Vidal served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, was an outspoken political commentator, and wrote books that often caused a fervor for their sometimes explicit content.
He was often to compared to Oscar Wilde, and Newsweek call him, “the best all-around American man of letters since Edmund Wilson.”
He unsuccessfully ran for political office twice, as a Democrat. He said of both political parties: “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently … and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”
With over 25-novels to his credit, an outspoken manner and a lifestyle out of the ordinary, his unique prose and thought-provoking words will be missed.