Myra Breckenridge - A Confession

 I had the novel Myra Breckenridge before my arrest. It has since disappeared from my books. Nothing proves how little fiction I read the decade or two before I went to prison. I have been a fan of Vidal's for almost fifty years.

Today, CrimeReads published David Masciotra's HOW GORE VIDAL'S 1968 BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL ABOUT A TRANS WOMAN TOOK AIM AT THE PATRIARCHY, which reminded me of my failing and has put the book back on my list of books to buy.

Vidal was on the receiving end of many attacks following the publication of Myra Breckinridge. No stranger to controversy, he had already endured temporary banishment from the New York Times Book Review for his novel, The City and the Pillar – arguably the first American novel to depict same sex attraction as normal and healthy. Many right wing critics rebuked Myra Breckinridge as “pornography,” most infamously William F. Buckley during their 1968 television debates during the Democratic and Republican Conventions. The debate exploded when Buckley called Vidal a “queer” (then, an anti-gay slur) and threatened to “sock him in the goddamn face.” 

Check it out. We may need to go back to go forward.

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