The Book Prize Index

Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal

Jay Parini

"The life of Gore Vidal was an amazingly full one: full of colorful incident, famous people, and lasting achievements that calls out for careful evocation and examination. Jay Parini crafts Vidal's life into [a] ... story that puts the experience of one of the great American figures of the postwar era into context; introduces the author and his works to a generation who may not know him; and looks behind the scenes at the man and his work in ways never possible before his death"--Amazon.com.

BiographyBiography · medium confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryAward Category: Plutarch Award: Biography -> BiographyDeath, Memory & CommemorationEmpire & ColonialismLabor, Work & OrganizingRegional & Local History

Award History

0 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionMajor2016LonglistOfficial source
Plutarch Award: Biography2016FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Gore Vidal90%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.