Vidal seemed to make no effort to curb his abundant ego. Vidal accused Buckley of being a “pro-crypto-Nazi” while Buckley called Vidal a “queer” and threatened to punch him.
Vidal and Buckley took their feud to live national television while serving as commentators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Mailer head-butted Vidal before a television appearance and on another occasion knocked him to the ground. and writer Norman Mailer, who Vidal once likened to cult killer Charles Manson. His most famous literary enemies were conservative pundit William F. Vidal considered Ernest Hemingway a joke and compared Truman Capote to a “filthy animal that has found its way into the house.” In addition to rubbing shoulders with the great writers of his time, he banged heads with many of them. Vidal referred to himself as a “gentleman bitch” and was as egotistical and caustic as he was elegant and brilliant.
His third book, “ The City and the Pillar,” created a sensation in 1948 because it was one of the first open portrayals of a homosexual main character. He started writing as a 19-year-old soldier stationed in Alaska, basing “ Williwaw” on his World War Two experiences. Vidal’s literary legacy includes a series of historical novels - “ Burr,” ” 1876,” ” Lincoln” and “ The Golden Age” among them - as well as the campy transexual comedy “Myra Breckenridge.”
“Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia,” the Los Angeles Times said, quoting the author’s nephew Burr Steers.
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