Reason.com

Print|Email

Gore Vidal on Lincoln's Sexuality

Vanity Fair has a piece by Gore Vidal about Abe Lincoln's sexuality, which was big news a few weeks ago. The best quote of the piece has little to do with the Railsplitter, though, and more to do with Mae West, who starred in mega-bomb movie version of Vidal's novel Myra Breckinridge:

Even the great Mae West, our first commanding sexologist, was convinced that fairies were simply women, obliged, through no fault of their own, to inhabit crude male bodies: Plangently Doctor Mae mourned her lost sisters.

Whole thing here. Vidal's novel Patriotic Gore for my tastes.

Has William Safire, another Lincoln novelist, weighed in on this?

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.

|1.31.05 @ 12:59PM|

Are you telling me the old railsplitter was really the old cheek splitter?

|1.31.05 @ 1:01PM|

I just can't do it. The mountains of sanctimonious crap spewed by Vidal over the years taints everything else his pen happens to scribble.

|1.31.05 @ 9:53PM|

You can fool some of the people some of the time ... you old thing.

Most Popular Stories

advertisements

Get Reason E-mail Updates!

Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptions

Site comments/questions:

Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:


(310) 367-6109

Editorial & Production Offices:

3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245