Gore Vidal’s Mysterious Bequest

Celebratedauthor Gore Vidal died in July 2012 at the age of 86.  He bequeathed his entire estate to HarvardUniversity even though he never attended.

Vidal’shalf-sister, Nina Straight, is challenging the will, claiming Vidal was notmentally competent when he changed the will’s terms shortly before his death.

Inhis original will, Vidal left his estimated $37 million estate to his partner,Howard Austen.  After Austen died in2003, Vidal amended the will in 2011, awarding his entire estate to Harvard. 

Whether theHarvard bequest was the effect of dementia or Vidal’s true wish remains to beseen.  The bequest may perplex his familyand close friends, but one friend describes this as vintage Vidal saying, “Hewanted to go out like Ebenezer Scrooge, with a huge finger to everyone aroundhim.”

See Tim Teeman, For Gore Vidal, a Final Plot Twist, TheNew York Times, Nov. 8, 2013.

Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (JohnTheodore Fey Research Professor of Law, George Washington University School ofLaw) and Joel Dobris (Professorof Law, UC Davis School of Law) forbringing this article to my attention.