Perhaps no one else of our time lived a more “did it my way” existence than Gore Vidal.

Vidal was an author, playwright, activist and celebrity who died in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

 “His works included hundreds of essays, the best-selling novels "Lincoln" and "Myra Breckenridge" and the Tony-nominated play "The Best Man," a melodrama about a presidential convention revived on Broadway in 2012. Vidal appeared cold and cynical on the surface, dispassionately predicting the fall of democracy, the American empire's decline or the destruction of the environment. But he bore a melancholy regard for lost worlds, for reason and the primacy of the written word, for "the ancient American sense that whatever is wrong with human society can be put right by human action," cites his extensive obituary.

His friendships included people from politicians to rock stars like Mick Jagger – to reported lover Amelia Earhart. With Jackie Kennedy, he shared a stepfather, Hugh Auchincloss.

He lived a life full of diverse relationship and pursuits. He believed in no life beyond this one, saying, “…"all the more reason for us to maintain in proper balance what we have here. "Because there is nothing else. No thing. This is it. And quite enough, all in all."

(S-R archives photo)

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