These nineteen essays richly confirm Gore Vidal's reputation as "America's finest essayist" (The New Statesman), and are further evidence of the breadth and depth of his intelligence and wit. Included here are his highly praised essays on Theodore Roosevelt ("An American Sissy"), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson ("This Critic and This Gin and These Shoes"), the need for a new constitutional convention—as well as his controversial study of relations between the homosexual and Jewish communities ("Pink Triangle and Yellow Star"). Vidal's other subjects range from Christopher Isherwood to L. Frank Baum ("The OZ BOoks"), from the question of "Who Makes the Movies?" to the misadventures—religious and financial—of Bert Lance.
"Reading The Second American Revolution is like following a canny hunting guide as he hacks his way through the jungle with a machete." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
"In this book there are essays that are as fine as any essays written in recent years." —The Chicago Tribune
"I can't think of any writer more certain to have exactly the right opinion on absolutely everything." —Thomas M. Disch, front page, The Washington Post Book World
"The American tradition of independent and curious learning is kept alive in the wit and the great expressiveness of Gore Vidal's criticism." —Citatoin of the National Book Critics Circle
These nineteen essays richly confirm Gore Vidal's reputation as "America's finest essayist" (The New Statesman), and are further evidence of the breadth and depth of his intelligence and wit. Included here are his highly praised essays on Theodore Roosevelt ("An American Sissy"), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson ("This Critic and This Gin and These Shoes"), the need for a new constitutional convention—as well as his controversial study of relations between the homosexual and Jewish communities ("Pink Triangle and Yellow Star"). Vidal's other subjects range from Christopher Isherwood to L. Frank Baum ("The OZ BOoks"), from the question of "Who Makes the Movies?" to the misadventures—religious and financial—of Bert Lance.
Praise
"Reading The Second American Revolution is like following a canny hunting guide as he hacks his way through the jungle with a machete." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
"In this book there are essays that are as fine as any essays written in recent years." —The Chicago Tribune
"I can't think of any writer more certain to have exactly the right opinion on absolutely everything." —Thomas M. Disch, front page, The Washington Post Book World
"The American tradition of independent and curious learning is kept alive in the wit and the great expressiveness of Gore Vidal's criticism." —Citatoin of the National Book Critics Circle
