This first major, authorized biography of a towering literary and cultural figure, published to coincide withThe Golden Age(Doubleday, Fall 200), the seventh title in Vidal’s Narratives of Empire series.

No writer since Hemingway has lived his life on as ambitious or international a scale as Gore Vidal, whose work, like Hemingway’s, has become a prominent landmark in twentieth century American literature. Thanks to Vidal’s complete cooperation and Kaplan’s complete autonomy, this meticulously researched biography has all the glamour, sex, gossip, and family scandal one would expect. But more than that, Kaplan ties together the diversity and variety of his subject’s work and life in a highly satisfying, utterly thorough study that will be the starting point for any critical and cultural analysis of Gore Vidal for years to come.