Twelfth Round: An Interview with Norman Mailer: Difference between revisions

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{{hatnote|This interview with Norman Mailer just before the publication of ''Ancient Evenings'' (his “big novel” ten years in the making and widely anticipated) was the cover story for the March-April, 1983, issue of ''Harvard Magazine''. I had published my first book entitled ''Acts of Regeneration'' in 1981 about Mailer’s work; based on that book, editor John Bethell (a kind and generous gentleman) gave me the assignment for his magazine. ~Robert Begiebing}}

{{hatnote|This interview with Norman Mailer just before the publication of ''Ancient Evenings'' (his “big novel” ten years in the making and widely anticipated) was the cover story for the March-April, 1983, issue of ''Harvard Magazine''. I had published my first book entitled ''Acts of Regeneration'' in 1981 about Mailer’s work; based on that book, editor John Bethell (a kind and generous gentleman) gave me the assignment for his magazine. ~Robert Begiebing<ref>From {{cite book |last=Begiebing |first=Robert |date=2015 |title=The Territory Around Us: Collected Literary and Political Journalism, 1982-2015 |url= |location= |publisher=The Troy Book Makers |page= |isbn= |author-link= }} Reprinted by Project Mailer with permission of Robert Begiebing. ([[83.10]])</ref>}}

[[File:1983 Mailer and Begiebing.jpg|thumb|Robert Begiebing and Norman Mailer in the latter’s Brooklyn apartment, September 1982. Photo by Christopher Johnson.]]

~~'''By [[Robert J. Begiebing]]'''<ref>From~~ {{~~cite book~~ |last=Begiebing |first=Robert ~~|date=2015 |title=The Territory Around Us: Collected Literary and Political Journalism, 1982-2015 |url= |location= |publisher=The Troy Book Makers |page= |isbn= |author-link=~~ }} ~~Reprinted by Project Mailer with permission of Robert Begiebing. ([[83.10]])</ref>~~

Ten years in the writing, ''Ancient Evenings'' will be published in May. For [[Norman Mailer]], who turned sixty in January, this new book marks an important transitional point. After more than a decade of nonfiction, a big novel — the first of a planned trilogy — brings Mailer back to the literary genre in which he made his name.

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Well, I think they are also two of the best books I’ve written. If I had five favorite books those would be two of them. I don’t think there was any larger point of view in the choice of those two. I think it just happened that ''Armies of the Night'' was a pretty good book, and it came along in a year when let’s say the Pulitzer Committee was sympathetic to that sort of book. ''The Executioner’s Song'', in its period, probably, well . . . that sentence finishes itself.

'''In Joseph Elroy’s writing class at Columbia, you were talking about Why Are We in Vietnam? And you said that if there are any forces in the cosmos that “step in and give a writer a helping hand, I got it right there.” Do you find there are such moments of inspiration?'''

'''In Joseph Elroy’s writing class at Columbia, you were talking about ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' And you said that if there are any forces in the cosmos that “step in and give a writer a helping hand, I got it right there.” Do you find there are such moments of inspiration?'''

I can lay out a speculation for you.

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~~[[Category:Robert J. Begiebing]]~~

[[Category:Archive]]

[[Category:Full Text Interviews]]

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-{{hatnote|This interview with Norman Mailer just before the publication of ''Ancient Evenings'' (his “big novel” ten years in the making and widely anticipated) was the cover story for the March-April, 1983, issue of ''Harvard Magazine''. I had published my first book entitled ''Acts of Regeneration'' in 1981 about Mailer’s work; based on that book, editor John Bethell (a kind and generous gentleman) gave me the assignment for his magazine. ~Robert Begiebing}}
+{{hatnote|This interview with Norman Mailer just before the publication of ''Ancient Evenings'' (his “big novel” ten years in the making and widely anticipated) was the cover story for the March-April, 1983, issue of ''Harvard Magazine''. I had published my first book entitled ''Acts of Regeneration'' in 1981 about Mailer’s work; based on that book, editor John Bethell (a kind and generous gentleman) gave me the assignment for his magazine. ~Robert Begiebing<ref>From {{cite book |last=Begiebing |first=Robert |date=2015 |title=The Territory Around Us: Collected Literary and Political Journalism, 1982-2015 |url= |location= |publisher=The Troy Book Makers |page= |isbn= |author-link= }} Reprinted by Project Mailer with permission of Robert Begiebing. ([[83.10]])</ref>}}
 [[File:1983 Mailer and Begiebing.jpg|thumb|Robert Begiebing and Norman Mailer in the latter’s Brooklyn apartment, September 1982. Photo by Christopher Johnson.]]
-'''By [[Robert J. Begiebing]]'''<ref>From {{cite book |last=Begiebing |first=Robert |date=2015 |title=The Territory Around Us: Collected Literary and Political Journalism, 1982-2015 |url= |location= |publisher=The Troy Book Makers |page= |isbn= |author-link= }} Reprinted by Project Mailer with permission of Robert Begiebing. ([[83.10]])</ref>
+{{byline|last=Begiebing|first=Robert J.}}
 Ten years in the writing, ''Ancient Evenings'' will be published in May. For [[Norman Mailer]], who turned sixty in January, this new book marks an important transitional point. After more than a decade of nonfiction, a big novel — the first of a planned trilogy — brings Mailer back to the literary genre in which he made his name.
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 Well, I think they are also two of the best books I’ve written. If I had five favorite books those would be two of them. I don’t think there was any larger point of view in the choice of those two. I think it just happened that ''Armies of the Night'' was a pretty good book, and it came along in a year when let’s say the Pulitzer Committee was sympathetic to that sort of book. ''The Executioner’s Song'', in its period, probably, well . . . that sentence finishes itself.
-'''In Joseph Elroy’s writing class at Columbia, you were talking about Why Are We in Vietnam? And you said that if there are any forces in the cosmos that “step in and give a writer a helping hand, I got it right there.” Do you find there are such moments of inspiration?'''
+'''In Joseph Elroy’s writing class at Columbia, you were talking about ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' And you said that if there are any forces in the cosmos that “step in and give a writer a helping hand, I got it right there.” Do you find there are such moments of inspiration?'''
 I can lay out a speculation for you.
@@ Line 273: / Line 274: @@
 {{Reflist}}
-[[Category:Robert J. Begiebing]]
 [[Category:Archive]]
 [[Category:Full Text Interviews]]