Gore Vidal makes Kennedy corset claim
November 20, 2006 
The memoirs of American novelist, essayist and liberal political pundit Gore Vidal have been published, containing some spectacular revelations about the great and good on both sides of the Atlantic over the last 60 years.
A controversial figure, particularly for his support of sexual liberation, Vidal has been hailed as "the best all-around man of letters since Edmund Wilson" by a Newsweek critic and has had an indelible effect on the development of 20th century western literature.
But his memoirs, entitled Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir, contain some of his most startling admissions to date.
In his latest memoir, considered something of an update to his 1995 work Palimpsest, Vidal laments the demise of the famous novelist and his usurpation by film, music and sports stars, while bemoaning the treatment meted out to Princess Margaret during her lifetime.
But it is the passages relating to the assassination of JFK and the role his corset played that are set to raise eyebrows.
The Sunday Times quotes his memoir saying of Jackie Kennedy: "She had not forgotten that after the first bullet was fired…Jack had said, 'I’ve been hit.'
"Since he wore a corset for his bad back all she needed to have done was pull him by it onto the car floor but she reacted too slowly in the shock of the moment. She was also bemused by the piece of his skull which she wanted to put back in place. The rest seems to have been confusion."
Shining a fresh perspective on one of the defining moments of the 20th century, as well as some more humorous tales, Gore Vidal provides some genuine insight into his most fascinating life.
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