View allAll Photos Tagged GoreVidal
This is made from seven overlapping photos I shot with my phone from the television screen. Each is a portrait of William F. Buckley in the 2015 documentary "Best of Enemies."
Edgar Box - Death before Bedtime
Signet Books 1526, 1958
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"The girl was right, the place was right, the time was right... but murder made it all wrong."
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal.
Edgar Box - Death in the Fifth Position
Signet Books 1475, 1957
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"Murder at the ballet."
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal.
Another indoors shot , since I'm home with my vertigo!
My aunt came to visit me today and she brought a van of food, as in the family tradition to cook for twelve, even if you have two people to feed!!!! :D
But it was nice to have people at home, instead of being another day all alone.
Now I feel tired...I think I won't have dinner tonight after the lunch I ate today!!!
Have a great sunday you all!!!!
Edgar Box - Death in the Fifth Position
Signet Books 1475, 1957
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"Murder at the ballet."
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal.
Edgar Box - Death before Bedtime
Signet Books 1093, 1954
Cover Artist: Clark Hulings
"An excitingly different suspense thriller."
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal.
Edgar Box - Death in the Fifth Position
Signet Books 1036, 1953
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"Murder at the ballet."
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
"Messiah" by Gore Vidal will arouse anger and resentment in many people, it will shock them as "The Way of All Flesh" shocked them when it was first published; it will arouse argument and controversy, such as raged around Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984;" it will grip people while they read it and it will make them think.
Brain washing has become a recognized weapon; will soul washing come next? Will all the isms besetting humanity drive it into the arms of a new Messiah? Can television, advertising copy and high pressure publicity by exploiting man's inward religious urge lead him to anything, even death in preference to life? Can this happen here? Can it happen now?
These are some of the basic elements which make "Messiah" by Gore Vidal an absorbing, frightening and stimulating experience. This extraordinarily imaginative novel has a story of motion and action told in simple, economic words; it satirizes men and techniques, ridiculous in themselves, yet sinister in their intent and singleness of purpose; it gives a horribly real and vivid picture of a world that may come.
Eugene Louis Vidal (1925-2012) was an American writer of novels, essays, screenplays, stage plays and a public intellectual known for his patrician manner and polished style of writing. Vidal was a prolific writer, but also famous for his frequent talk-show appearances and witty political criticisms.
Arnold Abner Newman (1918-2006) was an American photographer, noted for his "environmental portraits" of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images.
This portrait, photographed in 1946, was displayed at the exhibit "Arnold Newman: Masterclass" at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California.
Fiction, Revue littéraire de L'ETRANGE
n° 51, février 1958
° Jacques Sternberg
° Jean Ray
° Poul Anderson
° Gore Vidal
Couverture: figurant dans "Les folies bourgeoises" et représentant " La tête de l'inventeur"
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
An imaginative reconstruction of history and legend, "A Search for the King" is an idealistic adventure, a medieval tapestry, woven with richness and color. It is the story of the troubador Blondel's search for Richard the Lion-Heart, held prisoner by Duke Leopold after one of the Crusades. From castle to castle, across the face of Europe, Blondel journeys, singing his ballads, encountering giants and dragons and enchanted forests, as he follows the trail of the King.
The expression 'I'm a born-again atheist' is widely but unreliably attributed to Gore Vidal. The phrase, an ironic reversal, refers to the phenomenon of spiritual rebirth associated with a resurgent evangelical Christianity in the USA popularised since the 1950s through the work of preachers such as Billy Graham. The influence of evangelical Christianity on cultural and educational norms has become controversial on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly around the issue of teaching 'creationism' (a modified form of the Bible's story of the origin of humankind) alongside Darwin's theory of evolution in state schools. Opposition to religious influence in the early twenty-first century has clustered around the idea of a 'new atheism', committed to scientific rationalism as the basis of a secular society.
Edgar Box - Death before Bedtime
Signet Books 1526, 1958
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"Who killed the senator?"
Cameron Kay - Thieves Fall Out
Gold Medal Books 311, 1953
Cover Artist: Baryé Phillips
Cameron Kay is a pseudonym of Gore Vidal
Priced at 35¢ for the Canadian market.
UPHILL BATTLE:
"I had a falling out with an angry bike chain.. the chain lost but it left its mark." ~Tomitheos
Copyright © 2012 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved
“Around the time that this issue appears, science fiction will experience one of its gayest landmark-events, the Broadway opening of Gore Vidal’s urbane and delightful comedy, VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET, starring the incomparable Cyril Ritchard – an event which F&SF celebrates by bringing you the complete original television play which gave birth to the stage version.
“S. F. has been shoddily treated by the dramatic media of stage, screen and TV. On the stage it has, up till this season, been simply ignored – and neglect is, I suppose, a happier fate than being represented by the grotesque parodies which label themselves, ‘science fiction’ in films or in TV-except-by-Vidal.
“Mr. Vidal is no stranger to our field. In addition to a large number of serious novels, an even larger number of teleplays, and a brief venture into the sexy whodunit (as Edgar Box), this incredible young man (barely over 30!) has written the memorable MESSIAH (Dutton 1954), probably science fiction’s most effective extrapolation of religious cultism. VISIT was, he reports, his most successful television play. . . and by far the hardest to sell. Its tone of witty iconoclasm, of ‘poking fun at so much that was gloriously sacred’—a tone so taken for granted by all s. f. readers – was poison to the advertising agencies. Obviously even its popularity did not influence the Madison Avenue mind; it has had no successors. Perhaps the prestige of Broadway may bring about some enlightenment. . . and meanwhile you can enjoy at least this one charming satiric adventure, here presented for the first time in any magazine.” [Editor’s Note]
"A Visit to a Small Planet" was quite popular during its run from February 7, 1957 through January 11, 1958, at the Booth Theatre in New York City. The New York Herald-Tribune even described it as "gloriously funny" with "an almost endless barrage of freshly-minted quips to keep the merriment rolling". Audiences really enjoyed the lighthearted and whimsical nature of the play in which an alien comes from another planet to do a bit of sightseeing and to see or start a war. He thinks he has arrived in time to see the Civil War, which he expects will be jolly, but he has misjudged his landing and gets here in 1957. [Source: ConcordTheatricals.com]
[Note: “Visit to a Small Planet” was also the basis for a 1960 Paramount Picture starring Jerry Lewis]
"Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent."
The following article was sent to me with commentary by my friend Robin Dude. The article is worth reading in full, as it brings attention to the inevitability of the U.S. waging perpetual warfare in attempting to secure its brand of perpetual peace.
The article outlines the historical changes that have taken place since the writing of The Federalist Papers and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, up to the present day justification by the Obama administration for continuing the war in Afghanistan. Author David Bromwich likens contemporary America to a hungry empire, rather than the peace-seeking republic its founders sought to create.
Robin Dude's comment looks to the nature of civilized societies to explain how America has become a corporatist, corrupt state, or rather, how the values which currently drive our society have become dominant. It is absolutely key to understand that these current values are not essential to human nature. That is to say that things have not always been this way. Even more essential is to understand that the belief that 'things have always been this way', or that 'societies have always gone to war with one another and always will go to war with one another' has the effect of ensuring the United State's current aggressive and abusive imperialism. If we are foolish enough to believe that the values currently saturating our society reflect the values of humankind throughout history, then we have permanently shackled ourselves to the miserable social, economic and individual consequences associated with those values.
I repeat: THE CURRENT CONFIGURATION OF VALUES IN OUR SOCIETY IS A PRODUCT OF TEMPORARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE EVENTS WHICH PRECEDED THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES. THEY ARE NOT AND WILL NOT BE PERMANENT. THEY CAN BE CHANGED AND THEY SHOULD BE CHANGED BY CONCERNED CITIZENS WHO SEE THROUGH THE FOG IMPOSED BY SOCIETY'S ELITE. THE FUNCTION OF THIS FOG IS TO ENSURE THE CONTINUATION OF A VALUE SYSTEM THAT FAVORS THEIR INTERESTS. UNLESS YOU CONDONE PROSPERITY FOR THE FEW AND MISERY FOR THE MANY, THEIR INTERESTS ARE NOT YOUR INTERESTS.
Read the note, read the excerpt, and if you're intrigued, I urge you to read the whole article. This is essential understanding for anyone ambitious enough to attempt that 'Change' stuff we see so very little of yet hear so much about.
Included is the link to the original article.
Enjoy.
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From Robin Dude:
Values are preferred ends & preferred means. Hierarchically structured societies - that is, civilizations built upon economically divided class systems - dictate values from the top, not the bottom or middle, & therefore those values favor persons at the top & the relatively small cadres of managers needed to serve them & their causes. The first & perpetual task of those in this upper company is to make everyone below them believe that whatever is dictated is true, necessary, just & intended by the haves to better the lives of those with less. To achieve this task religion, ideology, morality, education, politics, business, police & the military must continuously work together toward one end throughout the whole population, which is conformity of beliefs regarding the economy & consequent business practices, & of course that includes suppression of dissent. Every schoolboy & girl learns that failure to be absolutely possessed by their betters leads to Hell for themselves.
Lest one imagine there is some evil genius behind all this, it is not needless to add that the betters are themselves equally bamboozled by what greed & their wealth bred in their minds & hearts during the 10,000 years since cities - civilizations - were made possible by the Agricultural revolution.
Scholars continue to study, converse & teach even after they appear to others to have learned everything about their subject, because they know a number of things, such as: "All that can be known" is only a grammatical, not a real, fancy; & what is even more important, study is the mind's match (it both lights & puts in contest the contents & respective worth of some number of one's memories).
The scholarly & accurate article below is all about values now being dictated in the United States. Thus, it is a telescope, & at moments a microscope, through which the planned American future can be clearly foreseen. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it. Only everyone could stop it, & the values needed to bring that about are not only not being dictated, but are taboo & lead to Hell.
As I said many times in the past, George Orwell's "1984" is being used as a political science handbook.
... If someone reading this has the decency to engage within a community of workers & intellectuals to devise & build a different kind of society & make a place for it to exist, now is the time to begin. The dictators are not afraid of dreamers, & will not stop them. In fact, it is certain that some dictators will join & contribute, & the others will find this harmless & amusing.
NB: Bracketed comments added by Robin Dude.
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tomdispatch.com/post/175098/david_bromwich_america_s_seri...
EXCERPTS: On July 16, in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the "central question" for the defense of the United States was how the military should be "organized, equipped -- and funded -- in the years ahead, to win the wars we are in while being prepared for threats on or beyond the horizon." The phrase beyond the horizon ought to sound ominous. Was Gates telling his audience of civic-minded business leaders to spend more money on defense in order to counter threats whose very existence no one could answer for? Given the public acceptance of American militarism, he could speak in the knowledge that the awkward challenge would never be posed.
We have begun to talk casually about our wars; and this should be surprising for several reasons. To begin with, in the history of the United States war has never been considered the normal state of things. For two centuries, Americans were taught to think war itself an aberration, and "wars" in the plural could only have seemed doubly aberrant. Younger generations of Americans, however, are now being taught to expect no end of war -- and no end of wars.
.... A very different view of war was taken by America's founders. One of their steadiest hopes -- manifest in the scores of pamphlets they wrote against the British Empire and the checks against war powers built into the Constitution itself -- was that a democracy like the United States would lead irresistibly away from the conduct of wars. They supposed that wars were an affair of kings, waged in the interest of aggrandizement, and also an affair of the hereditary landed aristocracy in the interest of augmented privilege and unaccountable wealth. In no respect could wars ever serve the interest of the people. Machiavelli, an analyst of power whom the founders read with care, had noticed that "the people desire to be neither commanded nor oppressed," whereas "the powerful desire to command and oppress." Only an appetite for command and oppression could lead someone to adopt an ethic of continuous wars.
Mae West and Raquel Welch
Montreal Star, November 4, 1969
Lifestyles photo promoting the movie 'Myra Breckenridge'
Edgar Box - Death in the Fifth Position
Signet Books 1475, 1957
Cover Artist: Robert Maguire
"Curtains for a ballerina."
This book collects eight complete one-hour television plays including:
(1) "The Mother" by Paddy Chayefsky (Philco Television Playhouse, April 4, 1954).
(2) "Thunder on Sycamore Street" by Reginald Rose (Studio One, March 15, 1954).
(3) "My Lost Saints" by Tad Mosel (Goodyear Television Playhouse, March 13, 1955).
(4) "Man on the Mountaintop" by Robert Alan Aurthur (Philco Television Playhouse, October 17, 1954).
(5) "A Young Lady of Property" by Horton Foote (Philco Television Playhouse, April 5, 1953).
(6) "The Strike" by Rod Serling (Studio One, June 7, 1954).
(7) "The Rabbit Trap" by J. P. Miller (The Goodyear Television Playhouse, February 13, 1955).
(8) "Visit to a Small Planet" by Gore Vidal (The Goodyear Television Playhouse, May 8, 1955).
Edgar Box - Death before Bedtime
Signet Books 1093, 1954
Cover Artist: Clark Hulings
"Who killed the senator?"
Edgar Box was a pseudonym of Gore Vidal.
“We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.” Gore Vidal
The remarkable election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States has been propelled as much by his exceptional skill as an orator as by any other factor.
From the silver-tongued to the tongue-tied, the sublime to the ridiculous, this programme takes a fond look at the art and history of the political speech.
Alan Yentob joins the crowds at the inauguration in Washington, and traces the awesome power of orators from Cicero onwards, via Cromwell, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, Martin Luther King and many others.
Among the contributors are Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Bob Geldof, Neil Kinnock, Ted Sorensen, Tony Benn, William Hague, Geoffrey Howe, Diane Abbott, Charlotte Higgins, Alastair Campbell and Germaine Greer.
What makes a good speech great? How much is content, how much is presentation? And has Obama brought eloquence back to 21st-century politics for good?
Harold Lang & Gore Vidal, 1940s
Singer/dancer Lang danced in the Leonard Bernstein ballet, FANCY FREE, and starred in the 1950s revival of PAL JOEY; Vidal was a prolific author and allround political/social gadfly.
This TV movie aired on TNT the day after my 15th birthday; May 10, 1989. It starred a young Val Kilmer as the titular outlaw.
Gore Vidal updated an old TV screenplay he wrote back in 1955 about Billy the Kid to make this movie. That same TV screenplay was used as the basis for the 1958 Paul Newman movie The Left Handed Gun.
2048 x 2048 pixel image for the iPad’s 2048 x 1536 pixel retina display.
Designed to complement the iPad iOS 7 lock screen, also works on an iPhone, simply centre the image horizontally after selecting it.
Typefaces: Octavia Script, Sabella
Like millions of people around the world, I mourn the passing of Gore Vidal. Life will never quite be the same without his acerbic, waspish, entertaining presence. For me, he was a writer and raconteur of supreme elegance, and over the years his work has given me huge pleasure, and not a little intellectual stimulation.
These few books, taken from my shelf, pretty much sum up the man. The City and the Pillar (1948), a novel concerning homosexual love, was his first foray into controversy and scandalised the American establishment at the time; Myra Breckinridge (1968) was equally scandalous, this time raising gender and transsexual issues. Indeed, the novel was regarded as so beyond the pale that the British edition was heavily censored.
Lincoln (1984) was one of his towering novels based on fact, with the President’s political and personal struggles (rather than the civil war) at its heart.
However, for many people, Vidal was at his finest as an essayist. Collected Essays (1974) is one of several volumes of this type of writing. He was also no mean memoirist, either, as Palimpsest (1995) proved. (A palimpsest, incidentally, is a parchment from which writing has been partially or completely erased in order to make room for fresh text. No, I didn’t know, either.)
In the mid-1980s when I was working in television, I produced a half-hour interview programme with Gore Vidal. He was relaxed, witty, urbane, waspish and hugely entertaining – and offscreen, he was as courteous as he was in front of camera. The bonus for me was that I spent something like an hour and a half with this great writer. He also signed his essays for me.