- [Narrator] 20th century
American writer Gore Vidal
was known almost as much for his quick wit
as he was for his extensive bibliography.
But his sharp tongue also
made him a few enemies,
including Truman Capote,
Christopher Hitchens,
and William F. Buckley.
But the most memorable of his rivalries
was with fellow writer Norman Mailer.
Like so many literary feuds,
it all began in writing.
In the New York Review of Books,
Vidal compared Mailer's
1971 anti-feminist text,
The Prisoner of Sex, to "three
days of menstrual flow."
(gasps)
He also called Mailer,
who'd notoriously stabbed
his own wife with a
penknife, a danger to women,
even going so far as to
compare him to Charles Manson.
On December 15th, 1971,
when Vidal and Mailer
were both scheduled as guests
on the Dick Cavett Show,
the feud leapt right off the page.
While waiting in the
green room, Mailer decided
to confront Gidal with a
headbutt, though "Stormin'" Norman
later claimed it was just
a stiff tap on the cheek.
And the tension didn't diffuse
once the cameras started rolling.
Mailer, who admitted to
being drunk at the time,
demanded that Vidal
apologize for calling him
a misogynist, but Vidal refused.
- I would apologize if ...
if it hurt your feelings,
of course I would.
- No, it hurts my sense
of intellectual pollution.
- Well, I must say--
- [Mailer] I mean--
- As an expert, you
should know about that.
- [Mailer] I would like to--
(audience laughing)
- [Narrator] By the end of the segment,
the show's host, panelist Janet Flanner,
and the audience had all sided with Vidal.
For the next several years,
Mailer continued to
privately loathe Gore Vidal.
In a 1975 letter to actor Mickey Knox,
he even openly fantasized
about attacking him.
- [Mailer] Between us, I can tell you
"that I have decided to take
no more literary cracks at him.
"I'd rather have the
anger stored in my muscle.
"Of course, he's such a turd
"that it will probably
end by his suing me."
- [Narrator] And this was no idle threat.
In 1977, Mailer ran into Vidal at a party,
and wound up striking him in the face
with his gin and tonic glass.
Still reeling from the
blow, Vidal said ...
- [Vidal] "Once again,
words fail Norman Mailer."
(loud cheering)
- [Narrator] After that
incident, it was clear
that Vidal would always
have the verbal upper hand.
And in November, 1984, Mailer
finally conceded this point,
writing an apologetic letter
to his longtime rival.
- [Mailer] "An element
in me, absolutely immune
"to weather and tides, runs
independently fond of you."
(aahs)
- [Narrator] The following
year, Mailer and Vidal
made a joint appearance
and PEN World Congress,
an annual event attended by a who's who
of the writing world.
And with that, the
rivalry was finally over.
(bell ringing)
