Clouds and eclipses : the collected short stories / Gore Vidal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vidal, Gore, 1925-2012.

Language:

English

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

x, 166 pages ; 21 cm

Other Title:

Collected short stories

Place of Publication:

New York : Carroll & Graf Publishers, [2006]

Summary:

Celebrated for more than fifty years as a world-renowned novelist, essayist, and political figure and commentator, Gore Vidal is less known for his exquisitely crafted short fiction. Like the work of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, his stories have been overshadowed by his triumphs writing in other genres.

Vidal's sharply crafted tales offer us a portrait of the artist as a young man. In "Three Stratagems," a middle-aged gay man encounters a male prostitute while vacationing in Key West. In "The Zenner Trophy," the star athlete at an elite boys school is expelled for sexual relations with a classmate. Along with five others, these stories were gathered into a 1956 volume, A Thirsty Evil, and for decades were thought to comprise Vidal's complete short fiction. However, an eighth story was recently discovered among Vidal's private papers at Harvard University. Entitled "Clouds and Eclipses," the story is based on a true account from the childhood of Tennessee Williams. Taking its name from that lost story, this collection brings Vidal's body of short fiction to completion for the first time.

Contents:

Three Stratagems

The Robin

A Moment of Green Laural

The Zenner Trophy

Erlinda and Mr. Coffin

Pages from an Abandoned Journal

The Ladies in the Library

Clouds and Eclipses.

ISBN:

0786718102

OCLC:

70709173

Publisher Number:

9780786718108