Hollywood-Limited Ed. - Hardcover

Vidal, Gore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394576608 ISBN 13: 9780394576602

Publisher: Random House, 1990

Synopsis

Hollywood marks the 5th episode in Gore Vidal's "Narratives of Empire," his celebrated series of six historical novels that form his extended biography of the USA.It's 1917. President Woodrow Wilson is about to lead the country into the Great War in Europe. In California, a new industry is born that will irreversibly transform America. Caroline Sanford, the alluring heroine of Empire, discovers the power of moving pictures to manipulate reality as she vaults to screen stardom under the name of Emma Traxler. Just as Caroline must balance her two lives -- West Coast movie star & East Coast newspaper publisher & senator's mistress -- so too must America balance its two power Hollywood & Washington.Here's history as only Gore Vidal can recreate brimming with intrigue & scandal, peopled by the greats of the silver screen & American politics.With a new Introduction by the author.

About this title

Review

Who could possibly resist a novel that begins as William Randolph Hearst falls on his behind? The fifth novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire sequence (sixth, however, in order of publication) begins on the eve of American involvement in the First World War and ends shortly after the mysterious death of Warren G. Harding and ascension of the taciturn Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. Balanced against Gore's descriptions of all these political machinations is the story of newspaper publisher Caroline Sanford's foray into film acting, which places her in proximity to the scandals involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and William Desmond Taylor. The cast of characters includes a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt--and his mistress, Lucy Mercer--and Vidal's maternal grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore. As always, the proceedings are enlivened by Vidal's caustic wit. --Ron Hogan

From the Back Cover

"        Wicked and provocative. . . . Vidal's purview of Hollywood in one of its golden ages is fascinating."
--Tom Tryon

"        Vidal succeeds in making his history alive and plausible."
--The New York Times
"        Vidal's originality derives from his as-
surance that he can create and command the American history of his novels, as much as he can their imaginary components. No other American writer I know of has Vidal's sense of national proprietorship. He summons the entire American scene into his confident voice. Vidal's presump-
tions work marvelously well for his
intentions."
--Richard Poirier,
The New York Review of Books
Also available from the Modern Library:
Burr  ¸  Lincoln  ¸  1876  ¸
Empire  ¸  Washington, D.C.
From the Hardcover edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394576608
• ISBN 13: 9780394576602
• Binding: Hardcover