Since his first novel with a homosexual topic, The City and the Pillar, appeared in 1948, Gore Vidal has been seen as an enfant terrible of American letters. Through his ongoing writing career, he has examined (homo)sexuality in the context of cultural, religious and socio- political developments, so that it is fascinating to revisit his critical, sometimes cynical and always wittily presented ideas which were formed at a time when Gay Liberation, Gay Literature and Gay Identity were still unheard of and to discover the meaning these ideas still hold for us today.
