Word: julians
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...worry about the rest of his life), he landed a job with the Herald Tribune almost immediately, and soon began contributing to the New Yorker. In 1934, after one divorce and a string of lost newspaper jobs, O'Hara's first novel, Appointment in Samarra, appeared. The story of Julian English, a well-to-do Cadillac dealer in the fictional town of Gibbsville, Pa., whose life collapses over one Christmas vacation, launched O'Hara on an extended and profitable career in writing fiction...
...gradual withdrawal from the U.S. was under way. In 1963 he began spending much of his time in Rome, soaking up local color for his first novel in ten years. Julian (1964), a vivid study of the 4th century Roman Emperor who vainly tried to stem the spread of Christianity, was a surprise bestseller. A string of successful novels followed, including the memoirs of Myra Breckinridge (1968), Vidal's funniest word on fuddled sexual identity...
...fact, Julian and Myra Breckinridge suggest Vidal's startling range as a literary mime. He can pull off convincing impersonations of both an ascetic, driven emperor and a movie-mad transsexual-and impress history buffs with his faithful reproduction of Aaron Burr. He exhibits this talent in private as well. The distinctive, stentorian voice can shift eerily into that of J.F.K. or Richard Nixon. When telling an anecdote, Vidal regularly falls into the tones and mannerisms of its subject. He can do a wry impression of Tennessee Williams, explaining what happened to Blanche DuBois...
Vidal also maintains a spacious apartment in Rome but spends less and less time there. He is friendly with journalists and occasionally sees such fellow novelists as Anthony Burgess and Muriel Spark. Curiously for the author of Julian and a man who considers Christianity "the single greatest disaster that has ever happened to the West," Vidal seems to delight in the company of clerics. One of the people he dines with in Rome is American Jesuit John Navone, a theologian at the Pontifical Gregorian University. When Navone once brought a group of visiting Jesuits to Vidal's apartment, Vidal...
Such a scenario, Vidal admits, is impossible. "You can't write -how to put it discreetly?-adventurous books like Julian and Myra Breckinridge and then make the trip to Pennsylvania Avenue...