Project Mailer - User contributions [en]

User talk:JenniferMGA

2019-04-13T02:52:10Z

JenniferMGA: /* PM Project */

== PM Project ==

Please let me know what you're working on. I'm happy to assist. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:57, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
: {{reply to|User:Grlucas}}Working on the letters at the moment! Had a little bit of a mishap because I posted wrong letters to the wrong links but nothing a little copy paste and delete couldn't fix! [[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 00:52, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
:: {{reply to|User:Grlucas}}Working on my essay now which is in my PM Sandbox. All the letters are posted. I was thinking of tackling some of the To-Dos for the Index of Names or The Mailer Review. Haven't committed yet but I'll update it here when I do! [[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 02:49, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

User talk:JenniferMGA

2019-04-13T02:49:27Z

JenniferMGA: /* PM Project */

== PM Project ==

Please let me know what you're working on. I'm happy to assist. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:57, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
: Working on the letters at the moment! Had a little bit of a mishap because I posted wrong letters to the wrong links but nothing a little copy paste and delete couldn't fix! [[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 00:52, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
:: Working on my essay now which is in my PM Sandbox. All the letters are posted. I was thinking of tackling some of the To-Dos for the Index of Names or The Mailer Review. Haven't committed yet but I'll update it here when I do![[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 02:49, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Andre Deutch, November 4, 1964

2019-04-13T02:45:57Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's November 4th Letter to Andre Deutsch

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::November 4, 1964

Dear Andre,

I've been meaning to call you each day, but each day I've not remembered until around cocktail time, which of course is bloody midnight for you. Now I've decided to do it with a letter.

Look, quickly, here's the situation. If you're still interested in joint publication -which I think is a good idea, since if the reviews in one country are better than another, the foreign reviews can be used, and if the reception is good in both countries, something can be made of that-at any rate, if you're still interested, Dial<ref>The Dial version, delayed several times, appeared on 15 March 1965.
Deutsch published the British edition on 26 April.</ref> has decided not to publish until February 15 (an approximate date). It took me longer on the editing than I expected, their printing schedule took longer than they expected, and suddenly we were rushing to get a book out early for no reason that we could see. So as it stands, final page proofs will be ready in a week to two weeks. I'll get two copies off to you as soon as they exist, I swear. There's no sense in sending you anything any earlier because keeping up with the changes would have made for endless waste for you and for me. I know it's been anything but easy for you to have to wait this way, but I think when you read the book through you'll see that all these changes on which I've been working since June add up to something, the difference I hope between a book which is good and a book which is better than good.

Now for the jacket<ref>The photograph of Mailer by Anne Barry on the back of the dustjacket of the Dial edition was taken as Mailer shadowboxed with her. Mailer designed the front of the jacket, which superimposes a photograph of Beverly Bentley on the American fl,ag. A different version of the jacket appeared as the cover illustration of the 12 October 1964 Publishers' Weekly. A double-page advertisement in this number states that the novel would be published in January, but it was delayed while Mailer made additional revisions, including significant changes to the galleys.</ref>, I'll send you a copy. I happen to like it quite a bit. It's an odd compelling jacket and quite different from what you saw in Publishers' Weekly. That is, the design is essentially the same, but they changed it in certain crucial and disappointing ways for PW. In any case, I like the jacket. I hope you'll like it, and I'll also enclose a photograph which I'm going to use for the book jacket.

This is all in a rush, but I know you're waiting for the news, so hasten to dictate this letter.

::::::::::::::::::::Best, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
P.S. Three cheers that you're setting the book rather than using offset. I'm really pleased with that.
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

Virginia Mangrum, December 21, 1964

2019-04-13T02:39:45Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 21st Letter to Virginia D. Mangrum

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 21, 1964

Dear Mrs. Mangrum<ref>Mrs. Mangrum was still another Mailer fan.</ref>

As I wrote to a Negro friend of mine just yesterday, I decided this year to lay down the White Man's Burden and send out no Christmas cards. But of course it's still agreeable to receive them. I'd held off from answering your last long letter because there was so much in it which was interesting and generous and large that I didn't want to reply too stingily. At the same time I kept working on An American Dream, I really finished it off just yesterday. It's a curious book. I worked the hell out of the last chapter and gave a lot to the others. Yet when you read the book you may not be able to detect the difference, for the structure is exactly the same. But nearly every sentence was worked on nearly every which way, sometimes leaving it alone, or going back to leaving them alone, sometimes changing a preposition, some- times cutting a phrase or adding one, but I felt more like a musicia than a writer, as if I had a very good kettle drum which was devilish to tune. I think I'm guilty of having used this image in several letters before, and if I were a Catholic I would now cross myself against the possibility that I used exactly the same image in my last letter to you. But my memory tells me that I did not, and so it might have been wiser to have presented the metaphor as an original rather than a copy.

However, caution comes upon me as I get older. I'd make a good general now, quartermaster, I fear, and not the Marines.

Listen, Mrs. M., I'm glad you mention your husband, because I'm certain he must be a marvelous man if he is both a Marine Corps General and husband to a wife as rich and varied in her parts as yourself, and still so very much in love with her husband. I must say, madam, they did not make generals like that in the Army. But in fact the name Mangrum means something to me, and I have such a pulverized memory, I am not quite sure what. Probably he's one of the famous Marine Corps generals and I'm just an ass not to know the campaign and the battle. At any rate, famous, marvelous, or more modest than that. He must be okay to meet, and I look forward to meeting him at any time when I could meet you. Do you ever come up to New York? If so, perhaps you would come over to Brooklyn for a drink. I've got the best view of New York of anyone who lives in the city, and I know my wife would enjoy meeting you. But listen, this is all in the future, I fear. At the present I'm looking forward to sending you a copy of An American Dream in about a month. Between us, I'm just a little tickled with the book, because no matter it's larger merits or lack of them, I worked the surface of this book harder than anything I've ever written and so feel at last there's a certain craftsmanship to something I've done. To me it purrs a little now. It's a bitch of a book, at least I think so. If you don't like it, or are a good bit disappointed, my god, I'll respect you for saying so after reading all these fine words about me by me.

Since you were so nice as to send me a picture, let me send one back. The gentleman in the front is my son, Michael. Six months old at the time, now nine months, born on St. Patrick's Day, Michael Burks Mailer.

Let me wish a Merry Christmas to your family,
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

Ester Whitby, December 15, 1964

2019-04-13T02:34:59Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 15th Letter to Ester Whitby

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 15, 1964

Dear Mrs. Whitby<ref>Esther Whitby was a Mailer fan. The Menells were related to the Mailers by marriage.</ref>

It was agreeable to get your letter, and I rush to answer, because I feel the change you made was not correct. Rojack has been married nine years. It is just that in one place (in the beginning of Chapter 2) he speaks of having spent a year learning something about Deborah, and then in effect having the leisure to consider it for the next eight years. I hope this is the only apparent inconsistency. I have a small uneasy feeling-I'm very bad about these matters-that I may have said in one place or another that they were married "all but nine years," probably for no other reason than that I liked too much the sound of"all but." If that sort of discrepancy does appear here and there, I think that we ought nonetheless to stay with nine, because its sound is sufficiently different from eight so that the cadence of a few sentences might be hurt a bit if we changed. Under the circumstances, we can defend nine as poetic license.

Yes, I guess we are related, by marriage at any rate. But you must be a Menell. I remember meeting Bertha back in 1947, and another Menell, the son or nephew of Slip Menell, about two years ago in New York. Well, when I get to London we'll have to talk about all this.

::::::::::::::::::::My best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

User:JenniferMGA/sandbox

2019-04-13T02:28:51Z

JenniferMGA:

=Sandbox Space for John William Corrington's "An American Dreamer" Essay=
===AN AMERICAN DREAMER BY JOHN WILLIAM CORRINGTON===
''There is a subterranean river of untapped, ferocious, lonely and romantic desires, that concentration of ecstasy and violence which is the dream-life of the nation.'' 
"The Existential Hero" in ''The Presidential Papers''

The lines above provide both the myth and the text for understanding Norman Mailer's recent work. If one cannot grasp the text, will not perceive the ''mythos'', one is lost at the beginning. Such is precisely the condition of Mailer's critics: lost. Smashed in the face by Mailer's unbelievable vitality and matchless prose-wit, they move away from ''An American Dream'' as if Dial Press had booby-trapped that caricature flag on the dust jacket. At least so with the younger and cagier critics. One moves carefully in this territory. Mailer is certainly a pestilence and probably mad, the critic avers, but like any unbroken beast, he may yet be deadly to a tender reputation. He might, for all his words and ''merdes'', become . . . "lastingly significant." And so, palpably unable to understand him, one fires explosive bullets from a long distance. Of small calibre. With a silencer. The critic's game, except when dealing with a surely worthless thing, is Safety First.

With notable exceptions. In the case of ''An American Dream'', one such exception is Granville Hicks of ''The Saturday Review.'' His "Literary Horizons" is the column which asks the question, Is ''An American Dream'' a hoax or . . . something worse? He is confronted with a novel by the only man on the continent who has, at present, the faintest pretension to first rank, and, discussing the dust-jacket blurb (a practice generally confined to book-club ladies reviewing for ''The Flagstaff Sun'') says,

''The jacket indicates that serial publications had begun in ''Esquire'' before the book was finished: "Mailer undertook to write ''An American Dream'' under the same conditions of serial deadline that Conrad, Dickens, and Dostoevsky met in their day." (That, I think, is the extent of the resemblance between this work and the work of the aforementioned authors.)

But despite this disclaimer, ''An American Dream'' precisely locates in the tradition of Dostoyevsky and Conrad (at their best), though, in truth, the very idea of it would have sent Dickens back to the shoe-blacking factory in near-collapse. What, in plain and obvious fact, could be more Dostoyevshian than Mailer's plot? Is it less believable than ''The Brothers Karamazov''? Is Rojack's motivation not more "typical" than the scrambled Nietzscheanism of Raskolnikov? if, as many commentators would have us believe, Dostyouevsky is a proto-existentialist, how-and why-are we to escape the vague and almost hallucinatory agony of a Russian student and deny a similar reality in Stephen Rojack?

==References/Sources==
[[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1asxDzRLKZYEn0uyZUHs0TnxIdBATVrjL Corrington's An American Dreamer Essay]]

Talk:Norman Mailer’s Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969

2019-04-13T02:12:18Z

JenniferMGA: /* Missing Letters */

{{to do|1}}

''Translating'' this book from print to digital will be our primary objective for the spring 2019. Here are some things we have to decide:

==Project Organization==
Should each letter have its own page? I’m leaning toward '''yes''' here.
: Yes. [[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:06, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Do we need to seek permission for the Mailer letters? [[User:JVbird|JVbird]] ([[User talk:JVbird]])
:::{{reply to|JVbird}} No, I have already secured permissions. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 20:25, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

==Letter Pages==
How should each page be named so each is unique? I think subpages would be the way to go here, like ''Structured Vision'', but then what do we call each page? “To: So and So”, like: <code>Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969/To: Eiichi Yaminishi</code>? What do we do when we have more than one letter to Eiichi Yaminishi? Should we add the date? <code>Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969/To: Eiichi Yaminishi (November 25, 1963)</code> It’s beginning to get unwieldy. Suggestions?
: I decided against using subpages, so each letter will have its own page, linked both off of [[AAD:Letters]] and [[Norman Mailer’s Letters]]. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:06, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
:: I spoke with my librarian, Gilbert Deas about the issue of posting Mailer's letters and Gilbert suggested we do use subsections by year and author. For example, in 1963 Mailer wrote three letters on the same date. The subsections would look something like this:
1963:
October 15- Andre Deutsch, Alan Earney, Reed Whittemore
October 16- Eiichi Yaminishi
:: or another suggestion would be to: Putting each person's name such "Letters to So and So" then list the date of each letter to that person under their name with date linking to the letter on another page. --[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 17:10, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Dillbug}} How about the way I began doing it with a table on the [[AAD:Letters|main page]]? This is close to Gilbert’s suggestion. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:31, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
::::{{reply to|Grlucas}} I think a table would work well and make adding the letters much easier. I would like to work on adding the letters. Where do I find the actual letters to digitize and format?--[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 21:05, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
:::::{{reply to|Dillbug}} Everything you need is in the shared Google drive. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:09, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

== Final Letter Format ==
OK, I decided on the final letter format. See either of the [[AAD:Letters|first two letters for an example]]. I added a letterhead template and decided that we should make each letter's introductory statement into footnotes. Please let me know if you have any questions. I appreciate everyone's diligent and conscientious work. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:21, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
:{{reply to|Namir Riptide|JVbird|Dillbug}} Please be sure you read above for posting letters! Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:01, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Noted and fixed. Please check the last six letters to make sure. [[User:Namir Riptide|Namir Riptide]] ([[User talk:Namir Riptide|talk]]) 01:08, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

:::{{reply to|Grlucas|Namir Riptide|Dillbug}} Thanks! I'm going to wrap up my letters by Saturday at the latest, starting with the 2 I already posted, with corrections. [[User:JVbird|JVbird]] ([[User talk:JVbird|talk]]) 06:16, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Namir Riptide}} Looking good. Be sure everything that should be in italics is italicized, like titles of novels. There should also be no space between text and the footnote indication: Dear Whit,[1] '''not''' Dear Whit, [1] — these details are important, so be meticulous. Also, look at the [[Andre Deutsch, October 15, 1963|Deutsch letter]] again and how the footnotes are done: footnotes should be placed next to the items in the letter that they refer to — not all up front. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:21, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
:{{reply to|JVbird}} Please have a look at this post to answer some of your questions about the formatting of your letters. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 23:21, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

==Letter Format==
How should they be formatted? I.e., how should they appear on the screen? I think we should create a [[Wikipedia:Template:Navbar|navbar]] to link them. Other ideas? Check out ''[[Norman Mailer: Works and Days|WD]]'' entries for ideas.
: Each will use two templates: {{tl|NMletter}} as a header and {{tl|aade-sm}} somewhere on the page to identify it as part of this project. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:06, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

OK, I was playing with format. Which do you like better?
# The one I posted for [[Ambassador Gutierres-Olivos, September 18, 1963]]; or
# The one that's [[User:Grlucas/sandbox|in my sandbox]]?

What think you? —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 20:51, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:{{reply to|Grlucas}} I like the one in your sandbox better. It seperates the letter from the rest of the information on the page visually. [[User:Namir Riptide|Namir Riptide]] ([[User talk:Namir Riptide|talk]]) 19:52, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

:: {{reply to|Grlucas}} I agree with Namir the sandbox looks so much better and very similar to the example you provided to follow.--[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 18:36, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Namir Riptide}} Yeah, I thought I did, too, but it doesn't work too well when you resize your browser window. Maybe if we aligned everything on the left, it would work better. I can keep playing. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:22, 30 March 2019 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Unfortuantely, with the formatting from the sandbox example, the addresses spill out of the box and the signature wraps around to the next line. A few colons less and they would fit. But the two letters available for viewing are not the same format. Which to use with our letter postings in our sandboxes? [[User:Namir Riptide|Namir Riptide]] ([[User talk:Namir Riptide|talk]]) 00:29, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
::::{{reply to|Namir Riptide}} Sandboxes are unnecessary in this case. Just work on the letters in the main space. Scary...
:::::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Still using them to play around with formatting and editing is okay, yes? And i have run into another problem . the Letters i got from our student talk do not have pages for me to add them.
::::::{{reply to|Namir Riptide}} You may use your sandbox for anything you'd like. I'm not sure what you mean by "do not have pages"? —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:17, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
:::::::{{reply to|Grlucas}} It was that the links to pages for the letters were not made. I figured it out and have posted the letters I was to do. I have also added links to other letters not yet done.

I was also thinking that instead of introducing the letters, we put the introductory comments in footnotes. The intros made sense in a book format, but footnotes might make more sense here. What say you? —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 00:36, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Dr. Lucas, I posted all of my letters from January 1964 - March 1964 in separate sandboxes using your sandbox format for an example. I put any introductory comments at the beginning of each letter as in your example. Should I now change the format? If so, which format should I use? Are we now to post them directly to PM? --[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 18:54, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Dillbug}} Be sure you read the conversation. There's no need to use sandboxes. Also see [[#Final Letter Format]] above. Alterations in your letters will need to be made. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:05, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

:I think knowing what is going on when reading the letters may help in understanding why the letter is important to be posted. [[User:Namir Riptide|Namir Riptide]] ([[User talk:Namir Riptide|talk]]) 01:01, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

==Categories==
What will be our category schema?
: Each of the above templates will include appropriate categories. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:06, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

==Cite Button==
My sandbox does not have a "cite" button. Am I the only person with this issue?—[[User:ssimsjones|ssimsjones]] ([[User talk:ssimsjones|talk]]) 05:01, 6 April 2019 (UTC)
:{{reply to|ssimsjones}} You know, I never installed the visual editor here because I don't use it. This might be what you mean. I'm reluctant to do it, as I don't want to slow my install down any more. If many want the visual editor option, I might consider. Sorry for any trouble. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:31, 7 April 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Thank You Dr. Lucas. I will work on submitting any references manually. With only a few weeks left, I'm not sure that everyone will want it installed. —[[User:ssimsjones|ssimsjones]] ([[User talk:ssimsjones|talk]]) 12:06, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

== Review Letters ==
{{reply to|Grlucas}} I am hopeful my letters are ready for review. I am responsible for the Letters written from January 1964 through the end of March 1964.--[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 16:33, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
::{{reply to|Dillbug}} Great, post ’em, and we’ll have a look. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 16:44, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
:::{{reply to|Grlucas}} Unless I somehow posted them incorrectly (you know I can do it), the letters are already posted and ready for review.--[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 16:54, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
::::{{reply to|Dillbug}} Oh, yeah. Those have all been reviewed and tweaked by me and {{User|Jules Carry}}. 👍🏼 —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 18:37, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
:::::{{reply to|Grlucas}} So very happy to hear I posted the letters in the right area correctly! One task down, and more to go.--[[User:Dillbug|Dillbug]] ([[User talk:Dillbug|talk]]) 20:01, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

== Missing Letters ==

{{reply to|JenniferMGA|Roger C. Byrd}} Would you guys like to help with the missing letters? Let us know. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:25, 11 April 2019 (UTC)
:{{reply to|Grlucas}} I'm posting them now! Sorry for the delay! [[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 00:20, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
::Update on the Letters is that they are all posted! Woohoo![[User:JenniferMGA|JenniferMGA]] ([[User talk:JenniferMGA|talk]]) 02:12, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Virginia D. Mangrum, December 21, 1964

2019-04-13T02:08:40Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 21st Letter to Virginia D. Mangrum

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 21, 1964

Dear Mrs. Mangrum<ref>Mrs. Mangrum was still another Mailer fan.</ref>,

As I wrote to a Negro friend of mine just yesterday, I decided this year to lay down the White Man’s Burden and send out no Christmas cards. But of course it’s still agreeable to receive them. I’d held off from answering your last long letter because there was so much in it which was interesting and generous and large that I didn’t want to reply too stingily. At the same time I kept working on An American Dream, I really finished it off just yesterday. It’s a curious book. I worked the hell out of the last chapter and gave a lot to the others. Yet when you read the book you may not be able to detect the difference, for the structure is exactly the same. But nearly every sentence was worked on nearly every which way, sometimes leaving it alone, or going back to leaving them alone, sometimes changing a preposition, sometimes cutting a phrase or adding one, but I felt more like a musician than a writer, as if I had a very good kettle drum which was devilish to tune. I think I’m guilty of having used this image in several letters before, and if I were a Catholic I would now cross myself against the possibility that I used exactly the same image in my last letter to you. But my memory tells me that I did not, and so it might have been wiser to have presented the metaphor as an original rather than a copy. However, caution comes upon me as I get older. I’d make a good general now, quartermaster, I fear, and not the Marines.

Listen, Mrs. M., I’m glad you mention your husband, because I’m certain he must be a marvelous man if he is both a Marine Corps General and husband to a wife as rich and varied in her parts as yourself, and still so very much in love with her husband. I must say, madam, they did not make generals like that in the Army. But in fact the name Mangrum means something to me, and I have such a pulverized memory, I am not quite sure what. Probably he’s one of the famous Marine Corps generals and I’m just an ass not to know the campaign and the battle. At any rate, famous, marvelous, or more modest than that. He must be okay to meet, and I look forward to meeting him at any time when I could meet you. Do you ever come up to New York? If so, perhaps you would come over to Brooklyn for a drink. I’ve got the best view of New York of anyone who lives in the city, and I know my wife would enjoy meeting you. But listen, this is all in the future, I fear. At the present I’m looking forward to sending you a copy of An American Dream in about a month. Between us, I’m just a little tickled with the book, because no matter it’s larger merits or lack of them, I worked the surface of this book harder than anything I’ve ever written and so feel at last there’s a certain craftsmanship to something I’ve done. To me it purrs a little now. It’s a bitch of a book, at least I think so. If you don’t like it, or are a good bit disappointed, my god, I’ll respect you for saying so after reading all these fine words about me by me.

Since you were so nice as to send me a picture, let me send one back. The gentleman in the front is my son, Michael. Six months old at the time, now nine months, born on St. Patrick’s Day, Michael Burks Mailer.

Let me wish a Merry Christmas to your family, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

Bill McLaughlin, December 18, 1964

2019-04-13T02:04:02Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 18th Letter to Bill McLaughlin

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 18, 1964

Dear Bill McLaughlin<ref>McLaughlin was a Mailer fan.</ref>,

Going through old mail, I came across your nice long letter of August 19. Well, sir, you are the fortunate recipient of prompt response.

Actually, it’s so late in the day that I think I’d better use this occasion to wish you Merry Christmas, and let it go at that. I did enjoy your letter, though; particularly the criticisms of the last installment of An American Dream. I worked the book up some since then, you know, and while it’s superficially the same book, I think it’s a different book. Tightening prose is like tightening a drum: you get better sound. If you happen to read the book when it comes out, let me know your reaction. I’d be interested.

::::::::::::::::::::Yours, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
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Mickey Knox, December 18, 1964

2019-04-13T02:00:52Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 18th Letter to Mickey Knox

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::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 18, 1964

Dear Mickey,

Once again I’m banging my way through seventy or eighty letters, so there’s no pleasure in writing to anybody. I think [Martin] Heidegger<ref>Mailer continues to be interested in the existentialism of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976).</ref>, in speaking of matters like being and authenticity, also discusses the nothingness of a great many daily events—the matter of pursuing activities which are tasteless, joyless, probably not even necessary, and pervasive. And letter-writing, of course, [is] all a large part of that nothingness for me. This is by way of apology for the flatness of my letters. By the time I finish a letter to you, I always feel as if I’d let you down in some indefinable way.

Now as for the famous Robert Frank<ref>Robert Frank (1924-) is a well-known photographer, filmmaker and member of the 1960s counterculture.</ref> letter, the one you may or may not have received, I’m so confused by now that I’m going to send you my carbon of it, and you’ll then be able to decide for yourself whether or not the original ever caught up with you.

I’m glad you liked the Republican Convention piece. It’s amusing, but reactions to it here have been more positive than anything I’ve done since The Naked and the Dead. I think the piece is good, but I wonder if it’s really so good as everyone says, or is buoyed up somewhat by the intense hatred most people feel for Goldwater. This is all very fine, the approval, I mean, because it puts me a tiny bit back in fashion, which I can use for An American Dream. The advance word out on the novel, you see, is that I’ve written a stinker. Which of course burns my ass. If it’s a stinker, I’m off my moorings. I don’t want to say too much now, but I’ve reworked that book as carefully as if I were giving a lovely lady my loveliest, and I think … well, read it for yourself. I’ll get a copy to you as soon as I can. In fact I think I’ll send you two copies so you can hand one around.

Give my regards to [Orson] Welles, and tell him I said it’s a great pity he’s not in the theater any more, because I always wanted him to do Charles Francis Eitel<ref>Charles Frances Eitel is the movie producer in
Mailer’s third novel, The Deer Park.</ref>. Also, if you’ve got a copy of The Presidential Papers, and it’s feasible, tell Welles that I’d like him to read “The Metaphysics of the Belly,” where he will doubtless agree with me that he is no longer alone—there are now two great minds in the world. I’m kidding, Mickey, don’t put yourself out on this last one.

Listen, I don’t get it. Why don’t you get a babysitter? As I remember, labor in Spain, housemaids, babysitters, etc., is unbelievably inexpensive. Certainly it will cost you a lot less than taking care of Maria Morales’ passage and incidental expenses. Besides, I don’t think you know what you’re getting in for. It’s one thing to dominate her when you’re around, and it’s another thing to dominate her when you’re on the set and she’s sitting around chatting at home with Joanie. So think twice, amigo.

Listen, these are my plans. I’m going over to England for the publication of An American Dream, and will be there a week or two. Maybe I’ll take on a trip to Italy or Spain for another week or two. That depends on a hundred different things—whether I go alone, with Beverly, with Beverly and Michael, all sorts of things that are too hard to answer at the moment. But anyway, I’m just about positive I won’t be over before that. So probably I’ll be seeing you in Rome rather than in Spain. Or maybe we can meet at a ski resort. There are enough possibilities, aren’t there.

Hey, one bit of news. Irving Shulman<ref>Irving Shulman was a novelist whose agent was also
Scott Meredith. Maria Consuelo Morales was the mother of Adele and Joan Morales.</ref> has the same agent I do, and wanted to meet me. We couldn’t get together, but did talk on the phone, and of course he asked all about you, and listened with interest, and I get the impression he’d like to hear from you. So if you’re in the mood, drop him a letter in care of Scott Meredith, 580 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Give Valentina a kiss for me, and tell her to watch out for Michael, because he’s a real prick—every time I throw a punch at him, he just busts out laughing.

::::::::::::::::::::Love, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Arnold Kemp, December 18, 1964

2019-04-13T01:53:51Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 18th Letter to Arnold Kemp

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::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 18, 1964

Dear Arnold<ref>Kemp met Mailer in Bellevue Hospital where Mailer was under psychiatric observation
after he stabbed Adele with a penknife on 20 September 1960.</ref>,

The last time I wrote to you I thought I was done with the book, but in fact the galleys came back and I saw little sentences here and there that I could improve, so I made some changes. The result: the book will not be out until March. But I’ve got you on the list, and will send you a copy as soon as they’re ready, which ought to be sometime in early February.

You know, when Sartre<ref>The existentialism of Jean-
Paul Sartre (1905-1980) interested Mailer and he wrote about it in both Advertisements for Myself and The Presidential Papers, although Sartre’s existentialism is distinguished from Mailer’s by its atheism.</ref> won the Nobel Prize, it’s funny, but we have a different attitude. I think he should have taken it, and the reason I think is that it bugs the bourgeoisie more when people who are against them accept their biggest prizes rather than refuse them. For example, all these years Life magazine has been calling Jean-Paul Sartre an “apostle of despair.” Now all of a sudden, apostle of despair and Nobel Prize winner. That makes it harder for them to bullshit people. I believe in taking honors because if you use them properly they arm you. Some day if there were something really big going on and one wanted to write a letter to the New York Times, a mean stinging letter, and get it printed, there’d be just that much more leverage.

You know, another thing I disagree with you on is [Barry] Goldwater’s<ref>Mailer wrote about Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) in his November 1964 Esquire essay “In the Red Light: A History of the Republican Convention in 1964.”</ref> rights stand. I do think, believe it or not, that that was the main reason people voted against him. It’s not that white America loves black America, but what you’ve got to understand is that even without love there can still be guilt. There is a kind of gnawing guilt that pervades practically every white man’s attitude by now, a guilt they want to get rid of even though they fear the Negro, and I think they’ve come to the point now where they recognize that the only way to get rid of this guilt or at least begin to get rid of this guilt is to begin to give the Negro some of his basic minimal legal rights, and I think they did react against Goldwater for that reason. At any rate, this election cheered me up. For the first time I began to feel there might be something to this country, that maybe we’re a little more on the ball than not. Because secretly I felt that the first time some real slick bigot like Goldwater came along, he was going to stampede everybody. So for once it wasn’t so bad to know that I was wrong.

I know I can’t get to see your plays, because as I understand you’re not allowed to
send them out, but I wish there was a way. I’d like to see the work you’re doing. Merry
Christmas for now, ha ha, and happy New Year, yea, yea, yea.

::::::::::::::::::::Best, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Esther Whitby, December 15, 1964

2019-04-13T01:48:38Z

JenniferMGA:

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::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 15, 1964

Dear Mrs. Whitby<ref>Esther Whitby was a Mailer fan. The Menells were related to the Mailers by marriage.</ref>,

It was agreeable to get your letter, and I rush to answer, because I feel the change you made was not correct. Rojack has been married nine years. It is just that in one place (in the beginning of Chapter 2) he speaks of having spent a year learning something about Deborah, and then in effect having the leisure to consider it for the next eight years. I hope this is the only apparent inconsistency. I have a small uneasy feeling—I’m very
bad about these matters—that I may have said in one place or another that they were married “all but nine years,” probably for no other reason than that I liked too much the sound of “all but.” If that sort of discrepancy does appear here and there, I think that we ought nonetheless to stay with nine, because its sound is sufficiently different from eight so that the cadence of a few sentences might be hurt a bit if we changed. Under the circumstances, we can defend nine as poetic license.

Yes, I guess we are related, by marriage at any rate. But you must be a Menell. I remember meeting Bertha back in 1947, and another Menell, the son or nephew of Slip Menell, about two years ago in New York. Well, when I get to London we’ll have to talk about all this.

::::::::::::::::::::My best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer

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Esther Whitby, December 15, 1964

2019-04-13T01:47:44Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's December 15th Letter to Ester Whitby

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{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::December 15, 1964

Dear Mrs. Whitby<ref>Esther Whitby was a Mailer fan. The Menells were related to the Mailers by marriage.</ref>,

It was agreeable to get your letter, and I rush to answer, because I feel the change you made was not correct. Rojack has been married nine years. It is just that in one place (in the beginning of Chapter 2) he speaks of having spent a year learning something about Deborah, and then in effect having the leisure to consider it for the next eight years. I hope this is the only apparent inconsistency. I have a small uneasy feeling—I’m very
bad about these matters—that I may have said in one place or another that they were married “all but nine years,” probably for no other reason than that I liked too much the sound of “all but.” If that sort of discrepancy does appear here and there, I think that we ought nonetheless to stay with nine, because its sound is sufficiently different from eight so that the cadence of a few sentences might be hurt a bit if we changed. Under the circumstances, we can defend nine as poetic license.

Yes, I guess we are related, by marriage at any rate. But you must be a Menell. I remember meeting Bertha back in 1947, and another Menell, the son or nephew of Slip Menell, about two years ago in New York. Well, when I get to London we’ll have to talk about all this.

::::::::::::::::::::My best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman Mailer

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Andre Deutsch, November 4, 1964

2019-04-13T01:44:55Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's November 4th Letter to Andre Deutsch

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{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::November 4, 1964

Dear Andre,

I’ve been meaning to call you each day, but each day I’ve not remembered until around cocktail time, which of course is bloody midnight for you. Now I’ve decided to do it with a letter.

Look, quickly, here’s the situation. If you’re still interested in joint publication—which I think is a good idea, since if the reviews in one country are better than another, the foreign reviews can be used, and if the reception is good in both countries, something can be made of that—at any rate, if you’re still interested, Dial<ref>The Dial version, delayed several times, appeared on 15 March 1965. Deutsch published the British edition on 26 April. Deutsch published the British edition on 26 April.</ref> has decided not to publish until February 15 (an approximate date). It took me longer on the editing than I expected, their printing schedule took longer than they expected, and suddenly we were rushing to get a book out early for no reason that we could see. So as it stands, final page proofs will be ready in a week to two weeks. I’ll get two copies off to you as soon as they exist, I swear. There’s no sense in sending you anything any earlier because keeping up with the changes would have made for endless waste for you and for me. I know it’s been anything but easy for you to have to wait this way, but I think when you read the book through you’ll see that all these changes on which I’ve been working since June add up to something, the difference I hope between a book which is good and a book which is better than good.

Now for the jacket<ref>The photograph of Mailer by Anne Barry on the back of the dust jacket of the Dial edition was taken as Mailer shadowboxed with her. Mailer designed the front of the jacket, which superimposes a photograph of Beverly Bentley on the American flag. A different version of the jacket appeared as the cover illustration of the 12 October 1964 Publishers’ Weekly. A double-page advertisement in this number states that the novel would be published in January, but it was delayed while Mailer made additional revisions, including significant changes to the galleys.</ref>, I’ll send you a copy. I happen to like it quite a bit. It’s an odd compelling jacket and quite different from what you saw in Publishers’ Weekly. That is, the design is essentially the same, but they changed it in certain crucial and disappointing ways for PW. In any case, I like the jacket. I hope you’ll like it, and I’ll also enclose a photograph which I’m going to use for the book jacket. This is all in a rush, but I know you’re waiting for the news, so hasten to dictate this letter.

::::::::::::::::::::Best, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
P.S. Three cheers that you're setting the book rather than using offset. I'm really pleased with that.
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Don Carpenter, October 5, 1964

2019-04-13T01:37:40Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's October 5th Letter to Don Carpenter

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::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights 
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York 
::::::::::::::::::::October 5, 1964

Dear Don,

This is just a yeah-man-like-I-liked-your-last-letter letter, because I’m feeling a little written out. I did twenty thousand words on the Republican Convention—did I tell you? And they’re going to be in the November Esquire, out toward the end of October. It’s pretty good I think and I expect you might enjoy it, what with the local scene and all. Then I spent the rest of the summer getting An American Dream into shape. It’s a little tighter, stronger, meaner, and it’s got a little more gold in it, so I don’t know, either I’ve got a very good novel, like maybe the best book in ten years, or else I’ve got an incredibly fancy piece of shit. I’ve worked it too hard to know, but my secretary, Anne Barry, a stuck-up little New Hampshire cunt whom you may have met, is giggling her stuck-up head off as I make this remark. So I have just fired her, and will have to rehire her in the morning—Don, I’m only kidding. Anyhoo, don’t bother, as you have suggested you might, to read the installments through, because the book will be out in a couple of months, and it’s just sufficiently different in critical little ways so that you’d have to read the book version too.

This is all for now. I’m beat from too much writing, and once again doing all the letters on the same day. But I did want to say one thing, which is for Christ’s sake, never to apologize for getting interested or even being an actor on a power scene, no matter how picayune, for that after all is the very protein fat of what we have to write about.

::::::::::::::::::::Best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Robert F. Lucid, September 29, 1964

2019-04-13T01:34:41Z

JenniferMGA:

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::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::September 29, 1964

Dear Bob,<ref>Mailer's letter to Robert F. Lucid. Longtime professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Lucid (1931-) is one of Mailer’s closest friends and his authorized biographer. They met at the University of Chicago in 1958 during Mailer’s visit there. Lucid edited the first collection of critical essays on Mailer, Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work (1971). Mailer took Lucid’s advice and added a scene between Rojack and the detective, Roberts, in the Dial version of the novel.</ref>

We’ll be in October 1. Any chance for you, Joanne, and Jackie to visit us shortly after? You know, I ended up following your advice about Roberts. There’s a short very odd little scene with him which takes place now after Cherry’s death. I believe it’s right, but it’s a very odd little scene. I’d really like you to see it. I think if you said, “Leave it in,” or “Take it out,” I would be inclined to obey. At any rate, whether I did it successfully or not—if it’s successful while I was writing it, which means it’s now impossible for me to judge it, since I’m best on things which are half-successful and so enable me to work them into shape—at any rate, realized or no, your idea was altogether right: it stayed with me all summer. So wouldn’t it be fine if I could show it to you now. Listen, what’s your phone number? Wouldn’t even know how to reach you fast if there were a good party. VaROOM!

Beverly, Annie, and Michael all fine.

::::::::::::::::::::Best and most, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Robert F. Lucid, September 29, 1964

2019-04-13T01:30:15Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's September 29th Letter to Robert F. Lucid

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::September 29, 1964

Dear Bob,<ref>Mailer's letter to Robert F. Lucid. Longtime professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Lucid (1931-) is one of Mailer’s closest friends and his authorized biographer. They met at the University of Chicago in 1958 during Mailer’s visit there. Lucid edited the first collection of critical essays on Mailer, Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work (1971). Mailer took Lucid’s advice and added a scene between Rojack and the detective, Roberts, in the Dial version of the novel.</ref>

We’ll be in October 1. Any chance for you, Joanne, and Jackie to visit us shortly after? You know, I ended up following your advice about Roberts. There’s a short very odd little scene with him which takes place now after Cherry’s death. I believe it’s right, but it’s a very odd little scene. I’d really like you to see it. I think if you said, “Leave it in,” or “Take it out,” I would be inclined to obey. At any rate, whether I did it successfully or not—if it’s successful while I was writing it, which means it’s now impossible for me to judge it, since I’m best on things which are half-successful and so enable me to work them into shape—at any rate, realized or no, your idea was altogether right: it stayed with me all summer. So wouldn’t it be fine if I could show it to you now. Listen, what’s your phone number? Wouldn’t even know how to reach you fast if there were a good party. VaROOM!

Beverly, Annie, and Michael all fine.

::::::::::::::::::::Best fand most, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Diana Athill, August 21, 1964

2019-04-13T01:25:58Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's August 21st Letter to Diana Athill

{{NMletter}}

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::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::August 21, 1964

Dear Diana,

Just the briefest of notes—I’m racing through the mail today, but wanted to tell you that I was delighted you liked the book, and will go through your criticisms along with the ones I received from Dial in the next few weeks, for I plan to have the book in final shape by—at the latest—the middle of September, and hope actually to be ready to go by September 1. In fact the only thing I don’t agree with you about is glens and dells. I thought somehow it was right for Kelly<ref>Kelly is Barney Oswald Kelly, Deborah’s father and Rojack’s nemesis in the novel. Mailer had chosen Kelly’s name, which eerily echoes that of Lee Harvey Oswald, at least two months before Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby. Mailer continues to believe that the similarity in the names may be more than a coincidence.</ref>—at least I could hear his voice.

I’m working very hard this month on a long piece about the Republican Convention<ref>Mailer did not revise the serial version of the novel as quickly as he had hoped. He worked on it through the summer and early fall of 1964 in Provincetown, putting it aside for the “long piece” he wrote about the August Republican Convention. Titled “In the Red Light: A History of the Republican Convention in 1964,” it appeared in the November issue of Esquire.</ref>. I was out in San Francisco for the week and since coming back have done just about nothing else. The result is a long piece, 21,000 words, which were very different from the piece on Kennedy and the Democrats, and may have turned out about as well—at least I hope so. My agent wants to try selling it to a British newspaper or magazine as well as Esquire. How about The Observer? They’ve approached me in the past.

Incidentally, my folks were delighted with the good care you took of them, and I know appreciated it more than a bit. I don’t think the hotel bothered them too much. At a certain point I turned to my mother and said, “Well, after all, you certainly were the youngest girl there,” and she gave her full laugh, and her eyes turned very merry for a moment.

All else is well, except for the photograph in The Observer. Were you able to obtain prints of it? I really think I’d like to use it for the book, at least for the American edition. If it proves to be one of those little things which are enormously complicated, then I wouldn’t want time to be taken on it. After all, one can always get a good photograph if one takes a haircut.

::::::::::::::::::::Excelsior, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
P.S. Dictating this to Anne, A.B. remarkked, "But perhaps the letter was lost in the mail stroke." Is that possible?

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Eiichi Yaminishi, July 7, 1964

2019-04-13T01:16:18Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's July 7th Letter to Eiichi Yaminishi

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::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::July 7, 1964

Dear Eiichi,

This is just a quick note. By now, ideally, you’ve received the last three installments (six, seven, and eight) of An American Dream, and so you can think about the book as a whole. Much of the news you have heard about the novel is untrue or inaccurate. For instance, it will not be published in October or November, but in January. Same for England. And it has not been sold to the films. Warner Brothers took an option but of course may decide not to buy it. That of course is all by the bye. The book may make a vast amount of money, it may not—but what it has done is to provide me with sufficient income so that for the next two years I can concentrate on doing the best writing of which I’m capable without fear or wonder how to meet my expenses.

Apart from the fact that this was a commercial book (that is, one of the basic motives for its conception was the desire to make a great deal of money) it is also my attempt to write as good a novel as possible under the circumstances, and as I think you will see, the book, while conventional in many aspects, is also unusual in its “psychic world,” and may in this sense go further than any novel I know. Incidentally, I’m going to spend a few weeks this summer making changes in the text. They will be little changes, but numerous ones. For that reason, I would suggest you do not start your translation until the middle of September when I can give you the final copy, unless it should prove necessary to go to work earlier. If that proves the case, we’ll have to figure a way to send you the changes. That of course will mean more work for you and more work for me. At any rate, dear Eiichi, my best to you for now, and hope that all is well with your fine family, so many good sons and daughters.

::::::::::::::::::::Warmly, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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Pete Hamill, July 6, 1964

2019-04-13T01:11:29Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's July 6th Letter to Pete Athill

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{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::July 6, 1964

Dear Pete,<ref>Mailer’s letter to Pete Hamill. Journalist and novelist Pete Hamill (1935-) has been a friend of Mailer since they met in Chicago in 1962.</ref>

I did something very funny with your suggestion about sending a copy of ''The Presidential Papers'' to Floyd [Patterson]. Usually certain in the old days, I would have moved fast on such a thought. But this time it just didn't feel right. I felt spooked by the whole thing, as if I wouldn't forgive myself if Floyd happened to read the piece and then lost to [Eddie] Machen<ref> Eddie Machen, the heavyweight boxer, lost to Floyd Patterson in Stockholm on 5 July 1964</ref>. Floyd's probably forgotten this, but I sent him some tearsheets of the piece when we were out in Las Vegas, and Sammy Taub<ref>Sammy Taub was a prizefight announcer.</ref> said that he delivered them to Floyd personally (which may not have been true) but I can tell you that I was glad to hear Floyd never read it, because I felt spooked by the Las Vegas fight, as if Floyd had read it, and it had gotten him thinking of other things and all of a sudden his mind was somewhere else and he walked in on Sonny at the end of the first minute in that first round. Anyway, Machen is his kind of fighter. If he's going to be able to beat him, I'm sure he'll be able to beat him without any assistance from me, and then maybe would be the time to send it to him.

The gossip about the book and the money it's making is way off. At present there's no movie sale, just an option. And there's a good chance the option won't be picked up because Warner's wants me to change the title and I've told them I don't want to. (It seems audiences will not go to see a movie which as the word American in it. At least, that's what all the money in Hollywood has decided.) No, the book has done well, but the figure is one third as large as you've been reading, and so I'm hardly yet in the ranks of the wealthy. But still, after alimony and taxes, I ought to have at least two years free to myself in which I don't have to sweat the production of each week's bread. I think you're right about the reviews. I think they're going to be murderous, and indeed I'm already half resigned to that. If they're too bad, maybe I'll leave the country in protest, a la Henry James.

Actually, the idea of moving seems tough right now. I’ve got all my kids with me and we’re having a good time up here, we’re on the water, which is the place to be in Provincetown. But the thought of moving this menagerie cum factory is beyond my ambition. I may get over to England for a couple of weeks during the winter, and if I do and you’re still in Dublin, could I fly up to visit for a couple of days, maybe? I’ve never seen Ireland, and I’d like to very much I think.

Mike is now three and a half months old and a very cute kid, very sweet, and kind of gentle for a boy. And as I said earlier today, wouldn’t that just be the ticket if I end up with a son who’s a dove. Anyway, the Burks comes from Bev’s side, her father’s first name was just that. You can tell Ramona that Mike weighs sixteen pounds now, he’s about sixteen weeks old.

Finally, give my regards to J.F. Powers<ref>J. F. Powers (1917-1999), the Irish novelist, published Morte D'Urban in 1962.</ref> if you run into him. I read Morte D’Urban a couple of weeks ago, and enjoyed sheer hell out of it. He’s not a great writer, and probably never will be, but he sure is good. Also, say hello to Al<ref>Al Aronowitz was a sportswriter.</ref> when you see him. I ran into Aronowitz at a party for Gunter Grass<ref>Gunter Grass (1927-) is a German novelist.</ref> just about a month ago in New York.

::::::::::::::::::::Best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
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User talk:JenniferMGA

2019-04-13T00:52:13Z

JenniferMGA: /* PM Project */

Diana Athill, July 5, 1964

2019-04-13T00:49:53Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's July 5th Letter to Diana Athill

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::July 5, 1964

Dear Diana,<ref>Mailer’s letter to Diana Athill, a British literary editor, novelist, and memoirist. Mailer complains here of the way the British edition of his novel is described in the Deutsch catalogue of forthcoming books.</ref>

On the negative side, I have only a few comments for the catalogue page. I think "evil wife" oversimplifies too much. I think "tragic, tormented, half-evil wife" or something of that ilk might be more satisfactory. Also, "sane love" with Cherry sounds hygienic. "To find some part of his dream of love" might be more what we need. Outside of that, I think it's fine. But I also think we're giving away too much by saying that ''An American Dream'' is so unlike "mannerly British fictions," for it seems to me that the virtuoso aspect of ''An American Dream'' is that it is so mannered a book. Violent people always are mannerly, or chaos would result if there were not a spectrum of manners in their dealings with each other. Now this has always fascinated the British-[Dashiell] Hammett, [Raymond] Chandler, so forth. But of course the manners they showed there were essentially false ones. The reality is curious and somehow subtler, and I was trying to get toward that reality in ''An American Dream.'' But I think it would be a serious mistake to abdicate from any claims this novel can make in the dominion of manners, because it is precisely by the play of manners that I've tried to tell the story. One could even go so far perhaps as to argue that the novel is a study of the bizarre, incisive, and very elaborate manners of some of the kinds of people who live in the social worlds and under-worlds of New York. So I think we might emphasize the book is in its way as mannered as a novel by Henry James. What creates the-it is to be hoped-fascinating confusion is that the material is closer to a Mickey Spillane.

By the way, Diana, how do you all feel about the end of the book? There's been not a word about that from Andre [Deutsch] or from you. If you're unhappy, now's the time to talk, because I hope to put in about five to ten thousand words and take out a little of the old, all of this to be accomplished by Septemeber 1. Since I'm also going to do the Republican Convention, there'll be only a few weeks for this, probably from August 10 to September 1. But in the month between, there would certainly be time to get your comments. Please believe me, I'm not so delicate as to be afraid of negative comments. And this can go right down to the individual sentences. It's really a good idea to let me know now whatever bothers you and Andre. Of course, if the end is a vast disappointment to you ... But then I hope not. I was so tired by the time I finished I was willing to accept any external verdict that it was very good or very bad. The good remarks I heard were that it was very good, by then it was the agent and publisher who said that, and they're not exactly similar to the critics in their interest. At any rate, give us a reaction.

::::::::::::::::::::Best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

Pete Hamill, July 6, 1964

2019-04-13T00:47:59Z

JenniferMGA: Posted Norman's July 5th Letter to Diana Athill

{{NMletter}}

{{Letterhead start|styles = margin: 2em 2em 2em 2em}}

::::::::::::::::::::597 Commercial Street 
::::::::::::::::::::Provincetown, Massachusetts 
::::::::::::::::::::July 5, 1964

Dear Diana,<ref>Mailer’s letter to Diana Athill, a British literary editor, novelist, and memoirist. Mailer complains here of the way the British edition of his novel is described in the Deutsch catalogue of forthcoming books.</ref>

On the negative side, I have only a few comments for the catalogue page. I think "evil wife" oversimplifies too much. I think "tragic, tormented, half-evil wife" or something of that ilk might be more satisfactory. Also, "sane love" with Cherry sounds hygienic. "To find some part of his dream of love" might be more what we need. Outside of that, I think it's fine. But I also think we're giving away too much by saying that ''An American Dream'' is so unlike "mannerly British fictions," for it seems to me that the virtuoso aspect of ''An American Dream'' is that it is so mannered a book. Violent people always are mannerly, or chaos would result if there were not a spectrum of manners in their dealings with each other. Now this has always fascinated the British-[Dashiell] Hammett, [Raymond] Chandler, so forth. But of course the manners they showed there were essentially false ones. The reality is curious and somehow subtler, and I was trying to get toward that reality in ''An American Dream.'' But I think it would be a serious mistake to abdicate from any claims this novel can make in the dominion of manners, because it is precisely by the play of manners that I've tried to tell the story. One could even go so far perhaps as to argue that the novel is a study of the bizarre, incisive, and very elaborate manners of some of the kinds of people who live in the social worlds and under-worlds of New York. So I think we might emphasize the book is in its way as mannered as a novel by Henry James. What creates the-it is to be hoped-fascinating confusion is that the material is closer to a Mickey Spillane.

By the way, Diana, how do you all feel about the end of the book? There's been not a word about that from Andre [Deutsch] or from you. If you're unhappy, now's the time to talk, because I hope to put in about five to ten thousand words and take out a little of the old, all of this to be accomplished by Septemeber 1. Since I'm also going to do the Republican Convention, there'll be only a few weeks for this, probably from August 10 to September 1. But in the month between, there would certainly be time to get your comments. Please believe me, I'm not so delicate as to be afraid of negative comments. And this can go right down to the individual sentences. It's really a good idea to let me know now whatever bothers you and Andre. Of course, if the end is a vast disappointment to you ... But then I hope not. I was so tired by the time I finished I was willing to accept any external verdict that it was very good or very bad. The good remarks I heard were that it was very good, by then it was the agent and publisher who said that, and they're not exactly similar to the critics in their interest. At any rate, give us a reaction.

::::::::::::::::::::Best for now, 
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
{{Letterhead end}}

{{Aade-sm}}
===Notes===
{{reflist}}

{{Aad-letters}}

Talk:Norman Mailer’s Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969

2019-04-13T00:20:50Z

JenniferMGA: Reply to Grlucas about Missing Letters

User:JenniferMGA/sandbox

2019-04-03T00:13:27Z

JenniferMGA: Added Template for Letters As Reference

=Sandbox Space for John William Corrington's "An American Dreamer" Essay=
===AN AMERICAN DREAMER===
''There is a subterranean river of untapped, ferocious, lonely and romantic desires, that concentration of ecstasy and violence which is the dream-life of the nation.'' 
"The Existential Hero" in ''The Presidential Papers''

The lines above provide both the myth and the text for understanding Norman Mailer's recent work. If one cannot grasp the text, will not perceive the ''mythos'', one is lost at the beginning. Such is precisely the condition of Mailer's critics: lost. Smashed in the face by Mailer's unbelievable vitality and matchless prose-wit, they move away from ''An American Dream'' as if Dial Press had booby-trapped that caricature flag on the dust jacket. At least so with the younger and cagier critics. One moves carefully in this territory. Mailer is certainly a pestilence and probably mad, the critic avers, but like any unbroken beast, he may yet be deadly to a tender reputation. He might, for all his words and ''merdes'', become . . . "lastingly significant." And so, palpably unable to understand him, one fires explosive bullets from a long distance. Of small calibre. With a silencer. The critic's game, except when dealing with a surely worthless thing, is Safety First.

==References/Sources==
[[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1asxDzRLKZYEn0uyZUHs0TnxIdBATVrjL Corrington's An American Dreamer Essay]]

=Sandbox Space for Letters Template=
Example Format Begins here: 
{{Aade-sm}}
{{hatnote|Mailer’s letter to Gutierres-Olivos, the Chilean ambassador to the United States, is the first to acknowledge his plan to write ''[[An American Dream]]''. He began the novel shortly after writing the letter.}}
<div style="clear:both;"></div>

{{quote box|align=left|fontsize=110%|width=60%|{{NMletter}}
:::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights
:::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York

September 18, 1963

Dear Señor Gutierres-Olivos,

I want to thank you for your invitation to take part in the round table on October 10, but I fear I must say no because I expect to be away in New England at that time, working on a novel.

:::::::::::::::Yours sincerely, 
:::::::::::::::Norman Mailer
}}

{{Aad-letters}}
Example Format Ends here.

User:JenniferMGA/sandbox

2019-04-03T00:09:50Z

JenniferMGA: Transcribing first paragraph of An American Dreamer Essay

User:JenniferMGA

2019-04-02T23:41:31Z

JenniferMGA: Creating a Bio Page

==Jennifer H.==
===Brief Bio===
This is Jennifer from the [[Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Middle Georgia State University/Writing in Digital Environments (Spring 2019)|Spring 2019 NMAC 5801]] course at [[Wikipedia:Middle Georgia State University|Middle Georgia State University]] (MGA). I was born and raised in New York City, eventually moving to Georgia to be with my significant other while working and attending school.

===Education & Work Experience===
Graduated from [[Wikipedia:Edward R. Murrow High School|Edward R. Murrow High School]] in 2010 
Received a B.A. in History at [[Wikipedia:Hunter College|Hunter College]] in December 2017 
Pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing and Digital Communication at [[Wikipedia:Middle Georgia State University|MGA]] to be completed August 2019

Currently, I'm working in an accounting office. It demands a lot of time but when the work is done, it can be rewarding. In the past I've worked as a Theatre Crew Member (2016-17), Home Health Care Aide (2014-17), Emergency Road Service Dispatcher (2013-14), and Receptionist (2011-13).

===Hobbies & Interests===
I enjoy [[Wikipedia:Baking|Baking]], reading historical fiction novels (when I have time which has been very scarce lately), and recently I picked up painting birdhouses.

[[Category:Student Editors]]

User:JenniferMGA

2019-04-02T22:36:31Z

JenniferMGA: Added Student Editor Category

=March 28th, 2019: Introduction=
This is Jennifer from the NMAC 5801 course. Nice to meet you!

[[Category:Student Editors]]

User:JenniferMGA/sandbox

2019-04-02T01:46:33Z

JenniferMGA: Added Essay Reference

=Sandbox Space for John William Corrington's "An American Dreamer" Essay=

==References/Sources==
[[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1asxDzRLKZYEn0uyZUHs0TnxIdBATVrjL Corrington's An American Dreamer Essay]]

User:JenniferMGA/sandbox

2019-04-02T01:21:49Z

JenniferMGA: Creating a Sandbox Page

=Sandbox Space for John William Corrington's "An American Dreamer" Essay=

==References/Sources==

User:JenniferMGA

2019-03-29T01:03:56Z

JenniferMGA: Intro to Project Mailer

=March 28th, 2019: Introduction=
This is Jennifer from the NMAC 5801 course. Nice to meet you!