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Political Animal: Gore Vidal on power by Heather Neilson

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December 2014, no. 367

Political Animal: Gore Vidal on power by Heather Neilson

Monash University Publishing, $39.95 pb, 220 pp

Political Animal: Gore Vidal on power by Heather Neilson

by
December 2014, no. 367

American writer Gore Vidal was an intimate of political power. His grandfather was a US senator; his father served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Director of Air Commerce. When his mother remarried, to Hugh Auchincloss, Vidal obtained a descendant of Vice President Aaron Burr as a stepfather. Later, Hugh remarried Janet Bouvier, and her daughter – the future Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – became Vidal’s stepsister. Jackie took over Vidal’s childhood bedroom at the Auchincloss estate and wore his old shirts riding. They shared three nephews between them. Gore and Jacqueline’s husband, John F. Kennedy, were close.

James McNamara reviews 'Political Animal: Gore Vidal on power' by Heather Neilson

Political Animal: Gore Vidal on power

by Heather Neilson

Monash University Publishing, $39.95 pb, 220 pp

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