The political and academic worlds mourn today at the news of Gore Vidal’s passing, a well-known liberal political activist who had published various novels, plays, and essays pertaining to the political niche.

Gore Vidal (born as Eugene Luther Gore Vidal) was involved with writing ever since he was 19 year old. Starting in the fiction genre, Vidal wrote his first novel titled Williwaw (1946), which centered around his involvement with the Alaskan Harbor Detachment and World War II. In the late 1950s into the 1960s, Vidal wrote two Broadway plays (The Best Man and Visit to a Small Planet), which both were successful and praised Vidal’s writing.

Also, in the 1960s, Vidal became a political activist for the Democratic party and also ran for Congress; however, Vidal was unsuccessful. Vidal then became a member of the People’s Party in the 1970s,

In the 1980s, Vidal started to become involved with essay writing, publishing his first essay titled Armageddon?, and also won the National Book Award for Nonfiction contest.

Recently, in 2006, Vidal received a large amount of attention from the press by exclaiming a statement (provided by The Guardian) against the George W. Bush administration:

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I’m a conspiracy analyst. Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. They could never have pulled off 9/11, even if they wanted to. Even if they longed to. They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them.”

Gore Vidal died on July 31st, 2012, due to complications with pneumonia at the age of 86. Various fans of his work have been leaving their condolences on Twitter: