85.15

“Norman Mailer.” Interview by Charles Ruas. In Conversations with American Writers, by Charles Ruas, 18–36. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Thirteen other writers are included: Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Marguerite Young, William Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Susan Sontag, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Paul Theroux, Robert Stone and Scott Spencer. Most of the interview, which took place in 1982, is given over to a discussion of Jack Abbott, violence, The Executioner’s Song (79.14) and Ancient Evenings (83.18), of which Mailer says: “I just finished Ancient Evenings a couple of weeks ago, and it’s 1,744 double-spaced pages.” See 80.10.