Editing Gore Vidal (section)

===Nonfiction===
[[File:1876Novel.jpg|thumb|upright|Vidal's historical novel ''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976)]]
In the United States, Vidal is often considered an essayist rather than a novelist.<ref>{{cite news |first=Deborah |last=Solomon |title=Literary Lion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=June 15, 2008 |access-date=June 29, 2008 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210225213/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine |url-status=live }}</ref> Even the occasionally hostile literary critic, such as [[Martin Amis]], admitted that "Essays are what he is good at ... [Vidal] is learned, funny, and exceptionally clear-sighted. Even his blind spots are illuminating."

For six decades, Vidal applied himself to socio-political, sexual, historical and literary subjects. In the essay anthology ''Armageddon'' (1987) he explored the intricacies of power (political and cultural) in the contemporary United States. His criticism of the incumbent U.S. president, [[Ronald Reagan]], as a "triumph of the embalmer's art" communicated that Reagan's provincial worldview, and that of his administration's, was out of date and inadequate to the geopolitical realities of the world in the late twentieth century. In 1993, Vidal won the [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] for the anthology ''United States: Essays 1952–92'' (1993).<ref name=nba1993>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1993 "National Book Awards&nbsp;– 1993"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029015053/http://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1993/ |date=October 29, 2018 }}. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-12.<br />(With acceptance speech by Vidal, read by Harry Evans.)</ref>

In 2000, Vidal published the collection of essays ''The Last Empire'', then such self-described "pamphlets" as ''Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace'', ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'' and ''Imperial America'', critiques of American expansionism, the [[military–industrial complex]], the national security state and the [[George W. Bush administration]]. Vidal also wrote a historical essay about the [[Founding Fathers]], ''Inventing a Nation''. In 1995, he published a memoir, ''Palimpsest'', and in 2006 its follow-up volume, ''Point to Point Navigation''. Earlier that year, Vidal had published ''Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories''.

In 2009, Vidal won the [[National Book Award#Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters|Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters]] from the [[National Book Foundation]], which called him a "prominent social critic on politics, history, literature and culture".<ref name=medal>[http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310053959/http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html |date=March 10, 2011 }}. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.<br />(With acceptance speech by Vidal and official blurb.)</ref><!-- the blurb is substantially lacking as an award citation; contrast Joan Didion 2007; nor does NBF publish anyone's introduction of Vidal -->
In the same year, the Man of Letters Gore Vidal was named honorary president of the [[American Humanist Association]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atheists.org/gore-vidal-death-legend |title=Gore Vidal: The Death of a Legend &#124; American Atheists |publisher=Atheists.org |date=August 1, 2012 |access-date=August 5, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804052134/http://www.atheists.org/gore-vidal-death-legend |archive-date=August 4, 2012}}</ref><!-- dead link --><ref name=Freethinker0812>{{cite web|last=Duke|first=Barry|url=http://freethinker.co.uk/2012/08/01/farewell-gore-vidal-gay-atheist-extraordinary/|title=Farewell Gore Vidal, Gay Atheist Extraordinary|publisher=Freethinker.co.uk|date=August 1, 2012|access-date=December 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108041016/http://freethinker.co.uk/2012/08/01/farewell-gore-vidal-gay-atheist-extraordinary/|archive-date=January 8, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>