Snapshots of a Historic American Life

 

Gore Vidal was known as an inveterate name dropper. Yet when one has personally known the A-List historic figures that he knew and observed (from Amelia Earhart to Eleanor Roosevelt to Jack Kennedy) it can be considered a forgivable offense.

I've been enjoying a coffee table book of photos and commentary, "Snapshots in History's Glare" that the prodigious novelist and essayist allowed to be published near the end of his long remarkable life. According to one of his biographers, Jay Parini who penned "Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal" (of which I also recently listened in audio book form) "Snapshots" was, in part, Gore's tribute to his life partner of five decades Howard Auster (AKA Howard Austen).

Indeed, there are numerous rare photos from the life of Howard with Gore that make it a fitting tribute to the man who was indispensable to the running of their household and who was an invaluable "sounding board" and companion to one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century.

Photos of political news makers, actors and pop-culture celebs (including Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol) are featured as well as movie stills and domestic scenes make "Snapshots in History's Glare" a fascinating visual record of Vidal who was an early pioneer of the the historical novel and a keen observer of the American scene.

A photo of Gore at his writing desk adorns the table of contents

First Printing Covers of Many of Gore's Novels.

 

Mr and Mrs. Johnny Carson are just two of Vidal's celebrity friends who would be his personal guests.

Gore and Howard often hosted actor Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward
As well as other actor friends and social luminaries.

Howard Austen photos (50s era) at their home on the Hudson in New York

I particularly enjoyed these Andy Warhol Polaroid photos in Vidal's book (Howard is in the upper right photo):

 

Of Andy's visit Gore Writes:

Warhol, who was endlessly charming, acted as if he were in the Land of Oz when he was in Italy; everything was strange to him. I asked him, as a joke, to autograph the front of the house so I

could sell the entire estate as a Warhol sculpture; he did not do this but instead took some Polaroid pictures of the villa. When I complained how blurry the pictures were, he said, "But doesn't that look more artistic?" I quite agreed. And so he signed the Polaroids with the priceless W, which I implore readers not to cut out so they can claim they have a Warhol original.

 Here's another couple of photos from Andy's visit in which he was accompanied by Mick and Bianca Jagger:

Gore recalls (as cited in the photo above), 

“When we first moved into the villa, everyone that we had known, or thought that we had known, soon arrived to case the premises. Here I am greeting Andy Warhol (not pictured) and Mick and Bianca Jogger at the port of Amalfi. For the record, Mick was a perfect sightseer, up at dawn, guidebook in hand, examining the old churches and castles in the neighborhood. He was also fascinated by early memories, one of which for him, was of the end of World War II. He said they bad had dark curtains (of the sort that we still had in the bedrooms) so that the invading Nazis could not see the light from their windows, and he still remembered the day when his mother took down the curtains and said. "The war is over."

Brief promo trailer for "Snapshots":