaplan, 9/15/1995; “an ancient Quaker”:
US
, 994–95.

p. 43
:
“until blood came”
:
Season
, 83.

p. 44
:
“I used to build”
:
M
, 43–44.

pp. 46
–
47
:
“white skylights”
:
Season
, 30–31; “this boy is nekkid”:
US
, 1060; “a nymph”: from unpub. draft of “On Rereading the Oz books.” W.

p. 48
:
“white skeletons”
:
SH
, 19–21; “Before we could pass”:
SH
, 19–21.

p. 50
:
“If he reported”
: unpub. interview with Gene Vidal, 9/1/1966. W.

p. 54
:
“We are all very grateful”
: Amelia Earhart/Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, telegrams 9/15 and 9/17/1936. W.

p. 56
:
“tremendous pile”
:
Season
, 85.

p. 56
:
“the Gores”
: Vidal/Patrick Hurley, 9/27/1933; Vidal/Mrs. Oscar Coolican, 10/5/1933. WY; “Capital's Beauty”:
Washington Post
, 11/8/1933. W.

p. 57
:
“We have not had”
: Frank Lincoln/Gene Vidal, 4/16/1934. W.

p. 59
:
“that all these”
:
Season
, 93–95.

p. 60
:
“He had been exceedingly”
: Vidal/Arthur H. Moll, 2/21/1935. WY.

p. 61
:
“to consider St. Albans”
: James Henderson/Vidal, 4/29/1934. WY; “I believe it would be”: Vidal/Henderson, 5/4/1934. WY.

p. 63
:
“for her own use”
: divorce agreement, 5/16/1935. WY.

pp. 64
–
65
:
“She had been told”; “Nina was,” etc.
:
Season
, 98–101; “I said no”:
M
, 14–15.

p. 66
:
“Mrs. Vidal was recently reported”
: Associated Press, 7/3/1935.

p. 66
:
“Gene politely agreed”; “theirs would be”
:
M
, 13–14.

p. 67
:
“The announcement comes”; “the bride wore”
:
Washington Post
, 10/16/1935. W.

Chapter Three

INTERVIEWS: Hugh [Yusha] Auchincloss, 6/6/1996; Wilson Hurley, 12/13/1995; James Tuck, 5/27/1997; Alfred True, 6/13/1995; Wallace Ragan, 6/13/1995; John C. Davis, 6/13/1995; James Birney, 11/10/1994; Barrett Prettyman, 11/2/1994; Sally Vidal (Mrs. Felix Vidal), 3/28/1996; John Hanes, 5/8/1997; Ruth Sewell, 4/15/1997; Lee Barlow, 3/25/1997.

ENDNOTES

p. 68
:
“to the swift”
:
M
, 35.

p. 72
:
“inventing stories,”
M
, 82–83; “was of a stupidity”
:
SH
, 38–39; “made an insufficient offer”:
SH
, p. 15.

pp. 72
–
75
:
“We want to find out” to “stardom”
:
US
, 1062–65.

p. 75
:
“relief check”
:
US
, 743–44; “convinced that FDR”:
US
, 724.

p. 76
:
“the old lady,” “myriad of”
:
SH
, 65–71.