Gore Vidal’s 1876 follows Charles Schuyler, an American expatriate journalist returning to the United States after years abroad, arriving just as the country is preparing for its centennial celebration—and one of the most contested presidential elections in its history.

Through Schuyler’s letters and observations, the novel moves between Washington and New York, tracking political operators, newspaper men, social climbers, and public figures as they circle the disputed Hayes–Tilden election.

Schuyler is close enough to power to witness how decisions are shaped, traded, and quietly manipulated, but never quite central to them. Vidal writes it with a kind of controlled acidity—formal on the surface, but increasingly cutting underneath. What begins as curiosity turns into a sharper recognition of how spectacle, media, and political ambition intertwine.

First printing, first hardback edition (Random House). Very good condition: light shelf wear to dust jacket, minor edge rubbing; boards clean and firm; binding tight; interior clean and unmarked.