Jules Carry: Added note and necessary italics.

2019-04-14T21:51:58Z

Added note and necessary italics.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:51, 14 April 2019
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	::::::::::::::::::::October 5, 1964		::::::::::::::::::::October 5, 1964

	Dear Don,		Dear Don,<ref>[[w:Don Carpenter\|Don Carpenter]] was a west coast novelist who corresponded regularly with Mailer in the 1960s.</ref>

	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 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 [[w:1964 Republican National Convention\|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.		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.

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

2019-04-13T01:37:40Z

Posted Norman's October 5th Letter to Don Carpenter

New page

{{NMletter}}

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

::::::::::::::::::::142 Columbia Heights<br />
::::::::::::::::::::Brooklyn 1, New York<br />
::::::::::::::::::::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,<br />
::::::::::::::::::::Norman
{{Letterhead end}}

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===Notes===
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Don Carpenter, October 5, 1964 - Revision history

Jules Carry: Added note and necessary italics.

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