Writer Gore Vidal, who filled his intellectual work with acerbic observations on politics, sex and American culture while carrying on feuds with his big-name literary rivals, has died at the age of 86.<br/> <br />Vidal's literary legacy includes a series of historical novels, such as "Burr", "1876", "Lincoln", and "The Golden Age", as well as the campy transsexual comedy "Myra Breckenridge".<br/> <br />His third book, "The City and the Pillar", created a sensation in 1948 because it was one of the first open portrayals of a homosexual main character.<br/> <br />Vidal referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch", and was as egotistical and caustic as he was elegant and brilliant.<br/> <br />He famously considered Ernest Hemingway a joke, and compared Truman Capote to a "filthy animal that has found its way into the house".<br/> <br />His most famous literary enemies were conservative pundit William F. Buckley and writer Norman Mailer, who once headbutted Vidal before a television appearance.<br/> <br />Vidal spent much of his life at an Italian seaside villa, having described the United States as "the land of the dull and the home of the literal".<br/> <br />Travis Brecher, Reuters
