95.12

“Toward a Concept of Norman Mailer.” Article-interview by Samuel M. Hughes. Pennsylvania Gazette (Alumni Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania), May, 20–27. Detailed report of Mailer’s 20-23 March visit to the University of Pennsylvania, with comments from Hughes’s interview with Mailer interspersed. In the course of four days of lectures, class visits and readings from his work, Mailer spoke of race relations in America, advertising, literary style, the worsening “spiritual ecology” of modern times, capitalism and communism, his sole foray into commercial advertising, corporations, and his forthcoming book, 95.16. Hughes is both skeptical and admiring in this fine portrait—one of the best—of Mailer the dialectician, looking for action in academe. See spring 1983 entries, 95.2–95.7.