Died last Tuesday. Wrote some very controversial literature, and was somewhat defined by his uniquely gathered fame on television. I'm very interested in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (its connected to some of my studies), which Vidal wrote an essay on, criticizing in several respects. Anyway, whether or not you care about that, just check out the interview, its pretty interesting commentary on some greater political, sexual, and literary issues. http://wamc.org/post/fresh-air-remembers-writer-and-critic-gore-vidal
My favorite work of his was the novel Creation. In this work, Vidal's fictional character, Cyrus Spitama, travels the ancient world to meet with the founders of the great religions in search of answers to life's greatest questions. It is by far the best way to get a basic understand of World Religions. During his life, Vidal always got a bad rap for writing historical fiction, but as a history major, I find that often works of "non-fiction" are far more fictional than not. Gore's works were always painfully researched and were written in a way that you walked away with a clearer understanding of the zeitgeist of the historical period than by reading any number of exhaustive academic texts. Worth a read. http://www.amazon.com/Creation-A-Novel-Gore-Vidal/dp/0375727051
