Double Exposure, A Gallery of the Celebrated, Ex Libris Gore Vidal
[Ex Libris Gore Vidal] McDowall, Roddy. Double Exposure, A Gallery of the Celebrated by the Equally Celebrated. First Edition. 1966. Book is in very good minus condition; dust jacket is in very good condition. Book is stamped “From the library of GORE VIDAL” on the flyleaf. A portrait of Gore Vidal is included in the book, and he also wrote the commentary for another subject in the book, Tennessee Williams.
Hollywood defies geographic boundaries. It also exists in multiple dimensions. The most important personalities in its social firmament are not always its most celebrated actors. Consider Roddy McDowall. He was never a superstar, but his propinquity to A-listers like Elizabeth Taylor and George Cukor meant he was an integral member of the Los Angles/New York/London scene. He photographed pretty much everyone in that world and collected those portraits into four books—this being the first. The commentary on each subject is provided by another luminary. Some are disappointingly sycophantic, but quite a few are brilliantly incisive. Gore Vidal’s text on his friend Tennessee Williams falls into the latter category.
“A long friendship with many hiatuses. Few quarrels. I am sharp; he is oblique; we complement one another as friends ought.”
--Gore Vidal, on Tennessee Williams