Gore Vidal, Elegant Writer, Dies at 86

R.I.P. - Gore Vidal. The elegant, iconoclastic writer dies at 86

He famously and publicly feuded with Norman Mailer, William Buckley and many others.

I would be hard-pressed to name any people who got more mileage out of their talent. Vidal barely made it out of high school (by cheating in math), yet ended up with a reputation as an intellectual. That's an amazing accomplishment, roughly equivalent to my somehow managing to bat clean-up for the Yankees.