Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings

1999, first edition, from Cleis
Gore Vidal
Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings
Probably bought new for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

This overlaps 1968's Sex, Death, and Money, and not just topically.  The first three essays here are mid-'60s ones that appeared in SDaM, and although it's been a long while since I read that collection, I decided to skip those three works.  (Near as I could tell, Vidal hadn't made any changes or comments on them.)  I jumped ahead to a snarky and insightful look at David Reuben's Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex, which even at age 14 I found dubious.  The book overall is smart and funny.  Even when I don't agree with Vidal, he's entertaining.  It was nice to get his take on Eleanor Roosevelt compared to B. W. Cook's.  (In 1971 he offers his memories of her, and then in 1999 he briefly talks about reading her correspondence with Lorena Hickok.)  There are also some interviews of Vidal by gay journalists, in 1974 and again in 1992.

One thing that Vidal said repeatedly that no one (of any orientation) seemed to get was that "homosexual" is an adjective, not a noun, and it applies to acts rather than people.  He was (I'm guessing) a Kinsey 4 or 5, defining himself as bisexual when pressed for a label, but seeing nearly everyone as potentially bi.  He does discuss homophobia, and the impact of AIDS, but I found his opinions changed little over time, except to become both more cynical and more hopeful.  In his lifetime, he saw gradually more acceptance of homosexuality, but he was always aware of the prejudices of society, particularly the Religious Right.

I doubt that I'll get his novel The Golden Age (2000) in time for this project, but this is not a bad place to end with him.  As you probably know, he passed away after I started blogging about him, but even at the time I saw him in Celluloid Closet (1995), he was an iconoclastic icon.  He may not be remembered fondly overall, but he will be remembered.