Gore Vidal died this week. Google him and 35,400 results appear. Because he was the greatest essayist of his age. Yet, he failed at the two greatest ambitions of his life: to hold high political office and be considered the  pre-eminent writer of his time. He lost 2 runs for office and was judged by most literary measures to fall behind rivals such as John Updike, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Was he a failure in his own mind? This all got me thinking about my own greatest asp