The celebrated author of essays, novels, plays, memoirs and movie screenplays, Gore Vidal was born into a life of privilege.
His novels include The City and the Pillar (1948), Myra Breckinridge (1968), Burr (1973), and Lincoln (1984). Many of his works are based in Washington, including a memoir Palimpsest (1995) and the novels Washington, DC (1967) and The Smithsonian Institution (1998). Vidal’s screenwriting credits included the historical epic Ben-Hur (1959), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), and political thriller The Best Man (1962) starring Henry Fonda as a thinly veiled John F. Kennedy candidate. His plays on Broadway include Visit to a Small Planet (1957) and The Best Man (1960). He wrote for a number of publications including Esquire, The Nation, the New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books.
Vidal won a National Book Award for an essay collection, United States: Essays 1952–1992, and an Edgar Award for the screenplay to an episode of Suspense. An opinionated writer and one of the leading intellectuals of his time, Vidal was famous for public feuds with numerous writers including William F. Buckley, Jr., Truman Capote, Christopher Hitchens and Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent part of his childhood in Washington where he attended St. Albans School for Boys. After his parents’ divorce Vidal lived at this first address with his father and with his mother at the Wardman Park Apartments. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery alongside his partner of more than fifty years, Howard Austen.
The Homes
3930 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC
2660 Woodley Rd. NW, Washington, DC (Wardman Park Apartments)
2701 Albemarle Street NW, Washington, DC (Now the Malaysian Ambassador's Residence)
700 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA (Merrywood Estate)
Famous as the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Merrywood is a Georgian-style, four-story mansion located on seven acres on the bank of the Potomac River, and is considered one of the most expensive mansions in the Mid-Atlantic region. Although renovated many times, the house maintains its original ornate plaster moldings. The house has nine bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, and the property has indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a tennis court, a climate-controlled wine cellar, and formal gardens created by Beatrix Ferrand. A carriage house accommodates four cars and staff quarters.
Gore Vidal
3930 Connecticut Ave NW
Located in Van Ness neighborhood, Northwest- West of Rock Creek
Gore Vidal
2660 Woodley Rd. NW
Located in Forest Hills neighborhood, Van Ness neighborhood, Northern VirginiaNorthwest- West of Rock Creek