59.10

“Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room.” Big Table 3 (autumn-winter), 88-100. Essay in which Mailer appraises the writing of James Jones, William Styron, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow, Nelson Algren, J.D. Salinger, Paul Bowles, Vance Bourjaily, Chandler Brossard, Gore Vidal, Anatole Broyard, Myron Kaufmann, Calder Willingham, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and Herbert Gold. Rpt: It is difficult to say if this essay appeared in Big Table before Advertisements for Myself (59.13) appeared, but Mailer said that he sent Big Table editor Paul Carroll the galleys of 59.13 for use in his magazine. Carroll, Mailer said, came up with the title. Rpt: 13.1. See 63.8, 63.40, 13.2, 247-52; Myrick Land, The Fine Art of Literary Mayhem: A Lively Account of Famous Writers and Their Feuds. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963; Rpt: San Francisco: Lexicos, 1983.