62.3

Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters). New York: Putnam’s, 30 March; simultaneously as a softcover; London: Deutsch, softcover only. Poems, 252 unnumbered pp., $4.

Republished with preface by Mailer. New York: New American Library, December 1971 (71.31). Dedication: “To Jean Campbell.” Rpt: In 72.7 and 82.19 (preface only). A number of these poems are reprinted in The Presidential Papers (63.37) and Cannibals and Christians (66.11); of particular interest is the reprinting of “The Harbors of the Moon” in 63.37, 84.17 and 98.7; and “Togetherness” in 98.7. See 62.5, 62.7, 64.2.

“ I felt that all of Deaths for the Ladies made up one poem, not at all a great poem, never in any way, but still a most modern poem about a man loose in our city, for one cannot talk of New York without saying our city, there, majestic, choking in its own passions, New York, the true capital of the Twentieth Century. And Deaths for the Ladies was like a small sea breeze running through some of those electronic canyons where a myriad of fine moments were forever dying in the iridescence of foam. ” — Norman Mailer, 71.31

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Bibliography

Reviews

• Macdonald, Dwight (August 1962). "Art, Life and Violence". Commentary. pp. 169–172. Mixed.
• Rodman, Selden (July 8, 1962). "Fast Footwork, Low Blows, and Beating the Reader to the Punch". New York Times Book Review. p. 7. Positive.
• Simmons, Charles (March 30, 1962). "Running Down". Time. p. 84. Negative. Rpt: 71.31.
• Swenson, May (May 1962). "[Review of Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters)]". Poetry. p. 118. Negative.

Essays

• Adams, Laura (1976). Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer. Ohio UP. pp. 67–69. ISBN 0821401823.
• Lee, Benjamin (2010). "Avant-Garde Poetry as Subcultural Practice: Mailer and Di Prima's Hipsters". New Literary History. 41 (autumn): 775–794.
• Leeds, Barry H. (1969). The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer. New York: NYU Press. pp. 207–221. Rpt: Adams (1974).
• Power, Kevin (2015). "Cures for Cancer: Norman Mailer's Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters)". Mailer Review. 9: 2210–226.