84.22a

“For Mailer, a ‘Tough’ Job: Pounds for His Thoughts.” Article-interview by Gary Abrams. Los Angeles Times, 23 September. Mailer discusses 84.17, and also speaks of his public reputation: “I think I probably give the American public a headache because everything about me is so contradictory. I’m an oxymoron to the American public—I’m a wild man, I’m a family man; I’m a great writer; I can’t write at all. So I think the average person bridles a little but when they hear my name.”