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Portrait of Gore Vidal Photo: David Shankbone (2009)
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Vidal, Gore

The American novelist and essayist Gore Vidal was born at West Point, New York. He was originally christened Eugene Vidal, but in his teens he changed his first name to his maternal grandfather’s surname. Gore Vidal was the only child of the pilot Eugene Luther Vidal and his wife, Nina S. Gore, an actress. He was not close to either. His parents were divorced when Vidal was ten, and although he m...

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Portrait image of Wilkie Collins

Sample of authors

Collins, Wilkie

The British author Wilkie Collins (William Wilkie Collins) wrote a series of extremely successful novels as well as a number of short stories and plays. T.S. Eliot later described his novel The Moonstone (1868) as "the world's first, longest and best detective story". Collins was one of the most popular authors of his time, both at home and abroad. He was close to Charles Dickens and a notorious...

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