73.18

“Mailer’s 5th Estate: Who’s Paranoid Now?” Article by Frank Crowther. Village Voice, 12 July, 1, 10–13. A reconsideration of Mailer’s 5 February birthday party at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York by its organizer. Crowther summarizes the media’s initial conclusions about the event and then polls a number of the same reporters and some of the other guests about their estimates of Mailer’s ideas about governmental conspiracy in light of recent Watergate revelations. Most argue that Mailer was prophetic. Crowther also quotes from a then-unpublished interview with Mailer (74.3) and from a 30 June conversation with him in which Mailer characterizes his 5 February speech: “I knew the height of the hurdle, and I missed. I gave them [the media] a free ride.” See 73.2–73.8, 73.10, 73.11, 76.10.