Gore Vidal, a prolific and provocative author and longtime laureate of the International Academy of Humanism,
has died at the age of eighty-six. Over his long career, Vidal produced
twenty-five novels, two memoirs, several volumes of essays, plays,
screenplays, and television dramas. He also acted and ran for Congress
twice. He expressed hostility to religion, especially Christianity,
almost from the beginning; some of his most noteworthy works in this
regard were published in 1992—the essay “Monotheism and Its Discontents”
and the novel Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal, a spoof of the New Testament.
“Gore Vidal has been an
inspirational figure to a great many people, myself included. Of course
he will be remembered for being urbane, fiendishly talented, and
terrifyingly witty. But, more than this, he was principled, honest, and
courageous,” said Stephen Law, secretary of the Academy, which was
established by the Council for Secular Humanism in 1980 to honor
distinguished humanists.
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