Gore Vidal was born in 1925 and raised in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Vidal enlisted in the army and served in the Aleutian Islands. Among Vidal’s other works of fiction are Burr, Myra Breckenridge, and Lincoln. He won the National Book Award in 1993 for his essay collection United States. For Broadway, he wrote the prize-winning play The Best Man (1960, revived 2000).