The celebrated fight between the American writer Gore Vidal and the conservative author and intellectual William Buckley began in a television debate in 1968 and degenerated into an inconclusive legal dispute that cost Vidal $1 million he did not have.
A new biography of Vidal, who died last year, suggests a possible motive for the confrontation: Vidal was seeking to keep secret evidence that he was a paedophile. Vidal had called his adversary a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley called him a “queer”. Suit and counter-suit followed. According to In Bed With Gore Vidal: Hustlers, Hollywood and the Private World of an American Master, by Tim Teeman, the celebrated man of letters may have feared that Buckley possessed material showing past relations with under-age partners.
It quotes Vidal’s half-sister, Nina Straight, who claimed he was “terrified” that “material Buckley had on him would come out”. Asked if she knew the details of the material, she replied: “I can guess what they are. Jerry Sandusky acts” — a reference to a former university football coach convicted last year of sexually abusing young boys.
A new biography of Vidal, who died last year, suggests a possible motive for the confrontation: Vidal was seeking to keep secret evidence that he was a paedophile. Vidal had called his adversary a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley called him a “queer”. Suit and counter-suit followed. According to In Bed With Gore Vidal: Hustlers, Hollywood and the Private World of an American Master, by Tim Teeman, the celebrated man of letters may have feared that Buckley possessed material showing past relations with under-age partners.
It quotes Vidal’s half-sister, Nina Straight, who claimed he was “terrified” that “material Buckley had on him would come out”. Asked if she knew the details of the material, she replied: “I can guess what they are. Jerry Sandusky acts” — a reference to a former university football coach convicted last year of sexually abusing young boys.
Ms Straight lent Vidal the money to finance the legal battle by paying his lawyer’s fees. He never repaid her and she is now challenging his will, which left out family, friends and a devoted housekeeper and bequeathed his entire estate to Harvard University.
Teeman remains wary. “There is no conclusive proof at this point either way,” he said yesterday. “Homosexuality and paedophilia have been conflated in people’s minds and in the media for far too long. As a gay man I’m extremely cautious about this in the book.”
Tim Teeman works for The Times, one might add, so it's nice he got a pointless plug in The Times.
He also has a book to sell about Gore Vidal.
Though one might ask if he works for The Times how he has the time to write a book.
Odd how Gore's a hero for all the posh patrician gays, like Timothy Teacakes - as he was called at the Pink Paper, on account of his insufferable Enid Blyton poshness.
Though one might ask if he works for The Times how he has the time to write a book.
Odd how Gore's a hero for all the posh patrician gays, like Timothy Teacakes - as he was called at the Pink Paper, on account of his insufferable Enid Blyton poshness.
That line again; "There is no conclusive proof at this point either way."
So what is point?
And isn't "young boys" a sinister oxymoron?
And maybe you should look up "paedophile" in the dictionary.
Maybe you meant ebophile?
I'm so bored with all your ex-public school boys' obsession with buggering boys.
And Gore Vidal.
You big posh twits.
And isn't "young boys" a sinister oxymoron?
And maybe you should look up "paedophile" in the dictionary.
Maybe you meant ebophile?
I'm so bored with all your ex-public school boys' obsession with buggering boys.
And Gore Vidal.
You big posh twits.
Anyway, Bill vs Gore, here we go...
PS More balls about Gore in the Daily Mail, 'A monstrous secret', apparently.
Update: Mark Lawson in the Guardian; If the rumours about Gore Vidal are true, what does this mean for his work? Includes references to Nabokov, Polanski, Wagner, and Jimmy Savile...
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