91.48

“A Critic with Balance: A Letter from Norman Mailer.” New York Times Book Review, 17 November, 7. Mailer’s 1500-word response to John Simon’s 29 September review of 91.26 provides quotes from other, earlier negative reviews of Mailer’s books by Simon, as well as his negative review of Kate Mailer’s 1988 performance in Peter Brook’s version of Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. Simon replies to what he calls Mailer’s “irrelevant hue and cry” on p. 38 of the Review; Rebecca Sinkler, Review editor, adds her comments on the same page, noting that the editors were not aware of all the previous Simon reviews of Mailer’s work when they assigned the review to him, after four others turned down the assignment. See 91.14–91.16, 91.19, 91.43.