Editing Gore Vidal (section)

=== The Buckley–Vidal feud ===
[[File:William F. Buckley, Jr. 1985.jpg|thumb|upright|The feud between Vidal and [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] (pictured) lasted until the latter's death in 2008.]]

In 1968, the [[ABC News (United States)|ABC television network]] hired the liberal Vidal and the conservative [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] as political analysts of the presidential-nomination conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |title=Political Animals: Vidal, Buckley and the '68 Conventions |last1=Kloman |first1=Harry |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=November 2, 2009 |archive-date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921082404/http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After days of bickering, their debates deteriorated to vitriolic ''[[ad&nbsp;hominem]]'' attacks. During a moment of crosstalk while discussing the [[1968 Democratic National Convention protests]], the pair argued about [[freedom of speech]]; namely, the legality of protesters to display a [[Viet Cong]] flag in America, Vidal snapped at Buckley to "shut up a minute". Moments later, the following exchange transpired: <blockquote> BUCKLEY: Some people were pro-Nazi, and the answer is that they were well treated by people who ostracized them. And I'm for ostracizing people who egg on other people to shoot American Marines and American soldiers.
VIDAL: As far as I'm concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself. Failing that, I would only say that we can't have—
BUCKLEY: Now listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered.</blockquote> ABC's [[Howard K. Smith]] intervened, and the debate resumed without violence.<ref name="vidal_correx_july_2011"/><ref>{{cite web|title=William Buckley/Gore Vidal Debate|via = YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsysyanTZbA|access-date=August 3, 2012|archive-date=January 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011616/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, Buckley said he regretted having called Vidal a "queer", but still expressed some distaste for Vidal when he said that he was an "evangelist for bisexuality".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898542,00.html |title=Feuds: Wasted Talent |magazine=Time |date=August 22, 1969 |access-date=November 7, 2011 |archive-date=November 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127012500/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898542,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1969, in ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine, Buckley continued his cultural feud with Vidal in the essay "On Experiencing Gore Vidal" (August 1969), in which he portrayed Vidal as an [[Apologia|apologist]] for homosexuality; Buckley said, "The man who, in his essays, proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher." The essay is collected in ''The Governor Listeth: A Book of Inspired Political Revelations'' (1970), an anthology of Buckley's writings from the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buckley |first=William F. |author-link=William F. Buckley Jr. |date=1970 |title=The governor listeth: a book of inspired political revelations |location=New York |publisher=Putnam |lccn=70-105581}}</ref>

Vidal riposted in ''Esquire'' with the September 1969 essay "A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr." and said that Buckley was "anti-black", "[[anti-semitic]]" and a "warmonger".<ref name="esquire_sept_1969"/> Buckley sued Vidal for [[libel]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Vidal Is Sued by Buckley; A 'Nazi' Libel Is Charged |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/07/archives/vidal-is-sued-by-buckley-a-nazi-libel-is-charged.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 7, 1969 |access-date=April 29, 2019 |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716083813/https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/07/archives/vidal-is-sued-by-buckley-a-nazi-libel-is-charged.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The feud continued in ''Esquire'', where Vidal implied that in 1944, Buckley and unnamed siblings had vandalized a [[Protestant]] church in [[Sharon, Connecticut]] (the Buckley family hometown) after the wife of a pastor had sold a house to a Jewish family. Additionally, Vidal later claimed to know for a fact that Buckley was "rather infatuated" with him. Buckley again sued Vidal and ''Esquire'' for libel and Vidal filed a counterclaim for libel against Buckley, citing Buckley's characterization of ''Myra Breckinridge'' (1968) as a [[pornographic novel]].<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Buckley v. Vidal |vol=327 |reporter=F.Supp. |opinion=1051 |court=US [[S.D.N.Y.]] |date=May 13, 1971 |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/19711378327fsupp105111171 |via=Leagle Inc. |access-date=March 31, 2018 |quote= ... in August 1968, Buckley made the following statement: 'Let Myra Breckinridge [referring to the novel bearing such name and thereby identifying its author, Gore Vidal, with such novel] go back to his pornography.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Athitakis |first=Mark |date=February 23, 2018 |title=Saluting 'Myra Breckinridge' on its 50th anniversary |url=http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-myra-breckinridge-20180223-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=March 31, 2018 |archive-date=April 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401144836/http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-myra-breckinridge-20180223-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The court dismissed Vidal's counterclaim.<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=19711378327FSupp1051_11171.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985 Buckley v. Vidal]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011514/https://www.leagle.com/decision/19711378327fsupp105111171.xml |date=January 11, 2021 }}. 327 F. Supp. 1051 (1971).</ref> Buckley accepted a money settlement of $115,000 to pay the fee of his attorney and an editorial apology from ''Esquire'', in which the publisher and the editors said that they were "utterly convinced" of the untruthfulness of Vidal's assertions.<ref>"Buckley Drops Vidal Suit, Settles With Esquire", ''The New York Times'', September 26, 1972, p.&nbsp;40.</ref> In a letter to ''Newsweek'' magazine, the publisher of ''Esquire'' said that "the settlement of Buckley's suit against us" was not "a 'disavowal' of Vidal's article. On the contrary, it clearly states that we published that article because we believed that Vidal had a right to assert his opinions, even though we did not share them."<ref name=Kaplan-1999>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=Fred |title=Gore Vidal; A Biography |date=1999 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385477031 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvHRY1vECCIC&q=we+published+that+article+because+we+believed+that+Vidal+had+a+right+to+assert+his+opinions&pg=PT601 |access-date=October 8, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111011522/https://books.google.com/books?id=EvHRY1vECCIC&q=we+published+that+article+because+we+believed+that+Vidal+had+a+right+to+assert+his+opinions&pg=PT601 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In ''Gore Vidal: A Biography'' (1999), [[Fred Kaplan (biographer)|Fred Kaplan]] said that "The court had 'not' sustained Buckley's case against ''Esquire''&nbsp;... [that] the court had 'not' ruled that Vidal's article was 'defamatory'. It had ruled that the case would have to go to trial ''in order to determine, as a matter of fact, whether or not it was defamatory''. The cash value of the settlement with ''Esquire'' represented 'only' Buckley's legal expenses."<ref name=Kaplan-1999 />

In 2003, Buckley resumed his complaint of having been libeled by Vidal, this time with the publication of the anthology ''Esquire's Big Book of Great Writing'' (2003), which included Vidal's essay "A Distasteful Encounter with William F. Buckley, Jr." Again, the offended Buckley filed lawsuit for libel and ''Esquire'' magazine again settled Buckley's claim with $55,000–65,000 for the fees of his attorney and $10,000 for personal damages suffered by Buckley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |title=Political Animals: Vidal, Buckley and the '68 Conventions |last1=Kloman |first1=Harry |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=December 28, 2016 |archive-date=November 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117030038/http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the obituary "RIP WFB – in Hell" (March 20, 2008), Vidal remembered Buckley, who had died on February 27, 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/ |title=Reports&nbsp;– Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the Dead |publisher=Truthdig |date=March 20, 2008 |access-date=January 22, 2009 |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204113214/http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Later, in the interview "Literary Lion: Questions for Gore Vidal" (June 15, 2008), ''New York Times'' reporter [[Deborah Solomon]] asked Vidal: "How did you feel, when you heard that Buckley died this year?" Vidal responded:<ref>Solomon, Deborah. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html "Literary Lion: Questions for Gore Vidal"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105507/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html |date=February 6, 2017 }}. ''New York Times''. June 15, 2008.</ref>
{{blockquote|
I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins, forever, those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.
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