![]() ![]() ![]() His sharp wit and on-camera poise was best displayed in his debates with luminaries like conservative ideologue William F. ![]() He once said, ‘There is not one human problem that could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.’” “Though he lost both times,” noted the Times’ Charles McGrath, “he often conducted himself as a sort of unelected shadow president. The aristocratic Vidal also dabbled in politics: He ran for Congress from New York in 1960, and for the Senate in California in 1982. ![]() In his obituary, the New York Times called Vidal a “prolific, elegant, all-around man of letters.” He was also a successful television writer in the medium’s early days, and a regular on the talk show circuit later in his career (Reportedly, Johnny Carson was impressed enough to offer him a spot as a regular guest host of “The Tonight Show”). More than 40 years before there was Hamilton, there was Burr, the best-selling and critically acclaimed 1973 novel about the disgraced Founding Father-written by a celebrity author with a reputation as a skilled duelist himself (albeit with words, not pistols). In the case of Aaron Burr-the “damn fool” who shot Alexander Hamilton-the answer to that last question, at least before playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda came around, was simple: Gore Vidal. “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?” sing the cast of Hamilton in the finale of the smash Broadway musical. ![]()
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