I have to chip in on Miss Marmelstein’s side, here. BURR and LINCOLN were terrific. Vidal’s novel “1876” was about the tumult and backbiting and deceit in the election in which Samuel Tilden won the vote and Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the Presidency.
During the frazzling wait after the 2000 election, I was more confident that the nation would overcome the impasse because I knew about the previous similar case thanks to Vidal’s book.
I’ve got to try “1876” again. I first read it as a kid and I thought it would be a sequel to “Burr” - which it is, I guess, but not in the way I had hoped. I reread “Lincoln” every other year - still gripped by Vidal’s description of Gettysburg as Lincoln witnessed it from his office sofa!
But as Nathan Bedford pointed out, he, like many other leftist public intellectuals, mistook celebrity for erudition. He could be fantastically shallow, almost a caricature of the people he professed to hate most. He was, forgive the crudity, his, not mine, an angry queer with a chip on his shoulder. I think it hurt more than it helped.
RIP, I suppose, although I doubt he would accept that sort of peace were it offered him. Some folks just can't help chewing on the life ring.