Word: vidal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lincoln, Vidal...
...Lincoln, Vidal...
Somewhere along the way, Vidal seems to have grown weary of his lonely stand against the barbarians. The more he castigated them, the more they praised and purchased his witty and iconoclastic novels. Myra Breckinridge (1968) was supposed to be a poke in the eye to smug notions of sexual identity; it became a bestseller instead. Julian (1964) and Burr (1973) insisted that true heroes of history are villains in the dull popular imagination; millions of people, including dullards, relished this insight. By this time, success dogged Vidal at every turn. If you cannot offend your enemies, why not take...
...story of Lincoln's presidency is not Age Old but hoary enough to call for some originality in its retelling. Vidal's contribution is to show his hero through the eyes of three associates: Private Secretary John Hay, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward. The two Cabinet members spend much time squabbling; Hay frequents a Washington brothel. All three observers are, unfortunately, tongue-tied when it comes to reporting on Honest Abe: "As usual, Hay wondered what the President was thinking; as usual, he did not have the slightest clue. ... How, Seward...
Stuck with a bearded enigma at the center of his tale, Vidal packs the edges with peripheral figures. Nearly everyone who was anyone during the 1860s, from Henry Adams to Walt Whitman, is given a walk-on role. This process extends to some 19th century notables already deceased. Vidal manages to insert the information that Francis Blair, an aged visitor to the Lincoln White House, knew Andrew Jackson...