Today we have talking heads and pundits.  But back in second half of the 20th century we had writers and public intellectuals, whose ideas, attitudes and personalities became a part of our public discourse.

Gore Vidal was one of those.  He wrote about history, about sex, about politics and sometimes all at once.  He wrote non-fiction, novels, movies, and was the guest you wanted to have at a dinner party.

But he was also one of the bad boys of American letter.  His rapier wit and insults pushed away as many people as admired him.  But like most complex figures, the public surfaces were only part of the story.

To get deeper we have the work of my guest Michael Mewshaw .  A long time friend of Vidal, he's just written Sympathy for the Devil: Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal.

My conversation with Michael Mewshaw: