US novelist Gore Vidal, the iconoclastic commentator on American life and history in works such as Lincoln and Myra Breckinridge, has died at the age of 86.
Mr Vidal was, at the end of his life, an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right
The writer’s nephew Burr Steers told the Los Angeles Times that Mr Vidal had died at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications from pneumonia.
He was one of the giants of a generation of American writers that included Norman Mailer and Truman Capote, as well known for his flamboyant social and sexual life and trenchant political views as for his novels.
“Mr Vidal was, at the end of his life, an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right,” the New York Times wrote in its obituary.
He wrote 25 novels, essays, Broadway hits, screenplays and television dramas in a career that also included unsuccessful runs for political office, celebrated talk show duels and even an appearance as himself in Fellini’s Roma.
His third novel The City and the Pillar dealt unabashedly with homosexuality, scandalising reviewers when it was published in 1948 but breaking new ground in American literature.
Openly bisexual himself and contemptuous of prudish mores, he returned to the subject of sexual identity 20 years later in his transsexual satire Myra Breckinridge.
Other novels dealt with US politics and history, tracing what he saw as the rise of an American Empire in novels such as Burr (1973), 1876 (1976), Lincoln (1984), Empire (1987), Hollywood (1990) and The Golden Age (2000).
Satires included Kalki (1978), Duluth (1983) and Live from Golgotha: The Gospel according to Gore Vidal (1992).
His politics often sparked controversy. In a memorable televised exchange, Mr Vidal called William F. Buckley a “crypto-Nazi”, prompting the conservative columnist to lash out at his one-time childhood friend.
Mr Vidal was said to have been head-butted by Norman Mailer in an off-stage argument before another talk show appearance.
The son of a US army officer, Mr Vidal was born on October 3, 1925, at the US military academy West Point, to a family rich in political and social connections.
His father Eugene Vidal, an army aviator, was reportedly the love of aviator Amelia Earhart’s life.
His mother, who divorced his father, was later married to socialite Hugh Auchincloss, who later became stepfather to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Mr Vidal was introduced to politics growing up in Washington where his grandfather, Thomas Gore, sometimes allowed him to accompany him on the Senate floor.
He attended a succession of elite private schools, including St Albans in Washington and the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.
After a stint in the army during the Second World War, Mr Vidal found early success as a novelist and soon counted among his friends the writers Anais Nin, Tennessee Williams and Christopher Isherwood.
But athlete Jimmy Trimble, who he met at St Albans, was the only true love of his life. Trimble was killed at the battle of Iwo Jima. Mr Vidal dedicated The City and the Pillar to him.
Mr Vidal lived for 53 years with advertising executive Howard Austen.
He ran for Congress in 1960 from a district in New York as a Democrat but lost.
In 1982, he campaigned unsuccessfully against Governor Jerry Brown in a Democratic gubernatorial primary in California.