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Transitions : Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal dead at 86
There are reports celebrated author, playwright and commentator Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting Vidal died on Tuesday (local time) at his home in Hollywood Hills of pneumonia complications.
The Associated Press has tweeted that Vidal's nephew has confirmed his death to them.
Vidal's official website Gore Vidal Now is also reporting his death.
Born in New York and raised in Washington D.C., Vidal began a career in writing at the age of 19.
His first novel Williwar focused on World War II, and he then went on to write a mystery series.
In total Vidal authored 25 novels, including historical works Lincoln and Burr, many of which he wrote from a house built on a cliff ledge at Ravello, along Italy’s breathtaking Amalfi coast.
He also wrote Broadway hits, films and television shows.
But in the US Vidal tended to be more respected as an essayist than a novelist.
In 2009, he won the annual Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book foundation, which called him a "prominent social critic on politics, history, literature, and culture".
He was strongly critical of the George W. Bush administration, describing Mr Bush as the "stupidest man in the United States".
In 2003 he accused Mr Bush of being a religious zealot on the ABC's Sunday Profile.
"There are many bad regimes on Earth, we can list several hundred. At the moment I would put the Bush regime as one of them, but I don’t want anybody to attack the United States. Just send Bush back to Texas," he told the ABC.
In 2006 Vidal told Bob Carr in an interview for the ABC's Foreign Correspondent that America was on a "losing wicket".
"We have less and less power and less and less money," he said.
He said the American military machine had "reached entropy".
"We'll end up somewhere between Argentina and Brazil, with at least a good soccer team. That’ll be about it."
Vidal is also seen as an early champion of sexual liberation, and in his personal life he had affairs with both men and women.
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