The Nation Magazine

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We’re excited to announce the launch of Nation eBooks, which will bring some of our most notable contributors, past and present, to your tablets, smartphones and computers. The first title of many to come is Gore Vidal’s State of the Union, a collection of 26 timeless essays published over the course of nearly 5 decades—just in time for summer reading.

Download it now!

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**The best of Gore Vidal’s writing for The Nation, 1958-2007**

“We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.”

—Gore Vidal in The Nation

When Gore Vidal turned down $50,000 to write an article for Penthouse

From Jon Wiener:

Victor Navasky tells one of the most revealing stories about Gore Vidal, who died July 31 in Los Angeles at age 86. In 1986, Gore wrote an essay for the magazine’s 120th anniversary issue. Shortly after it was published, Victor was invited to lunch by the publisher of Penthousemagazine, Bob Guccione, at his East Side townhouse famous for its $200 million art collection. “We had barely consumed the amuse gueuleswhen Bob asked me how much it cost to get Gore Vidal to write his essay,” Victor recalled. “When I told him we had paid each contributor to that issue $25 and Gore got the same $25 that everyone else got, he almost choked on his Chateau Margaux and told me he had offered Vidal $50,000 to write an article for Penthouse and Vidal declined.”