Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (pron-en????r v??d??l or IPA/v??d�l/) (born October 3, 1925) is an American (United States) author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter and political activist. Early in his career he wrote The City and the Pillar (1948), which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He subsequently emerged as one of Americans more important literary figures due to the enormous quantity of work produced over the course of his career, including novels, essays, plays, and short stories covering a wide variety of topics and eras. He also ran for political office twice and served as a longtime political critic.