SOURCE: “The Cosmopolitan Man,” in New York Review of Books, April 22, 1999, pp. 29-32.

In the following review of The Smithsonian Institution and The Essential Gore Vidal, Hitchens provides an overview of Vidal's literary career, recurring themes in his work, and Vidal's view of American history, national identity, and geopolitical obligations.

Here is a report from The New York Times of September 12, 1960, written from Poughkeepsie under the byline of Ira Henry Freeman:

Gore Vidal, Democratic candidate for Representative in the twenty-ninth Congressional District, sprawled barefoot in a gilded fauteuil of his luxurious octagonal Empire study as he considered the question whether he could win the election.

“If this were not a Presidential year, I might have a chance,” he said. “As it is, every four years, about 20,000 extra people crawl out of their Hudson Gothic woodwork up here to vote for William McKinley.”

Mr. Vidal is 34 years old, slender...