Gore Vidal, who died in July, was one of our greatest novelists and essayists – and yet he never went to college. In a 2007 interview I asked him why not.
“I graduated from [Phillips] Exeter,” he explained, “and I was aimed at going to Harvard. Instead I enlisted in [the Navy] in 1943. When I got out, in ’46, I thought, ‘I’ve spent all my life in institutions that I loathe, including my service in the [Navy] of the United States.’ I thought, ‘Shall I go for another four years?’ . . . … continued at Inside Higher Ed., HERE.
Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?
“The ’13 Days in October,” 50 Years Later.” Conservatives at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis accused President Kennedy of capitulation in the Cuban missile crisis. No more.
“Elvis Presley: America’s Secret Cold War Weapon.” The King of Rock became a one-man special force against the East Germans, even as he questioned the validity of the conflict itself.
in his article at Salon.com about visiting the Pumpkin Patch National Historic Landmark . . . .
“A Visit to the Right’s Least Popular Museum.” The GOP insisted Whittaker Chambers’ pumpkin patch become a historical site. It averages two guests a year. Salon.com, Oct. 13, 2012.
Gore Vidal was not just a novelist and essayist; he also ran for Congress in 1960 in upstate New York. In a 1988 interview I asked him whether there was any gay-baiting in that campaign.
ERIC HOBSBAWM, who died October 1 at age 95, was one of the world’s greatest historians, and also a Marxist. He was not just an academic — he was also a lifelong Communist with a capital “C,” a full-fledged member of the Party since his teenage years.. . .
Jon Wiener: How does Dylan sound to you on Tempest?
David Rakoff, who died August 9 at age 47, was funny and smart about many things, including politics in America. “George W. Bush made me want to become an American,” he said in our radio interview in November, 2005. . . .