Gore Vidal
![](/Images/godic/202502/19/Gore_Vidal_3_Shankbone_2009_NYC_cropped5915.jpg")
![Vidal in 1948](/Images/godic/202502/19/GoreVidalVanVechten15915.jpg")
![Vidal at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, 2008](/Images/godic/202502/19/GoreVidal20085915.jpg")
![Vidal and ex-senator George McGovern at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, 26 August 2009](/Images/godic/202502/19/Gore_Vidal_and_McGovern_15915.JPG")
Gore Vidal (/ˌɡɔːr vᵻˈdɑːl/; born Eugene Louis Vidal; 3 October 1925 – 31 July 2012) was an American writer (of novels, essays, screenplays, and stage plays) and a public intellectual known for his patrician manner, epigrammatic wit, and polished style of writing.