Vidal, Gore

New York. 1988. Random House. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket. 0394570200. 305 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Jack Ribik. keywords: Essays America Literature. FROM THE PUBLISHER - On subjects ranging from Henry James to Nancy Reagan, Oscar Wilde to Oliver North, Hollywood to Mongolia, Vidal once again confirms his reputation as ‘America's finest essayist' (The New Statesman). ‘As the curtain falls on the ancient Acting President and his ‘Administration,' it is time to analyze just what this bizarre episode in American history was all about.' So begins the essay ‘Armageddon?' which looks at the born-again Christians who, encouraged by Ronald Reagan's own apocalyptic leanings, envisage a final divine cataclysm after which only the truly elect will survive. In ‘The National Security State,' Vidal offers his own earthly alternatives to our current policies. From Richard Nixon (with his ‘occasional odd burst of candor') to Ronald Reagan (with his ‘freedom from facts') Gore Vidal examines the leaders and lunacies of contemporary America. Vidal is more than a political polemicist. AT HOME also contains responses to his own critics, reminiscences of his extraordinary childhood, and appreciations of other writers - from the past (Henry James, William Dean Howells, Dawn Powell, Logan Pearsall Smith) and the present (Tennessee Williams, Frederic Prokosch, Paul Bowles, Anthony Burgess, Italo Calvino). As always, Vidal is crisp, elegant, incisive and brilliant. ‘The essay has become the vehicle for Vidal's elegant, ironic proselytizing, and he has become a master of the form - Vidal is at home on a vast intellectual range.as provocative and perceptive a social and literary critic as America has today.' - Newsweek. inventory #23118 ISBN: 0394570200.