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United States: Essays 1952-1992 Important People
Paul Bowles
An American short storywriter and composer whom Vidal admires and considers under-appreciated.
Abraham Lincoln
The Civil War president who figures prominently in several Vidal essays, as well as the subject of the historical novel that bears his name. Vidal feels that Lincoln, with his idealism and contradictions, embodies something uniquely American.
Ulysses S. Grant
The Reconstruction American president who wrote his memoirs while dying of cancer, so as to leave an inheritance to take care of his beloved wife. Grant turns out to be a fairly good writer, according to Vidal, and wise as he observes that the Civil War was America's punishment for the Spanish-American War.
H.L. Mencken
A cigar-chomping, beer-loving German-American journalist from Baltimore who wrote pungent political analysis and coined the term "the booboisie."
President John F. Kennedy
Through his mother's second marriage to Hugh Auchincloss, a relative of Jacqueline Kennedy, Vidal has a familial connection to the Kennedys. This provides him with some interesting, humorous and often...
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This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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