Speaking of the incomparable Gore Vidal, his newest book Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare (Abrams Books) is, if you treasure this sort of thing (which I do), an amazing memoir (more than 500 images) rendered with a variety of artifacts--photographs, letters, manuscripts--from his archives and a great complement to Vidal's published memoirs, Palimpsest and Point to Point Navigation.

It bears repeating that there is no one like Vidal both in his grasp of American history and the array of mid-century American events with which he was connected: the Kennedys, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hollywood, and his well-publicized feuds with William Buckley and Norman Mailer. Seeing the past 50 years or so through Vidal's tchotkes is a nonpareil delight.