Hollywood and sexual ambivalence are the subjects of Myra Breckinridge (1968) and Hollywood (1989). Vidal's intimate knowledge of American politics is matched by a talent for historical writing, as in the political novels Washington D.C. His play, The Best Man (1960), drew on this experience. In 1960 Vidal ran for Congress although not elected, he made a respectable showing, receiving more votes, he noted, than had John Kennedy in similar circumstances. The Judgment of Paris (1952) made use of the myth in relating a story about Americans in Europe. His third book, The City and the Pillar (1948), dealt with homosexuality and was considered outspoken at the time.

In 1943 he enlisted in the army, serving as a warrant officer and then as first mate on an army supply vessel in the Aleutians, an experience drawn on in his first novel, Williwaw (1946), written when he was nineteen. He was educated at Philips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. He grew up in Washington, where his father became director of Air Commerce under Roosevelt and his grandfather, Senator T. Vidal was born in New York at West Point, the son of an instructor of aeronautics at the US Military Academy.

1987 novel by gore vidal